Hitting the ground running

Thank you to all those families who attended our meet the teacher night. If you weren't able to make it, your child should have brought home a welcome letter. Also included was a request for you to complete the Parent 3-2-1 and return it to school. I find this information valuable in supporting your child. Thanks to many of you for returning it to school already!

We are in the process of collecting all of the Internet User Agreement forms. Please read this over with your child and have both of you sign it. I would like these in by Wednesday, if possible.

Language Arts
We have begun our Independent reading program. Students are currently working on choosing self-selected books to read and building their reading stamina. Our goal is for students to be able to sustain their focus on a book for at least 30 minutes, and to read fluently with good comprehension.

What do good readers do? We have begun to answer that question this week in more depth. Today we learned that good readers preview a nonfiction text using the text features to get the 'gist' of what the text will be about. We practiced using an interesting article on food waste. Students will be using this article to further explore text features and to practice reading skills in authentic, meaningful tasks.

Our writing program is up and running. As a class, we brainstormed all the things good writers do - it was an impressive list. This week we are developing the trait of 'ideas'. Students are learning to include facts and provide details about their topic. Our writing assignment this week is linked to our unit in Health and Career Education - what does a healthy lifestyle look like?

Math
Mental math is important in helping to build math fluency in students (the ability to answer questions quickly and correctly). We have been working on adding 2 to even and odd numbers. I encourage students to look closely for patterns and apply mathematical rules.

Health and Career Education
Our inquiry question guiding our unit is "What does a healthy lifestyle look like?" Students generated a great list of words to begin thinking about this question - active, sports, exercise, energetic, happy, positive, enjoyable, cooperative, outside, running, water, fruits, and veggies. The three main areas we will be exploring in this unit are physical activity, healthy eating, and emotional health. Topics such as sleep and screen time will also be addressed within these areas.

This week we will also be launching our Social Studies and Science units. More updates to come at a later date.