This Week in Homework...

Just a reminder there is some extra homework coming home this week. Your child will be making a puzzle piece about themselves. It is due on Friday. There are directions attached to the puzzle piece itself. If you have questions call or e-mail me. I can't help you at 7pm on Thursday night so please encourage your child to start early.

I collected the first fluency log if it wasn't in your child's homework folder there is a yellow sticky note in it. Please return it on Monday. Please remind your child to put their name on EVERYTHING! Also you are only recording the fluency results twice. Once as a cold read and once after rereading it a couple times and taking it again on Thursday.

I did not get Flat Stanley addresses from all of the students. If I haven't already spoken to you and it is not in on Monday I will make arrangements for your child to write to someone. We will be starting the letters Monday afternoon and they can't write a letter if they have no one to write it to.

There is also a letter to you from your child with a pink sheet attached to it. That's their go home journal. Typically it's in journal form but the stapler broke and we couldn't fix it. While I am trying to solve my problem with the stapler I just sent this months section home. Your part is pink. Please write back to them and turn it in by next Friday. Thank you!

Are you really reading this thing?

So are you? That's my burning question. Are you using the blog? That's what I wonder everytime I post something. I wonder if I am actually reaching my target audience.

We will be starting graphing next week and I have only four people's answers to the poll. I extended the time to respond. Please do not respond if you already have. The kids are going to create a bar graph of the results and take the same poll in class with me. Then we will compare the results. Please participate if you haven't.

We have moved on from addition and subtraction facts. I will be offering a place value parent tutorial/math facts on Monday after school at 3:00 pm. If you can't make it but would like to meet with me please e-mail me.

If I do not have your e-mail address will you please e-mail me your address. Thank you!

I hope you are all coming to Blues by the Lake this weekend. I am going to be volunteering from 2 to 5pm at the volunteer check in booth. I hope to see all of you there!

Flat Stanley's will be drawn on Friday and send out next Friday. Let me know if you are still having trouble finding someone for your child to write to. At this moment I have three people lined up who would be more then willing to help. One lives in Southern California, one is stationed with her husband in Lemoore at the Naval Base, and the last lives in Seattle. All great places to learn about and all great pen pals.

Keep checking the blog for updates!

Magazines

If you have magazines at home that you are not using anymore, that you don't want back and might have some good pictures in them would you please send them to school. I am looking to do an ongoing writing activity throughout the year and find I am short on pictures. Thanks!

Rainy Days Begin

I guess the weather has decided to turn cool early, or maybe this cold and wet streak won't last but it's here now! Please send your child to school with a coat, even if they refuse to wear it. I will see to them wearing it at recess.

We finished our subtraction unit and will be leaving math facts behind early next week. Please keep practicing at home and we will keep practicing here. We will begin place value at the end of next week. I will pass along more math activities in next weeks packet. I will also start sending home some reading activities you can do with your child as well.

I sent home a letter about Flat Stanley. We are going to read the book next week and start writing the letter the week after. Please find someone who your child can write to. If you don't have anyone out of the Marin or Sonoma County area please talk to me as soon as possible. I have friends who have done this before and are more then willing to do it again.

I have set up a parent poll on the blog. If you haven't done this already please take it. We are going to graph your results in class and then the kids are going to take the same poll in class and graph those results. We will then do a compare and contrast activity. This page is the main way I will be communicating with you this year. Please keep reading the blog to stay informed.

Last week in the computer lab your child took an Accelerated Reader (AR) leveling test. I have sent home the results. Please not that a child reading at the end of first grade is well within the range of this time of year. We are working on fluency and comprehension in class and if you would like to stop by and chat with me I can give you ideas and things to work on at home with your child.

We are working on communities right now. Some of you may have read their story on Life at the Dairy. We are learning about processors and distributors. Next week we will move into producers and consumers as well as goods and services. If any of you have a job that you think the kids would find interesting we are looking for people to come talk to second grade.

Picture day is on Tuesday. Our time is at 11:10... after recess. I will be gone in the morning for a training at the county office of Education but I will be back after recess. There will be a sub in the class and stations etc will go as planned.

Math Packet

Some of you may have noticed a math packet in the homework folder tonight. This is not math homework that needs to be turned in. It's just a study aide to help you work on the math concepts we are studying in class with your child. There are great games and activities you can do with them. It also contains the terms we use while teaching the concepts. You don't have to use it if you don't think it will help and it doesn't have to be turned in. Periodically I will be sending home papers and tools that you can use with your child for their reading or math log practice.

Harcourt Math Website

If you would like a great math practice website here's the one our book publishes:

www.harcourtschool.com
go to online activities (red on far left)
click Harcourt Math
two rows of books will show up on the right of your screen
our book is in the bottom row. It is the third book from the left. It is yellow with a blowfish on it.
Click our book and a sign in page will appear
Password: Andrews
School: Rancho Elementary School
State: California
using it at home

press enter

it will take you to a page with grade levels and a picture. Below the picture are four words: click on That's a Fact to practice math facts.
If you are ready to move on click the two on the left of the picture. Only chose the two games from chapter 3. We have not covered the other subjects.

Classroom News

Here we are two weeks into school and I already feel like the month is flying by. Family Dinner is tomorrow night and it will be Halloween before we know it. Everyone is transitioning really well in to second grade. I am really pleased with how well they are doing. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year will be like if this is how great it is now. I am very pleased with how much they seem to enjoy class and each other. In school on Thursday they all started singing together in class. It was a great moment to watch. It was one that doesn't typically come until much later in the year.

We are deep into subtraction now. Please practice math facts every night with your child. Having them memorized will make learning the rest of our math concepts so much easier. I introduced fact families to them on Thursday. This is a concept they went over in first grade but many of them are still struggling with the idea. If they are really understanding fact families they will know that 4+8=12 will be the same as 8+4. If you need any math practice ideas or manipulatives please don't hesitate to ask. Just give me a few days to get them together.

We started our first story this week in the Open Court Reader. We reviewed nouns and talked about proper verses common nouns. We worked on alphabetizing words. We even alphabetized our words to the third letter. We worked on syllibication and were introduced out first five smart words. We started our vocab dictionaries with all of the story vocabulary words. The kids took their first comprehension test this week. All comprehension tests are open book and in the beginning of the year I read all of the questions and guide them through the test.

We met with our buddy class, Mrs. Dees' fifth grade on Thursday afternoon. The kids took turns interviewing one another. We hope to meet with their class at least a couple of times a month since they seem to enjoy each other so much.

I hope to see all of you at Family Dinner tonight. Volunteering will begin next week. If you signed up please check the schedule in your child's Friday Folder.

Warm Weather Continues

Although it has gotten cooler the warm weather is still here. I am all for keeping the kids hydrated and am fine with you sending them with a water bottle. If you are going to send one it needs to have a sports top, that way if it spills the amount of water everywhere is a lot less. I also encourage you to get a reusable water bottle. Water bottles you buy at the store such as Crystal Geyser etc are great but they are not meant for long term use. It's important that the water bottle goes home every couple of days to be washed. I will talk to the kids about it on this end but please remind them to bring it in first thing in the morning or at a break (recess or lunch). They will not be allowed to leave class to go to their backpack to get their waterbottle. The water bottle can sometimes be a distraction but after awhile they get used to it. Please do not send juice, vitamin water, or propel water. Thanks!

Back to School Night

Hello to All!

Thank you to everyone who attended Back to School Night last night. It was great meeting all of you. Please don't wait until conference time to talk to me again. I am here early in the morning and afterschool as well. If you missed last night or need something clarified please don't hesitate to call or e-mail.

I can't tell you enough what a great group of kids you have. I really am enjoying getting to know all of them. I would love to get all of the yellow parent surveys back as soon as possible. Please remember to fill out both sides of the paper.As we're settling into our regular routine I am getting the chance to spend more time in small groups with the kids and one on one.I am so impressed with these kids. I am very excited about this school year.

We're off to a great start. We will start our first story in the Open Court series on Monday. We began working on addition word problems today and are moving on to subtraction facts next week. The math is going to start moving faster and faster. Please work every night on math facts to 20 in both addition and subtraction every night. If you would like more math strategies please come talk to me. We began our second short story today. They're writing a summer short story about one event from their vacation. The final draft is written on a pair of paper shorts.

Thank you for all of the items being donated to the classroom. If you volunteered to work in the classroom this year I will be contacting you with a finalized schedule. Please get back to me as soon as you can if the time works for you. If you signed up for a time I will give you that time but many of you didn't put a time down. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to room 8. It makes such a difference!

Sarah Rich

Math Challenge

Here are some tips on what to work on for the math logs besides this weeks math combinations.

1. Add three digits (under the number 9) together. Example: 4+7+2=13
Flip flop the combinations and give it to your child again to see if they understand the concept of order.

2. Work on both addition and subtraction facts to 20. The kids take beat the clock tests everyday in class. Memorizing their
math facts to 20 is a must!

3. Make up simple word problems for both addition and subtraction facts to help your child identify key words such as in all,
how many more then, how many fewer, greater then, less then, equal to.

4. Work on fact families: 4+7, 7+4, 11-7, 11-4

The math will get harder as the year goes on. Having a good math foundation is key to being successful in all math concepts. Having your facts memorized is the first step in this.