Welcome, 2018!

Teaching this week: Mrs. Alexander

Happy New Year!
We hope that you all have had a wonderful, restful winter break, but we’ve missed your sweet children and are ready to have them back in the classroom. It’s time to pick up right where we left off and move full speed ahead. Thank you for all of the support you’ve shown us so far and we look forward to all the excitement to come.

Dates to remember:
Mon.   Jan 1: NO SCHOOL
Tues.   Jan 2: NO SCHOOL
Wed.   Jan 3: Back to school! STEM Lab
Thurs. Jan 4: STEM, Library(remember to bring your books, students will not be allowed to call home)
Fri.      Jan 5: Early Release; wear Quest Spirit Shirts
*Monday, Jan 15: NO SCHOOL

What’s to come:

Reading:
We will begin the fourth week of Wonders Unit 3, where our reading will focus on New Ideas. Our comprehension strategy will be summarizing, and we’ll exercise the skill of determining main idea and important details.

Phonics:
The phonetic focus for this week are the prefixes of pre-, dis-, and mis-. We will target these prefixes by determining word meaning, using them in writing and proofreading.

Math:
This week, we will be using strategies for x2 and x5 multiplication facts. Although some students may know their multiplication facts for 2 and 5, these strategies will allow them to develop the skills to multiply numbers larger than 12, as well as develop an understanding of inverse operations. This understanding is one of the foundational skills needed to learn division.
Multiplication Madness continues! We test our multiplication facts every morning, and as students pass off a set of facts, they move on to the next. The order that facts are tested in is as follows:
0, 1, 2, 5, 9, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12
We are excited to continue our pilot period of FrontRowEd, and support students as they work on differentiated material and progressing at rates independent to each individual’s learning needs.

Homework:
Reading: What a wonderful time of the year to make a new commitment to reading. I’d like to suggest a commitment of at least 20 minutes of reading every day of 2018!
Math: Prodigy is updated with material correlated to our classroom instruction. 15 minutes of practice, at least 3 nights per week will help students develop accuracy and speed!

Let’s make 2018 the very best of your child’s educational journey (so far).
Work hard. Be kind.