Reading: Stoughton schools have adopted the Scott Foresman Reading Street
program for all elementary schools. Each unit has a concept question that
every story in the unit ties into. We just began our unit on Working
Together. The concept question for
this unit is "How can we work together?" We will be exposed to many
different genres that build into that concept. Our first story Tara and
Tiree is about a man that finds himself in a dangerous situation. With a
little help from his pets, he ends up getting out of his scary circumstance.
We are continuing our Walk to Read model. Students may be
meeting with a different teacher for a small portion of the day for small
individualized instruction
that is at their appropriate level. Through the use of a theme and concept
with our reading program,
students are better able to make relevant connections between text and look
for this theme
in their everyday lives.
Math: Stoughton schools continues to use the Everyday Mathmatics program.
We are currently working in unit 4 which is titled Addition and Subtraction.
In this unit, we will focus on solving number stories, reading and showing
temperature, and developing different strategies for adding 2- and 3- digit
numbers. Addition and Subtraction number stories are used as a vehicle for
developing mental arithmetic skills. By the end of the unit, we will have
developed a paper and pencil strategy for adding 2-digit numbers. Everyday
Math homework gives a short explanation of what your child learned in the
lesson and has supporting practice to master skills. We play many games to
develop concepts and complete practice book pages to work on skills. Math is
a fun time of the day in room 3!
Writing: We continue to use the John Collins writing program. When
students are working on a formal writing piece, we brainstorm to get our
ideas out, work on completing a planner, prewrite, revise, edit and complete
a final copy. Each formal writing piece has FCA's (focus correction
areas). These are skills students work on as they are writing their
drafts. They are explicitly taught and modeled for students and help make
their writing better. Students learn to become better writers with frequent
practice and examples of quality literature. Most of the writing we
complete is kept at school in student's portfolio, so don't worry if you
aren't seeing many writing pieces come home!
Spelling/Phonics: We will be following the spelling patterns of our Reading
Street program. We do not do a Monday pretest with a Friday post test as
students work with phonic patterns and learn to use those patters correctly.
Students may be given
sentence dictation with examples of words that follow taught patterns to
asses their understanding
and application. The phonic pattern we are working on is r-controlled
vowels.
Look in your child's agenda to see examples of words that follow the spelling
pattern of
the week.
Science: Our first science unit will be on animals and habitats. Students
are working on their at home projects due December 2.
Social Studies: We will be working on neighborhoods and communities to begin
our school year.