Weekly Newsletter For 1/12/18

Dear Room 4 Families,

Happy 2018! I hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break and enjoyed the holidays with their families. If your child chose to mail Flat Stanley out on an adventure, please check in with the recipient so that he is ready to come back to school on Monday, 1/22. The class will share their version of Stanley, tell the class where he went, and read a page from the journal to the class throughout the week.

This week in English Language Arts..

We have been working on distinguishing between the hard and soft “c” sound, learning about irregular plural nouns, and adjectives. Your child is reading with me in small groups while I coach them in various comprehension and decoding skills tailored to their reading level and individual need.

This week in Writing…

Your child is learning to develop their persuasive skills by giving a detailed reason for our opinion writing. We are learning about how there is no “right” answer when it is a matter of opinion, however we can come to an understanding or change someone’s mind about the topic if we give good reasons to support our opinion. We are writing opinion pieces with a topic sentence (stating your opinion) and giving 3 details (by stating our opinion and giving a reason). This opinion paragraph will expand with more sentences and transition words as the unit progresses.

This week in Math…

We wrapped up our unit with money and learned strategies for adding 3 and 4 numbers together. We also learned how to use these skills for “real life” situations with problems posed to us through word problems. We have begun our next unit, which is on measurement, data/graphs, and geometry. If your child has their own ruler to use during this lesson, please make sure it is 12 inches and has both inches and centimeters. I have an infamous ruler collection and I have let the students know that if they are using their rulers inappropriately (hitting others, helicoptering them, slapping them around, etc.), that their ruler will be included into the collection.

This week in Chinese…

This week we finished the lesson on sports. Your child really enjoyed doing all the hand motions while learning all those terms. In science we finished the swamp landform and will move to another one next week. In writing, we are finishing up the All About Me writing and students are taking turns to share orally their masterpieces.

Less than half the class are doing the passage recording and the 40 minutes of reading required for homework. Please encourage your child to do better in those areas for the sake of improving word recognition and reading fluency. Also, it looks like most students are not getting enough practice of writing the weekly terms with the in class practice sheet alone and are doing poorly in the dictation test. We are planning to add a practice sheet in the homework packet so your child can get a decent amount of practice each week. Please help your child study for the test so that they may feel successful.

Homework…

Week 14 homework was passed out in today’s Friday Folder. You can view the homework page here:  https://sites.google.com/site/17to18chen/homework/week14mandarinhomework

Important Dates: 

• 1/15 – No School – MLK Jr. Birthay
• 1/23 – Hearing and Vision Screening
• 1/24 – Hearing and Vision Screening
• 1/26 – PTA Formal Dinner
• 2/6 – PTA Meeting
• 2/12 – No School
• 2/19 – Holiday
• 2/20-2/23 – Minimum Day Week

Have a wonderful 3-day Weekend!

-Ms. You