Week of January 9th

The snow has arrived!  We hope you had a great weekend enjoying our Michigan weather.  I snapped this picture during recess when it was so warm.  Big change this week!  

~Please remember with the changing weather to have your student dress appropriately.  We have a lot of fun outside, 3 times a day. 

**Reminder- NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY!!

**Please take a look at your student's show and tell schedule that you received last week.  The student's love this special time!  If you cannot find your schedule, please contact Ms. Heather and she can give you the date!

ELA - There have been some questions regarding the purpose of the JRL books and what is expected to happen each night at home.  We want to take a moment to explain the JRL system to you.  The purpose of the JRL book is repitition, repitition, repitition.  We understand that the books seem easy at times for your kiddo.  This is a good thing.  We want the students to become familiar with the high frequency words they are getting exposed to.  They should repeat the words enough times that they not only recognize the words without sounding them out but also should recognize the letters making up the words as well.  This is when the words truly become sight words.  

~All students start out on a level 1 even though not every student initially passed the testing for this level.

~In order to move on to the next level the student needs to not only be able to read the words of the book but also needs to comprehend the context of the book and recall the sequencing of the book.  This is a skill that the students develop with practice.  We work on these strategies in class.  Working on this at home each night would also be beneficial for your child.

Math - We are adding!  We worked on addition problems this week and used many different supplies/approaches to help students understand this concept.  We worked on looking at actual equations.  Our Math games now include adding die together into equations and also using decks of cards as a fun way to learn addition.  Feel free to challenge your student at home with some of these basic but so important skills!

Social Studies - We introduced the words:  goods and services this week.  We also started filling in a T-chart to drive the idea of needs and wants to our students.  Some still are trying to understand this concept.  Students still want to put ice cream cones under needs!  The T-chart helped the students see the difference between the two things.  We are still working on this project.

Spanish - Ms. Nati did a great job this week during her time spent with Ms. Mel.  We have decided to give Ms. Nati more time at Innocademy to experience our culture and whole child approach!  We will keep you posted if/when we move into the official hiring process.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR NEXT WEEK:

ELA- We will write a friendly letter together as a small group, and the children will write their own sentence frame.  Our new sight word this week is: little.

Writing- We will continue to edit and revise the specific piece each child chose to publish.  You should ask your son/daughter about this! :)

Math- This week in math we will be showing the numbers 1-10 on a board with 1-inch tiles, focusing on the patterns and 5-groups we see.  We will also be introducing the subtraction symbol, and the children will work in pairs to write their own addition and subtraction equations.

Social Studies- On Monday the children will finish their T-chart on wants and needs, and then on Wednesday we will discuss goods and services.