Fall Greetings!

Hello!

Thank you for popping in to visit our blog and read about our week at school! I have to quickly start off by saying what a wonderful job the children did on their first book reports! It was apparent that not only did the children read their book carefully, but they took this project very seriously. They were happy and eager to have the spotlight for a moment to talk to their classmates about their book. Thank you for helping your child- these reports were a huge success- they were thoughtful, creative, and informative! (I attached some photos of the children and their reports to the sidebar on the right.) The children are so lucky to have such supportive families!!

Spelling

This was a Treasures "review" week. The children were challenged to choose 10 of their very own spelling words to practice! I was pleased to see that they chose interesting words that were appropriate to the time of year, our learning at school, and their ability level! As we begin Unit 2 next week, we will focus on words with the long and short /u/ sound!

Reading

Being a review week, the children prepared for and completed their first reading Unit Assessment this week. We were able to meet several times with our small guided reading groups! As the children are practicing their decoding reading skills during these groups, we have also begun developing our comprehension strategies as well. While they are reading, I will ask the children to pause to: make a connection, visualize, ask a question, make a prediction, make an inference, or even to think about their background knowledge about the topic. All of these strategies challenge the children to really think about what it is that they are reading. You may see post it notes come home that have snippets of information about a book (or Time for Kids newspaper!) and now you know why! Feel free to give your child 2-3 post-it notes while they are reading at home to connect to their reading and strengthen their comprehension while they are away from school, too! (As these are strategies that we are currently developing, they will initially need some guidance.)

Math

Math fact strategies we have practiced include “doubles +1”, the “doubles in between”, and they learned about the numbers that “make a ten!” I am very pleased to see their comfort level with these strategies strengthen! The latest addition to our list of strategies is "+8". I am very interested to see how the children perform on our next timed test, as they are moving very quickly through these isolated skills! During our lessons this week, we explored the concept of weight using a pan balance and a spring scale. The children learned that there are 16 ounces in a pound, and 8 ounces in half of a pound. They also reviewed name collection boxes and worked to find several different names for a given number. We worked with "in and out" boxes, as well as "frames and arrows" problems that encourage the children to identify the rule that is followed each time. We are nearing the end of Unit 2!

Social Studies

During our lessons this week, the children reinforced the information they have been learning about regarding traveling west and living on the prairie. The children watched a short video on Monday about Pioneer Life, and we paused it periodically to jot down important information we had heard on post-it notes. On Tuesday, the children were challenged to write 2 paragraphs with their new learning- one was about traveling west, and the other was about after they had arrived and began to settle into their new environment. The children developed a main idea and come up with details to match. It was fascinating to see the children's learning come through in their writing in this way! They learned to indent and organize their information! I can't tell you how amazed and pleased I was to see the final published versions of their writing. These are hanging in our hallway at school.

The children also learned about the early founding families of Arlington Heights, including the Miner, Kennicott, and Dunton families. Ask your child to tell you what they know! Aside from the the wonderful contributions of these families, next week we will learn about the contributions of several other important characters, including Charles Sigwalt, the Meyer Family, and the Klehm family! We did drop into the LMC on Friday afternoon for a bit to begin the drawings of our Arlington Heights Landmarks. I have already received a handful of photographs of the children near their landmark, thank you so much for sending them! What an authentic way to show the children that what they are learning has a direct connection to their town today. Thank you for your support!

Coming up this week is our field trip to the Arlington Heights Police Department. Not only will we learn that Charles Sigwalt had a hand in developing the early Police/Fire organizations, but this trip will also connect nicely to our next Social Studies unit- Citizenship! The children will learn about the services provided to their community with tax money, and this is a perfect example. If you are a parent volunteer arranged through Mrs. Geisler, please arrive to school no later than 12:50! We will leave promptly at 1:00 for a brisk 30 minute walk to the Police Department. Please please please- dress your children for the weather, including comfortable shoes. Thank you!

There is so much to cover, hopefully I touched on the highlights for you!

Thank you for visiting the blog!!

:) Miss O'Sullivan