November 2009 Class News Let's Learn Together Next week our class will begin a reading unit called Let's Learn Together. The focus of this unit is on various aspects of helping others--both at home and in the community. Each week your child will continue to bring home a set of flash cards of sight words which he or she needs to learn. Your child should practice reading those words for a few minutes each night. Keep practicing the words until they are truly known on sight--your child should be able to read them as quickly as you can. You should also keep practicing the words from the last unit. Just pick out a few each night--you don't need to do all the "old" words at once. (By now your child should be so quick with the kindergarten review words that you can begin to "retire" them. Trust your judgment. If you're not sure, keep practicing!) In language arts our class will work on refining our sentence writing. We have begun the process of learning to put our sentences into simple paragraphs. We have been using word webs to help us plan our writing. During November we'll continue using webs, and we'll also introduce the Four Square writing method as another organizational tool.
Math Matters
Our class is almost finished with the second math unit called Making Shapes and Designing Quilts. Next week we will begin a new unit called Solving Story Problems which focuses on addition, subtraction, and the number system. Throughout the unit students work on a variety of story problems and explore different ways to solve them. At home you can encourage your children to explain their thinking as you play math games together and as they work on math problems and related activities. In the coming weeks students will bring home more information about the unit as well as activities to so at home. Book Club Orders I will be ordering books from the Scholastic Book Club this year. A copy of the monthly flyer will be sent home during the first week of each month with the due date stamped on it. If you wish to order, you have two options. You can return the order form with your check made payable to "Scholastic Books" on or before the due date, or you can visit the Scholastic Book Clubs web site, log in using our class password, and place your order directly with them. Either way, it takes about three weeks for book orders to arrive. The November order is due Monday, November 9. Science & Social Studies
Last month we began a science unit about balance and motion, and we explored what it means when something is balanced. We also learned how to use counterweights to help things balance. In the coming weeks we'll engage in activities designed to help the children discover that a force is needed to make something move. We'll learn that a force can be a push or a pull and that gravity is a type of pulling force. In social studies we'll learn about Veterans' Day and Thanksgiving. We'll continue our year long exploration of traditional folk and fairy tales. Computer & Technology
Your child will learn about computers and technology throughout the year. In October we used QS Shapes, a geometry software program that complements our math unit. In November we'll visit Starfall, a great early reading web site. If you enjoy doing computer activities with your child, Starfall is a fun, free web site you can try at home.
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