Reading is a Gift

Reading is such a tremendous gift. Each day in December we will unwrap a book in our classroom to celebrate the holiday and reading. This will give us an opportunity to enjoy and discuss lots of beautiful holiday stories together. I encourage you to ask your child about the books we're reading. You might even get some ideas for a holiday gift.

 Here is some thinking that was shared by a few of the students today after we read Great Joy, by Kate DiCamillo.

Jackson L.- "It makes me think that if you see someone who is poor and they seem really nice you should give them something to eat or drink."

Henry- "I think Frances and the man are friends now."

Liv- "I think Frances' mom will invite the man to their house now."

Simon- "Now the monkey has a friend."

Aidin- "It makes me sad that he is outside and doesn't have a home."

October in Review

While we were busy learning in October, we were also busy having some fun!

We took a trip to Applecrest Farm where we learned all about how bees pollinate the trees and how important the bees are to the orchard. We also learned lots of interesting facts about apples and how apple cider is made. After our hayride we enjoyed some apple cider and delicious apple cider donuts. We returned to school after having a picnic lunch under the apple trees.

We also had a visit from Ms. Cindy who taught us how to take extra good care of our teeth. She showed us what a healthy mouth looks like and what an unhealthy mouth looks like. We all agreed that we want our mouths to stay healthy by brushing and flossing. Ms. Cindy also read us a great book called, Dear Tooth Fairy , about an inquisitive little girl named Holly who has lots of questions that she wants answered before giving her tooth up. I'm hoping that everyone remembered all that we learned about dental health after gobbling up all of that Halloween candy.

We celebrated Halloween in our classroom by having some tasty treats while decorating mini-pumpkins. We also played "wrap the mummy",  which was so much fun!  After that, we got to parade around in our costumes. Thank you SO much to all of you who helped us to have such a fun afternoon!

Check out October's photos.

November 9, 2015

Mrs. Serrecchia’s

News to Use

November 9 , 2015

I hope that you all enjoyed the weekend. We have definitely been spoiled with all of this beautiful weather. Just a reminder that we have school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week as we will be off on Wednesday to observe Veteran’s Day.

Homework and Reading Folders: There are only two pieces of math homework this week. Reading folders are being sent home for the first time tonight. There is a family letter inside the red folder that will describe my expectations for nightly reading. Please let me know if you have any questions about this. Reading folders will go home Monday-Thursday and should be returned every day. Spelling homework will begin next week.

Reading: We have been spending some time learning ways that readers get to know a character. We’ve talked about some of our favorite characters and what makes them our favorite. We also practiced using the title of the book, the cover and the illustrations to get to know a character before even reading our books. We think about questions such as, “What do I know about the character? How might this story go?” We will be learning to pay attention to how characters feel in stories to get to know them better.

Writing: We are just finishing up our Narrative Writing unit. We will spend a couple of days during writing this week assessing how much was learned during this unit of study. We will be looking for students to independently apply the skills they were taught during this unit such as: using capital letters at the beginning of sentences and ending punctuation, telling a story across several pages, writing about a time he/she did something and adding details in pictures and words. I am very impressed with how much everyone has grown as a writer since September. J

Math: The students will be exploring length and comparing lengths of small items, estimating and counting larger numbers of pennies. They will also be learning about doubles-facts and doing more work with complements of 10.

Word Study: We are learning about digraphs ch, sh, th, wh and ck this week. Digraphs are two consonants that “stick together” to make one sound. We will practice reading and spelling words with these digraphs.

You are invited to our Readers' and Writers' Celebration on Friday, November 13^th at 8:45am. Please come take a peek at the wonderful stories that have been created and spend a few minutes cuddling up together to do some reading. Please let me know if you will be able to attend.  Thanks!

Have a wonderful week!

                                                                                                                    -Roxanne Serrecchia