January Classroom Update

Happy New Year! I hope that each of you had a wonderful holiday season! I know that it was tough coming back to school this week (especially with all this snow) However, the kids are doing great and I have loved getting to see them again! As we start of the New Year I thought it would be useful if I update you all about what is going on in our classroom!

Math- In math we are continuing to learn about multiplication. We are currently working on the defining multiplication concepts. Specifically we are learning how to look at and create multiplication problems using arrays. Yesterday and today we learned two new math games! Ask you students how to play circles and stars and I am sure they will be able to teach you! The directions are as follows: 

Circles and Stars

1. Each person takes a recording sheet and a dice

2. Take turns…

3. Player 1 rolls the dice.

a. The first roll is the number of circles you draw

b. The second roll is the number of stars you draw

4. Write the multiplication sentence for your pictures

a. Remember...the number of circles is the first number!

5. Then Player 2 does the same.

6. After your board is filled, add up your score - who won?

Science- We are continuing our weather unit! We just finished learning about the different forms of precipitation and next week we will start learning about wind and how it affects the weather!

Reading- We are getting back into the groove of school and with that, we are getting back into reading! On Thursday we worked on picking better chapter books for us to read! We also got to use our new check it out board! Here the students will be able to look at what books other kids are reading and decide if they would like the book as well! It has worked well so far and the kids are really excited to recommend books to other friends as well!

We are starting our new read aloud book next week! This month our book will be “Shiloh” written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This book is about a boy and his dog. It does get sad at times so you may want to ask your students opinion about the book! I am sure they would love to share their feelings.

Writing- Throughout the month of Janurary we still be working on our nonfiction writing. Before break students wrote a piece about something they were “experts” on. Starting next week we will begin researching facts about the topic the students want to learn more about. To help get their brains thinking of ideas I created a wonder board in the classroom. Here students can post questions, or “wonders”, that they have about life, the world, or anything they can think of! Then in the morning before the 8:20 school bell rings starts they can try to research information to help solve other students wonders. We have had some pretty interesting wonders such as “What happens to gum when you swallow it?” “Why is the statue of liberty green” and “What is a spleen?” If you would like to come in before school and check out our board, or post any of your own wonders, feel free to do so!

Snacks- Just a friendly reminder that students ARE allowed to bring snacks for the morning! As long as it is small enough to stay at their table spot and is a healthy choice.  In addition, we are once again in need of DONATIONS for our snack bin. I try to only give out snacks to students who did not get breakfast or who are in need of a snack before lunch. Therefore if you would like to donate snacks we will gladly love some crackers, pretzels, gold fish, or any other healthy, pre-packaged snack!

Coats- In these cold winter months please make sure that your student is wearing a heavy winter coat to school! Because of the cold temperatures we don’t get to make it outside that often but if we have a chance to I will only let students with coats go outside.

Miss Rutledge

krutledge@cpsk12.org