Plants

 Plants Out and About

Any time you are outside with your child, talk with them about the plants you see around you—their size, shape, color, etc. Have your child identify the different plant parts for you.

 Read Aloud Each Day

Set aside time to read to your child each day. The local library has many nonfiction books about plants, as well as fictional selections. A list of books and other resources relevant to this topic is attached to this letter.

Be sure to let your child know how much you enjoy hearing about what s/he has been learning about at school.

Writing- We completely enjoy writing time in class!! :)

     We are learning to independently write a complete sentence; using capitals for the first letter, all others in the sentence being lower case, spaces between words, and punctuation at the end. While writing we remember to use our sight words and other words are written using invented spelling. The value of penmanship practice is also evident as we make regular entries in our writing journals.

What is invented spelling?

Invented spelling is when students do their best work when judging spelling. As the students begin to understand letter sound correspondence, they print the letters for the sounds they hear.

Science Unit  -- Plants

Core Knowledge Newsletter

Over the next several days, your child will be learning about plants and plant parts. In addition, your child will learn that plants are living things and that there are many different kinds of plants.

Below are some suggestions for activities that you may do at home to continue to enjoy learning about plants.

1. Plant Experiment

Plant seeds in four different containers. With the first group of seeds, provide no water or sun. With the second group of seeds, provide water, but no sunlight. With the third group of seeds, provide sunlight, but no water. With the fourth group of seeds, provide sun and water. Be sure to explain to your child what you are doing.

Make predictions with your child about which of the seeds will sprout and grow the best. Observe each of the containers every couple of days. Discuss with your child the changes that have taken place, if any. After a week or two, revisit the predictions and discuss with your child whether the predictions were correct and why or why not.

Reading - We continue practicing hearing the first sound in words, while moving into the final sound in a word, and then into hearing all the sounds in a word, which will help us in our writing and spelling!

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency – Measures the student’s ability to segment a 2 or 5-phoneme word into individual phonemes. In other words, the student hears a spoken word and then shows their understanding of the word sounds by repeating each individual sound, breaking the word apart into 2 or 5 sounds.

The sounds in ox are /ooo/ - /xxx/.

The sounds in man are /mmm/ - /aaa/ - /nnn/.

The sounds in puppy are /ppp/ - /uuu/ - /ppp / - /eee/.

Suggestions for practice at home:

1. Build a word – Use building blocks to count sounds; place blocks in a line for each sound in a word. Remember words should have 2, 3 or 4 sounds (in, tan, pen, chop, nest, puppy.) Count the sounds not the letters.

2.  Finger count – Count each sound in the word on your fingers.

3.  Search on-line to find great ideas! Helpful resources, downloads, games,  websites & apps.

Reading- We have learned all 26 letters and sounds. Your child should be able to say the name and sound for each letter. If they aren’t able to say the sound for ALL letters, extra practice will be needed at school and home. 

PTA is sponoring our biggest fundraiser of the year. Please log on to funrun.com to make a donation to this important project.

October 11th- Fun Run @9:00

October 11th- First Quarter Ends

October 14th- No School

Oct 15th-17th- Parent Teacher Conferences

October 17th- Flagpole Ceremony @8:35 AM

October 17th & 18th- Dismissal @12:05 PM

October 25th- Spooktacular Costume Parade @4:30

October 31st- Fall Party @2:15

October 11th & 25th- Dismissal @2:00

• Save a small box or shoe box for our decorating event on 8/23. Parent volunteers are welcome. Email me if you’re interested!

Core Knowledge, science unit - We are learning about our 5 senses. We are doing many crafts and hands on activities to help us learn about our body and senses. Ask your child each day what they learned about with their senses.

September 4th- No School (Labor Day)

September 12th- Yogurtini Night at 5:00 PM

September 15th- Early Release at 12:05 PM

September 19th- Flagpole Ceremony at 8:35 AM

September 20th- Picture Day!

September 21st-22nd- No School