Weekly Newsletter Volume 8

In math, we concentrated on “Math Mountains” where we work on plugging numbers in to help us figure out story problems and make an equation. At the top of the mountain is the total amount. We know this is the biggest number. The two numbers at the bottom of the mountain are the “partners” when added together give us the total. For example if I have the problem, “I had 9 marbles. Five were green and the rest were orange. How many are orange?” I would use the math mountain to put 9, the total, at the top and 5 at the bottom of the mountain, since I know that is already one of the partners. I would put a box for the other partner since it is the “unknown partner.” Then I would count on from 5 and say 6, 7, 8, and 9 and hold a finger up for every number. Since I said 4 numbers, (6, 7, 8, and 9) my answer would be 4. So I could make an equation of 5+4=9. In Daily 5, we continued working on our 5 components during our rotations. We continued meeting for reading groups. Ask your child which Daily 5 component is their favorite. We also started working on the CAFÉ board. The “C” stands for Comprehension, the “A” is Accuracy, the “F” is fluency, and the “E” is expanding vocabulary. In Letterland, we learned the letters “e, the double ll and the digraph wh.” We worked with the word families –ell, -en, and -et. For the double ll, we only tap out one l. So for the word, “yell”, it has 4 sounds, but we only tap out 3 sounds, first the /y/, then the short /e/, and last one /l/. Our tricky words for the week that have been added to our word wall are “she, do, and we”. This week in Social Studies, we talked about being a good citizen. We talked about how there are many different types of citizens, but a citizen is a person who follows the rules and is a good role model to others. We are working on each of us becoming a “GREAT CLASSROOM CITIZEN!” Important information: -Box tops- Start cutting out Box Tops and sending them in a baggie to school with Miss Bethel 1st grade, Track 1 written on the baggie. We are in a class vs. class competition until October. Let’s raise money for our school 10 cents at a time! -Spirit Week-Mark your calendars! Spirit week is right around the corner. It will start on Friday, September 6th and go through the 13th, but we track out the 10th. Each class will be doing a coin drive, so start collecting your coins! -Scholastic Book Orders- Our first order is due this Thursday! -Spirit Day- Make sure to wear your Banks Road t-shirt or school colors (green and blue) every Friday!