T-1 News January 31-February 4, 2011

We had a super week! We had a great time visiting the Book Fair this week. The boys seemed to do a great job of picking out books to read. On Wednesday, we watched the groundhog, Punxatawney Phil, on the computer to find out his weather report. He DID NOT see his shadow and predicted an early spring. This made us very excited, but now we are wondering when this nice weather will get here! On Thursday, we were visited by the winner of last season's "The Biggest Loser", Patrick House. He spoke to us about making healthy choices. Here is other stuff we have doing:

A PEEK AT THIS WEEK
This week we talked about when to use "I" and "me" in sentences. We also discussed the long a sound as we see it in the -ake & -ate family (ex.-cake, late), main idea (what a story is mainly about), and the Study Skill of following directions. We also took our spelling test. Our theme for this week was the art of map making. We are discussing different kinds of art and how it is not always something to hang on the wall. We also continued talking about our Character Trait, Confidence. We learned that being confident means believing in yourself and your abilities, no matter how hard the task might be. In Math we began Unit 1 in the next level of our math book. Our skills were relating number and shapes:3, 4, 5, 6; partners and totals for #4; and break aparts of #'s 5 & 6. I also encourage you to keep practicing time and money at home, as these will be skills tested on our standardized test in the spring.

LOOKING AHEAD
Next week, we will continue our 5-week unit on the different kinds of Art. In particular, we will talk about drawing, painting, and sculpting. We will also spend a good amount of time continuing to work on our writing skills. I am striving for the boys to be able to correctly write a six sentence paragraph by the spring, as well as make their fictional stories more exciting by adding multiple sentences full of detail. Also, if your child has anything he would like to share that goes a long with our weekly theme, then I encourage him to bring it in. In Language Arts, our weekly skills will be alphabetical order, noting details, pronouns (he, she, it, they), the long vowel e sound as it heard in -y words (ex.-happy), and the contractions 's, n't, and 'll. Our spelling test will be on words that have the long e (-y) spelling pattern. Our Word Wall words for the week are most, nice, place, before, day. We will finish talking about our character trait, Confidence. In Math we will continue Chapter 1 in the next level of the Math series. Our skills for the week will be break-aparts of 7, 8, 9, & 10 and adding in any order.

UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER
Friday, February 11: T-1 Valentines Day Party 1:30pm-2:45 pm
Monday, February 21: President's Day NO SCHOOL!!!!!
Friday, February 25: Last Friday of the month SPIRIT DAY
Monday, February 28: Ms. Sarah's maternity leave begins/ Ms. Carolyn Davis will begin subbing

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or send me a note at any time. I will continue to check my email during my maternity leave, so please feel free to continue emailing me. If there is an immediate concern, emergency, or transportation change please call Stephanie at the front office, 234-2200. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!