1. January 4, 2016 Mrs. Armas Happy New Year! Welcome back to school and life falling back into a routine. We are off and running with an exciting curriculum that will challenge and motivate our young students. Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement. Penguins In science, we will spend this week learning about penguins. We will learn about the different types of penguins, their characteristics and their habitats. We will also do many fun writing and art projects based on penguins. Students will answer questions about what they have learned about penguins on Pebble Go. We will be working on comprehension and answering questions about penguins in guided reading. The students will learn a lot about penguins!! Make sure to ask them what they know. Mathematically Thinking With ENY this week we be taking a 10 away to solve subtraction problems. They will work with subtraction in word problems as well. Please read the attached math newsletter for more examples of what we be doing in class this week. Word Work This week’s Word Wall Words are always, their, water, again, before. A bit of time practicing reading and printing these words and reviewing those from previous weeks will help your children spell and read these words with ease. This week in phonics we will work with the long vowel spelling patterns for E: -ee-, -ea-, -ie-,e -e. Our class is running low on white board markers and large hand sanitizer. Thank you so much for the supplies. Due Friday: *ENY 9 &10 * Read *Y comprehension * Practice sight words *4 Valentines-keep at home

2. rk Writer’s Workshop We are learning how to write informative texts. Narrative writing taught us how to tell a story about ourselves. Informative writing is teaching others about things we know a lot about by giving a topic sentence and supplying facts that we know. Students are learning how the pictures are also different and they are labeling their pictures. We are learning how to write super sentences by using adjectives and prepositional phrases to make our sentences better. Homework Read nightly for 20 mins. Practice sight words Y-comprehension ENY- There are 2 pages of subtraction. Lesson 9 students need to break apart the second addend to help make 8 and 10, then write the 10 fact. In Lesson 10 they continue to break apart numbers to get a 10 and find and match the 10 fact that they made. Valentine Cards-The last few years we tried something different and liked it. Rather than buying cards we asked the children to make and write their own. For the next six weeks we will send home four card templates a week for homework. The children are to write and decorate the cards. There will be extras for discretionary giving. Have fun with the decorations, front and back, if you like. These will be the cards the children will exchange in class on February 12 th. Thank you for your support of this authentic writing/ decorating experience. Please keep all Valentines at home until Friday, February 12 th. CAFÉ This week students will learn about the CAFÉ strategies. These are strategies to use to help students in their reading. C is for comprehension, A is for accuracy, F is for fluency, and E is for expanding their vocabulary. We have worked a lot on accuracy and fluency and some comprehension. Students will set a goal for themselves on which piece they feel they need to work on. Dates to remember: *Primary Hour resumes today- We like to have a little snack for the children before we begin working. It would be helpful if you might send in a box of graham crackers to share. **1/18 No School- Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday **1/29- No School- Staff Development Day Please send in just the report card envelope signed.