Mrs. Orr’s Classroom News
September 6, 2007
Dear Moms and Dads,
I am so very proud of your children. They are settling in to our routine well and working so hard. I bet they are very tired when they arrive home!
We have been reading books about different times of day and describing what the sky looks like during these times. We have discussed twilight, sunset, night, and dawn thus far. You might observe the sky at different times with your child and discuss the colors you see in the sky.
In addition we have been exploring books about a character named Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. These stories have generated an interest in the Eiffel Tower. We have used the internet and the L.C.D. projector to learn some facts about this famous structure. The children were quite excited to build a model of the Eiffel Tower with toothpicks and marshmallows. Although, I think one of their favorite things was eating 8 clean marshmallows upon completion of this project!
Mrs. H. and I have started sharing children during math time. She is working with the second graders and I have the opportunity to be with the first graders from both classrooms. In my math group we learned a new math word: subitizing. This word means looking at a group of objects and seeing groups within the set in order to help find the total more efficiently. For example, if given a picture of 7 dots, someone might quickly see a group of 5 and then count on two more to arrive at 7 as the total. We have also been working on "counting on" to help us find the total. For example, if given a card with 6 objects and a card with 2 objects, we might touch the 6 object card and say "6" and then count on "7, 8".
I have also started to meet with your child in a group for reading instruction. In these groups we work on sound spellings such as dge, oe, and ar. Some children are working on reviewing letter sounds. There are reading selections that support the letter sounds or sound spellings we work on. Children also work on comprehension following the stories. In addition, we might have a writing prompt to follow some of the reading selections.
Karen Kurzman, a writing consultant, will be working in our school again this year. Last year she worked with our children on a response to text writing piece based upon a story called Rose Meets Mr. Wintergarten. This afternoon she introduced our first and second graders to writing a narrative. One of the key parts of a narrative is to identify a problem a character has or could have. Please ask your child to tell you about the work we did with Mrs. K.
I am attaching a copy of my classroom schedule for your information. However, it does change sometimes for special events and work with consulting teachers.
Here are some questions to ask your child this week:
Where does the character named Madeline live? (Paris, France)
Who was the Eiffel Tower named after? (its builder: Gustov Eiffel)
When does twilight take place? (between sunset and night)
What do we do when we subitize? (look for groups of objects within a total to help us count faster such as a group of 5, 2, and 1 to arrive at 8)
What did you write about with Mrs. K.?
Here are some dates to remember:
September 10th: PTN meeting, 6:30, school library
September 26th: Early Release day for students
September 27th: Open House, 6:30-7:30
That’s it for this week. Enjoy your sharing time.
Sincerely,
Kathi