11/5/08 Counting Money, Comprehension

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

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 passage about dollar coins. (Is there anyone out there that remembers when the Susan B coin came out? I sure do!) They need to answer 4 questions about the passage. Please discuss with your children why they are answering the way they are. If there are two good answers is one of them better than the other? Is your child able to tell you why he or she is giving the answers he or she gives?

Part 3 (Get Out Some Coins & Count Them): Please get out some coins and have your child  show off his or her money counting skills. We have a BIG math test next week. How is your child doing with counting money? How about skills that were covered earlier in the year? How about basic addition and subtraction skills? Below, please let me know what you are seeing in the home setting. We’re all in this together! How did the coin counting go?

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

11/4/08 Verbs

Part 1 (Daily Reading Homework): your child needs to read at least 20 minutes every night. Below, please record what they read, how long they read for and then initial it. Thanks!
What was read? Time spent reading parent’s initials

Part 2 (Verbs): We have another night working on verbs! The kids need to read the sentences and then write the verb from each sentence on the given line. This is a pretty simple assignment as the students are doing well identifying verbs. Problem B requires the students to write their own sentence and then circle their own verb.

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

11/3/08 All Kinds of Math!

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

Part 2 (Comparing Collections of Coins): Today’s math lesson requires two things to be done. First, the kids need to be able to count collections of coins. Next, they need to compare those collections. Some kids are still confused by the symbols for less than, equal to, and greater than. Please check your own student’s understanding. The journal problem (#10) has your student drawing a collection of coins that adds up to a value that is less than 55¢. Have them draw it and add it up.

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, “7:10” and then have them write the time on the digital clock. Please work with your child on telling time!

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

10/30/08 Money & Study for Spelling Test

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 (Money): we continue to work on counting coins. Please work with your student to have them finish the math math 5-3 Counting Collections of Coins. Problem #8 is a journal problem. They need to create their own story and draw the coins that go with it. For example:
I found 75¢ ... first I found a quarter, then I found 4 dimes and then I found a nickel and 5 pennies. That is 75¢ altogether.
They need to draw the coins that go with their story. We’ve practiced this in class.

Part 3 (Spelling): 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.

One more thing: I’d like to get from you how your child is doing with all of these different skills. Do you feel the books they are reading are at the right levels? Is the coin counting coming easily to them? What is your impression of how they are doing with basic writing and spelling skills? Please drop me a note sometime with your impressions about how your child is developing academically! I am quite honored to be the teacher to such a wonderful group of students! This is optional, obviously, but it helps he gauge the progress of the class as a whole...

10/29/08 Comprehension: Making Predictions

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

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 another short passage about bats. We’ve previously studied bats 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. See if your child can readily figure out the main idea of the article. Can they use clues to figure out what kind of book the article is from? Can they finish the chart at #4 with a good title? Do they know what a myth is?

Part 3 (Your Turn to Write #8, Predictions): Your student did some pre-writing today with YTTW #8. I am sending it home again. I’d like them to make it even neater and better. We will be using YTTW #8 in class tomorrow to write a paragraph dealing with making predictions, the clues that help us make predictions, and outcomes. I have already assigned each pre-writing a letter grade. Please go over your student’s work and make sure they understand what we are doing. Even if your child’s YTTW #8 is already wonderful it can still be made neater.  Here is an example of the kind of paragraph they'll be expected to write tomorrow from the pre-writing exercise YTTW #8:

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

10/28/08 Punctuation & Counting Money

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 (Punctuation): We are constantly talking about what makes a sentence. As we all know, sentences are complete ideas that begin with capital letters and end with punctuation marks. Tonight I’d like your student to figure out what kind of sentences they are working with.   We have:

• Basic telling sentences that give information
  
• Question sentences that ask for information
  
• Exclamation sentences that show strong emotion
  
• Command sentences that are for telling someone what to do 
  

Your student is to put the appropriate punctuation at the end of each sentence and then fill in the blank with what kind of sentence it is. Please discuss their answers and reasons with them.

Part 3 (Finish Questions 7-9 of the Quarter and Half Dollar Work): Please note that your student needs to come up with their own story for the journal entry. For example:
I have 3 dimes, a nickel, and a quarter. 30+5+25=60. I have 60 cents so I have enough to buy the orange. I count it this way: 30, 35, 60!
The important part is that your student actively think about how he or she could add the coins together to get to 60 cents.

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

10/27/08 Math: Money

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 (Counting Money with Corn Sack Count): Friends, it is time for your student to learn how to count money! Let me say that money counting can be a bit difficult some some students so I need all the help I can get on this one! Please, please, please work with your child on counting money at home! Tonight’s homework involves counting pennies, nickels, and dimes. I suggest that you find some real coins that your leaner can work with as they count coins. One more thing: if your little one gets frustrated don’t let it bother you too much... we’ll all be counting coins and making change in no time.
Part 3 (Money Counting Math Mat): There is a game on one side of the math mat that we played in class today. It would be worth getting some coins out and playing it with your student. Also, go over the Home-School connection on the other side of the mat with your child and have them do the activities given.

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.