McDonald's News

Classroom News!

First Grade-
 We will continue to learn about numbers to 100 in Math. We will compare two digit numbers as we discuss the terms greater than, less than, and equal to. We will also build fact families as we learn our addition and subtraction facts to 12.
 In Reading we will make a bus book of short u words. We will also read the book Bumblebee and search for short 'u' words as we read.

Second Grade-
 We are learning to subtract two digit numbers using regrouping. We will use base 10 models as well as white boards to master this concept. It is sometimes difficult for the children to remember to subtract from top to bottom. A great strategy we are learning is to circle the top number in the ones place as a reminder to start at the top! This is a difficult skill so we will practice, practice practice during math each day!
 Our vowel pattern is the sound of long 'o' as in the word 'rope'. We will complete a word sort to find short and long 'o' words and pictures. In guided reading we will enjoy the book titled Our School Field Trip. The students will then respond to the story by writing a letter to the main character. It's a great book to make a connection and form an opinion about a favorite part!

Third Grade-
 We will begin our unit on division by learning about fair shares. We will use counters and our division mats to help us understand this new concept. As we learn about dividing, we will continue to practice our multiplication facts. We will use stories from the "Times Tables the Fun Way" program to memorize some of the more difficult facts. Please look for fact cards coming home with your child and encourage them to practice these facts at home.
 In Reading we will compare both fiction and nonfiction books as we read Fossil Find and Fossils. These books will be a great way to reinforce the concepts learned in Science. We will also write a response to these books and share why it would be fun to go on a fossil hunt!

Weekly News!

First Grade-
 In Math we are working on identifying numbers to 100. We are using our place value mats and base 10 models to help us understand the value of these two digit numbers.
 We will read a book titled Cars and make a pop-up book as we write a response to the story. We have been working on the sound of short 'u' as we read and spell three letter words. We will make a 'pumpkin book' of short 'u' words!

Second Grade-
 Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of long 'i' as in the word 'drive'. We will make a 'slide' word wheel as we read and spell long 'i' words. We will read a book titled The Woman Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything. The children will write a response to literature by creating a summary and sharing their opinion about the book, as well as describing their favorite parts of the story.
 In math we are working on subtraction strategies. We will use our place value mats and base 10 models to work on subtraction of two digit numbers using regrouping. The students will visit the virtual manipulatives site on our computers to help in understanding subtraction of two digit numbers when regrouping.

Third Grade-
 We continue to work on our multiplication facts in Math. We will relate this to division through the use of manipulatives and picture arrays. The students will use Kidspiration software on our computers to create a web for a set of multiplication facts.
 Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of long 'o' as in the word 'bone'. We will read a Readers' Theater script titled A Long, Dark Night as we practice our fluency and expression. The students will also choose a leveled book to read and write a summary response to the story. We are learning that responses include a brief summary, as well as sharing our opinion of the story and making connections to the story.

 

Weekly News!

First Grade- Our vowel pattern this week is the sound of short 'u' as in
the word 'up'. We will make an 'umbrella' book of pictures and words that begin with this vowel sound. We have been making good progress with our sight words. We call them our 'Cougar Words' because we try to recall them quickly rather than decoding each word. Most of the words do not follow vowel pattern rules and need to be memorized. Please continue to work with your child at home with the list of words you received in our folder.
  In Math we will continue to work with our addition and subtraction facts as we solve larger facts. We are using Touch Math and the counting on strategy to compute these facts.

Second Grade- In Math we will continue to review addition of two digit numbers using regrouping. We will also begin to use new strategies as we learn about subtraction of two digit numbers. We always begin with hands-on activities and manipulatives to understand the process and why numbers work the way they do!
 Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of long 'e' as in the word 'tree'. We learned to 'tap' once for 'ee' since it only makes one sound. The Fundations 'tapping' strategy is great to use at home while practicing our spelling patterns.
 We read the book titled The Night the Lights Went Out. The children then sorted sentence strips to sequence the events of the story. The students made great connections during guided reading as we discussed the plot.
 In Language Arts we also wrote a personal narrative about a pet. The children added great details to their writing and will be sharing these through the 'author's chair' this week!

Third Grade- In Math we will continue our study of the multiplication facts. The students can now see the correlation between skip counting by 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's and solving these facts. Please encourage your child to practice these facts at home or in the car. Begin with the 2's, 5's, and slowly add the 3's and 4's.
 We read a book titled Escape from Mt. Api in guided reading. The students then created a story map to identify the story elements. They made great connections between this book and Earthquake in the Early Morning.
 In Writing we will begin to learn about writing responses to literature through summaries, letters to characters, and so on. Please continue to encourage your child to use the Raz-Kids program to reinforce reading at home!

News! News! News!

First Grade-
 We are learning about fact families in Math. We will make a fact family house as we relate addition and subtraction facts using the same three numbers.  We will enjoy a story titled Fact Families which provides a great visual to help our students recall the meaning of a fact family.
  We will read a fun book titled My New Pet. The students will use sentence strips to sequence the events of our story. We will continue to work with our short vowel sounds for "a", "i" and "o" as we decode new words in Fundations and our guided reading lessons.

Second Grade-
 We have been using base 10 manipulatives to learn about addition of two digit numbers using regrouping. We are practicing writing these problems on graph paper and solving to find the sum. We will continue to practice this skill as we learn new concepts in Math.
 Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of long 'a' as in the word bait. We will view a short video clip from a phonics site titled 'When Two Vowels Go Walking!" It's a great visual to help our students recall this spelling rule. We will read Max the Pet Show Star and make predictions throughout the story to help us comprehend this reading passage.

Third Grade-
 We are using various strategies, such as repeated addition and skip counting, to learn our multiplication facts. Please encourage your child to use the First in Math site at home to provide additional support with our math facts. We will continue to work on subtraction with regrouping to maintain this skill.
  In Reading we have been learning how to use context clues to determine the meaning of new vocabulary words. Several of these words will contain our vowel pattern of the week which is the sound of short 'e'. We will read The Neighborhood Event as we learn about cause and effect in a story. The students will be taking their place in our author's chair as they share their personal narratives. They are always proud of the writing pieces they create!

Our News!

 Are you interested in helping your child become a lifelong reader? Please check your child's folder for important information about the Raz-Kids Reading Site. I have subscribed to this exceptional reading site and your child has the opportunity to participate in this program. It contains many wonderful books at your child's independent reading level. Your child can read the books and have the books read to him. There are also great comprehension questions following each book to check your child's understanding of the passage he has read. I hope you take advantage of this home support!

Third Grade -  My students enjoyed the orientation to a great program provided by the Keheley PTA titled "First In Math". I sent a letter home explaining this math site and your child's username and password are in all agendas. Please encourage your child to visit this site frequently!  We are also beginning our unit on multiplication concepts by creating arrays. An array is a mutliplication picture. This helps students understand 'why' we multiply numbers.                                                                                  

In Language Arts we have been learning about personal narratives. We enjoyed reading The Night I Followed My Dog which gave us a better understanding of how to write a personal narrative. We are working on our rough drafts and then we will edit and revise our writing pieces. Our vowel pattern is the sound of long 'e' as in the words 'jeep' and 'eat'.

Second Grade -

We have been working with money in Math. The students are enjoying using their cash boxes full of coins as they learn to add coins and bills. We are using the Touch Money counting program which is a hands-on approach to this math skill. Please encourage your child to count coins with you at home.

Our vowel pattern of the week is the sound of long 'a' as in the words 'game' and 'play'. We read a story titled Magical E as we learned about silent e at the end of a word. We will enjoy reading "The Bear's Tail" as we practice our expression and fluency during Reader's Theater.

First Grade-

We are adding coins with our money unit in Math. We are using the Touch Money program which is a multisensory approach to adding money. We will play a fun game of Money Trades using coins and our money mats.

We are working on the sound of short 'o' in the middle of three and four letter words. We will make a 'fox' book of short 'o' words. We will also be reading a book title My Job as we talk about the beginning, middle, and ending of the story.

Classroom News!

Third Grade - Testing is completed and we are excited to get back to our regular routine and schedule. I am proud of my third grade students! They tried their best each day during testing and now it's time to continue learning our third grade skills.      In Math we have been working on subtraction of three and four digit numbers using regrouping. We will be using our laptops to explore a great site called "Virtual Manipulatives". It's a great way to actually watch a 'tens rod' transform into 'ones cubes' before our eyes!  In Reading we will begin a new adventure with Jack and Annie as we read Earthquake in the Early Morning. We're always excited about these great fiction books which help us develop a love for reading! We will also begin writing a personal narrative as we use our 'ideas' rubric to learn about narrowing our topic.

Second Grade- In Math we will use our base 10 models and our place value mats as we learn about regrouping in addition of two digit numbers. This is a new skill for us and it will take lots of guided practice!  In reading we will enjoy participating in Reader's Theater as we read the play The Three Billy Goats Gruff. It's exciting to hear the children read with expression as they each take on the role of their character.

First Grade - In Math we will use counters and other manipulatives as we work with subtraction of some basic facts. We solve these facts through the use of word problems and highlighting key words and information as we read. Our vowel pattern this week is the sound of short 'o' as in the word octopus. We will build and sort a variety of three letter words containing the short 'o' sound. We will also continue to work with our sight words as we build a sight word ladder.

Weekly News!

Third Grade-
   Our third grade students will be taking the Cognitive Abilities Test on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest each evening and eats a healthy breakfast every morning!

Second Grade-
 We will continue to work with short vowel patterns as we read and spell words containing the sound of
short 'o' . The children will be making a 'clock' book of short 'o' words. As we read our various guided reading books, we discuss the story elements, such as characters, setting, problem, and solution within a fiction reading passage. Our next book we'll read is The Gingerbread Man. We can't wait!
  In Math we will continue to work on number sense as we also move onto addition of two digit numbers. We will use base 10 models to trade ones for tens.

First Grade-
 We are working on the addition facts through the sum of 10. We will continue to practice counting by fives's and using manipulatives to better understand the value of numbers.
 Our vowel pattern is the sound of short 'i' in three letter words.  We will make an inchworm word slide of short 'i' words. As we read our leveled readers, we are searching for vocabulary words and sight words within our stories.

Class News!

I enjoyed meeting with parents during our Open House. It was a great opportunity to explain our curriculum in Math and Language Arts.
First Grade-
 We are beginning to work with one syllable words that contain the sound of 'short i'. We will be making an igloo of short i words and pictures. We have also been stamping our sight words on cards to use as we play sight word games.
 In Math we are learning several strategies to solve addition facts through ten. The children enjoy using counters and the tens mat to add numbers.
Second Grade-
 We will be learning about the sound of short 'i' as we read and spell new words. Wow! The children have really shown improvement as they 'tap' sounds in phonics and spelling.
In Reading the children each made a flip book to sequence the events of their guided reading stories.
 As we work with tens and ones in Math, we are now learning how to write two digit numbers in expanded form. We had fun 'stretching' new numbers!
Third Grade-
 We have been working with number patterns in math. We played a fun game called "Cast Off". The students each had a deck of cards. As they turned over five cards, they explored the value of numbers by building the largest number, the smallest number, and so on.
 Our spelling pattern is the sound of long 'a' as in the word ' wait'. In guided reading and writing we have been talking about descriptive writing and how authors describe the characters and setting within fiction reading passages. We will read the two most exciting chapters in Twister On Tuesday. We could hardly put the book down last week as we knew we were approaching a suspenseful part of the story!

Our News!

We're off to a great start! The children remembered many of our classroom routines and procedures, so we jumped right into learning!

First Grade-
 In Math we are learning about numbers to 30. We are using snap cubes and base 10 models to learn about tens and ones.
 We are reviewing consonant sounds in Reading, as well as sight words, through fun games and activities!

Second Grade-
 We are working with words in Reading that contain the short a vowel pattern. We made a 'bank' of words in the '-ank' word family. We read a book Edward and the Pirates which emphasized the importance of learning to read.
 In Math we are learning about number sense and place value. We used base 10 models to build and take apart two digit numbers.

Third Grade-
 We have been excited in Math as we learn to build and read five digit numbers. We are using vocabulary words, such as expanded form and standard form, to understand the value of numbers. We've had fun using place value dice to create numbers.
 We have been working with two syllable words containing the short a vowel pattern. The students were also excited as we began our bookclub. Each Thursday we will read a chapter from the Magic Treehouse Series. Our first book is Twister On Tuesday. Our goal during this time is to use these books to develop a love of reading, as well as working on fluency and comprehension.

Back to School!

It was nice to see so many smiling faces as we began another school year! I hope my students had a fun summer and are ready for another exciting year of learning. We have been busy setting up our math and reading journals, as well as reviewing important skills in language arts and math. I look forward to meeting with the parents of my third grade students this Thursday, August 13th at 5:30 p.m. for Open House. I will discuss our third grade curriculum as well as ideas for academic support as you work with your children at home. I hope to see you Thursday!
                                  Anne McDonald