10/23/08 Writing, Math & Spelling

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night. Please record what they read, how long they read for and then initial it. Thanks!

Part 2 (Writing): Every day in class we engage in writing. Parents, I’d like to have your children do some writing with you. I’ve sent home one of the “draw & write” sheets that we use in class. I’d like your student to do their best job drawing and writing using the word infest. (one of this weeks’ vocabulary words). If they have trouble remembering what infest means say, “Mr. Copeland’s dog is infested with fleas!” That should jog their memories. Parents, see if your student is starting their sentences with capital letters and ending with punctuation marks. Do the sentences tell complete ideas? Is the writing neat and legible?

Part 3 (Study for the Spelling Test): We have a spelling test tomorrow. Are you ready?

Part 4 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday. The grade on Friday is calculated like this: 20 points per day Minute Math is done at home plus one point for every correct answer on Friday (a student who did their Minute Math every day and got 11 correct on Friday would get a grade of 91: 80 points for the days worked at home plus 11 for the right answers at school). Have your child finish as many of each day’s problems as they can with a pen in 1 minute. Mark how many they got right in 1 minute at the bottom and then initial. Then have your child finish the unanswered questions with a pencil. This needs to be done every day but does not need to be turned in until Friday. If you have any questions about minute math please contact me.

10/22/08 Comprehension, Cause & Effect, and Math

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night. Please record what they read, how long they read for and then initial it.

Part 2 (Reading Comprehension): One of the main focuses of our year has been reading comprehension. Simply reading a book, article, or passage isn’t enough. Readers need to be able to re-tell what they’ve read in their own words! Tonight your student is reading a short passage about spiders. They need to use the implicit and explicit information in the three paragraphs to answer four simple questions. Please have your student explain to you their answers and why they marked what they’ve marked. You should also ask your child to tell you what the main idea of the article is and have them show you the main idea sentence.

Part 3 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday.

Part 4 (Cause and Effect): We are working on writing about cause and effect. We are starting with Your Turn to Write #7. Your child is to write about making something happen. On the left side of the sheet should be causes. On the right side they need to write effects.  I’ve sent home the example that I showed the students this morning. I’d like your student to re-do their Your Turn to Write #7 (I am including the one they completed in class today). If the one they’ve already done is fine then they should look for ways to write it neater and make it nicer on the copy they are writing tonight. Some students need to start over and focus on writing causes and the effects that go with them. We will use the completed YTTW#7 to write a paragraph in class tomorrow. Please go over their YTTW#7 to make sure that they understood and completed the assignment correctly.

10/21/08 Pronouns & Math

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night. Please record what they read, how long they read for and then initial it.

Part 2 (Pronouns): We are beginning to work on pronouns. A pronoun is a word that stands in for a proper noun. Example: Richard is a proper noun. I could write Richard is running. I could also replace the word Richard with the pronoun he and write He is running.

Part 3 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday.

Part 4 (Place Value): In math we started working on Place Value (OK... re-visiting Place Value). Please look over the Math Mat with your student, discuss the game they played in class, and try the home-school connections listed on the front of the math math with your student.

10/20/08 Math & Reading

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night.

Part 2 (Two Part Math Problems): I have been working with the kids on solving two part math problems. It has been touch and go for some of them. Please review this concept with your child. Consider problem #1: Carmen found 4 shells on Monday and 5 more on Tuesday. How many shells does Carmen have? The problem continues: If Carmen finds 6 more on Wednesday, how many shells will she have then? The problem needs to be solved in two steps:  4+5=9  and then 9+6=15
Check to see if your learner understands that they need to figure out the first part of the problem before they move onto the second part of the problem. Also know that some two part math problems go from being addition problems to subtraction problems and visa versa. For the journal problem (#8) please have your student write their own 2 part problem. For example: Tyrell has 6 cars. Chandler gives him 8 more. After that he loses 4 cars. How many cars does he end up with? 6+8=14 then 14-4=10 so Tyrell has 10 cars.


Part 3 (Math): Drops in the Bucket Math: we are reviewing many of the math facts that we have learned to date: comparing numbers, patterns, adding and subtracting, how many in all, money, place value, time, and shapes.
When working on Drops in the Bucket with your student please constantly ask them to explain themselves to you. Say things like: “How do you know that?” and “Tell me why.” when they give you answers.
On problem #3 the students are asked to do some double digit addition and subtraction. I’ve taught them to re-write the problems “up and down” and then solve them. 
Problem #9 deals with telling time. Many of the children don’t know how to tell time on a clock with a face yet. If this is still hard for your child read the face to them, “5:00” and then have them write the time on the digital clock.

Part 4 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday.

10/16/08 Study for the Spelling Test Tomorrow

I was out from school today.  The sub assured me that she would remind the kids to study for the spelling test tomorrow!

10/15/08 Writing, Comprehension, & Math

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night. 

Part 2 (Reading Comprehension): One of the main focuses of our year has been reading comprehension. Simply reading a book, article, or passage isn’t enough. Readers need to be able to re-tell what they’ve read in their own words!  Tonight your student is reading a short passage about bats. We have been studying bats this week so they already have some knowledge to start with. After they read the passage then need to answer 4 simple questions about the passage. There is explicit and implicit information available to help your student answer the questions. Explicit means that the information is written on the page. Implicit means that they figure out their answer from clues provided on the page. Readers need to constantly check for implicit and explicit information.

Part 3 (Writing with a Purpose): Your student needs to write a short paragraph about why we should like bats. Their paper should have a title on the top line. They should skip the next line and then begin their paragraph with a main idea sentence. Often, the title of an article and it’s main idea sentence will be exactly the same! After the main idea sentence your student should write 3-4 detail sentences that let us know exactly why we should like bats. I am sending home a similiar assignment that we worked on in class today (feel free to use it as a reference and then keep it at home). This does not have to be a long piece ans your student should be able to finish it neatly and quickly.

Part 4 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday.

10/14/08 Verbs & Math

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night.

Part 2 (Verbs): From early on in your child’s education, they have probably heard about “action words.” When I taught 1st grade we often used the terms “action words” more often than we used the real term: verbs. We are now studying verbs. Tonight’s homework is simple enough: your student is to draw a line from the sentences to the verbs that go in them. After that they are to write the verb into the sentence to complete the sentence. Discuss with your child why they choose what they choose. Do they understand that verbs are action words? We have a chant we say in class. It goes, “Verb! It’s what you do! Verb! It’s what you do!” Please let me know how your child does with this concept.

Part 3 (Minute Math): Minute Math is a daily activity. It is not due until Friday.