November 16th - 20th Newsletter

We enjoyed a fun, but busy week, learning about maps and globes. This upcoming week, we will shift our focus to cultures, customs and traditions around the world. We will learn about the U.S.A., Mexico, Africa and the Caribbean. These will lead us up to reading different versions of Cinderella that take place around the world. Our character word for the month of November is Cooperation. Cooperation is working together in a positive way to reach a desired outcome. I will get a chance to see a lot of cooperation during our time spent with our math and writing partners and small groups :)

Reading/Units of Study: We will be able to compare and contrast different parts of the world. We will be able to ask and answer questions about different countries. We will be able to identify and use proper nouns correctly. Here is a fun game we loved playing in class!
Writer's Workshop: We will be able to study an author's piece of writing and try out some of their ideas. We will be able to use pop-out words and write with exact actions. An example of this would be adding ellipses to build excitement. We can also write exact actions to make a movie in the reader's mind and write some words that pop out to tell the reader to read with a strong voice.
Math: We will be able to use the making 10 strategy to add. We will be able to add three numbers and solve word problems with three addends (numbers). Here is a quick video that will explain a little more about how we can make ten using a ten-frame to add. Here is another great video that goes over it in a different way. Also, My Daily Math Coach has a few other videos that go over some other mental math strategies we've learned about in the past.
Phonics: We will be able to read and write words with the r-controlled vowel -or. The skill this week is learning about the -or, which is an example of an r-controlled vowel. Have fun practicing this week! Here are our words for the week: for, born, pork, torn, fork, stork sport, corn, fort short, absorb, port. Don't forget about using Spelling City to practice our words in a fun way!

Phonics Videos
PBS Kids - Variety of r-controlled stuff 
Bossy R song
Geraldine the Giraffe Learns the -or
Controlling -r Song