Maps!

This week in:

Shared Reading/Concepts-We will learn all about maps! We will learn about map symbols, map keys, a compass rose, the 4 cardinal directions, and much more! On Friday we will follow a map and have a walking field trip around Baxter using our compasses and map skills! More information to come!

Daily 5 Reading-We are off to a GREAT start! Every child is meeting with a teacher every day! Your child should be bringing their "just right" book home each night. On Fridays we will send home their poetry notebooks for them to read. On Monday we will send home your child's word work for the week in their pouch. They are to sort the pictures/words by their spelling feature. The boys and girls know what to do and directions will come home on Monday as well. :) This week we are focusing on the reading goal of accuracy and learning the strategy cross checking. Ask your child about cross checking!

Writer's Workshop-This week we will use mentor texts and notice some things that authors do when they tell stories. We will learn that one way writers get ready to write true stories is to first practice telling the stories. They will tell the "little" things that happened such as what people said. We will also learn that authors plan how stories will go and we will learn to plan stories page by page!

Daily 5 Math-We love working in our math journals and adding math tools to our tool bags! So far we have a rod (10 connecting cubes), a die, and a ten frame! This week we will add numeral cards to our math tool bags.

Reminders
*Boosterthon Fun Run is starting this week! Our team name is the Super Monkeys! Please wear your monkey shirt and if you have one a cape to school on Friday! If you don't have a cape a towel works great!
*Every night we will have a class winner with a new price such as teacher for the day, lunch on stage with Mrs. McMillan, play date with Mrs. McMillan, etc...I will email out each night what the class prize is!

Community Helpers!

This week in:

Shared Reading/Concepts-We will study community helpers. We will read lots of great books and discuss them as well as have several community helpers such as a Fort Mill police officer, the humane society of York County, an EMT, and more! On Friday your child is invited to dress as their favorite community helper and come to school!

Daily 5 Reading-Our goal for this week is comprehension and our strategy is checking for understanding. We will continue our small reading groups daily. If for some reason your child's just right book that they read with a teacher in small group doesn't make it home just read any book from home or go on raz kids for a just right reading level.

Daily 5 Math-We will continue our study of counting and cardinality and learn how to use ten frames. We will also learn and practice subitizing (recognizing numbers without counting one to one correspondence such as seeing a die and knowing it is 5 without counting the dots one by one).

Writer's Workshop-We will continue using our sounds in motion to practice stretching out words to write even more sounds and making books.

Reminders:
*Chick-fil-a lunch on Thursday. Please send a towel to school on with your child. You are invited to join us for lunch at the spirit rock at 12:30.
*Walking school bus on Friday at 7:10.
*Your child is invited to dress up as their favorite community helper!

Apples!

This week in:

Shared Reading/Concepts-We will study apples. We will read lots of great books, do science experiments, cook, art projects, and much more!

Daily 5 Reading-We will start reading groups this week!

Daily 5 Math-We will continue our study of counting and carnality.

Writers Workshop-We will learn how to plan our writing before we start and how to return to unfinished work.

Reminders
*Chick-fil-a Night on Tuesday! Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Blum, and I will be there at 6:00. Come have dinner with us!
*Picture day on Thursday
*Walking school bus on Friday. Meet at 7:10 at the park on Market Street.
*THANK YOU  so very much for sending in all the yummy apple treats to make this week special! :)
*THANK YOU for sending in the extra binder and pouches! They have been a tremendous help in keeping our little geniuses organized!

5 Senses

This week in:

Shared Reading/Concepts-We will learn about our 5 senses! We will do lots of hands on activities and experiments! We will learn that we don't just feel with our hands but our whole body is covered with skin and we feel with all our whole body even our feet....we may be feeling spaghetti with our feet. We will have smell jars, we will have touch bags where we reach in and have to use our senses to identify the objects, we will blindfold our friends and have an obstacle course in our classroom, we will have an audiologist visit our room and discuss hearing. Whew! This will be a busy but fun week!

Daily 5 Reading-We are continuing to add to our Daily 5 Model & getting closer to launching reading groups!

Daily 5 Math-We are still working on numbers 0-9 learning to represent them in different ways, spell them, and write them correctly.

Writer's Workshop-We are going to be truing our pieces into scrolls or books this week. We will learn that professional writers add on more pages.

Handwriting-We will review the headline, mid line, and baseline as well as vertical, horizontal lines, and backward circles. We will focus on the strokes of forward circles and four kinds of lines.

Reminders
*No school on Monday for Labor Day. Enjoy your long weekend!
*K-1

Students in Kindergarten and First Grade will be participating in Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) starting this year.  MAP is an assessment activity designed to help determine a student’s instructional level in Math and Reading.  Students will participate via computer between September 8 and September 20.  Please encourage your child to do his/her best, but not to worry or stress when more difficult questions are presented.
*Thursday is Put A Lid on Cancer Day! You may wear a hat to school (even a crazy one!) if you donate $1. You may send your $1 in an envelope or baggie marked Put a Lid on Cancer on or before Thursday. :)
*Friday is 9/11 please wear red, white and blue on this day. 

*No Walking School Bus this week! I have early morning duty. :) I'll see you next week!

 We had so much fun when Mrs. McMillan blind folded us and took away our sense of sight. We had to use our other senses to get around the room!

 We used our sense of touch to reach into bags and try to guess what was inside by using our sense of touch!

 We learned we don't just feel with our hands. We have skin all over our bodies. We stepped in spaghetti noodles and felt with our feet! They will never forget it!

 An audiologist came and taught us about our sense of hearing! We learned about our outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. We got to hear on all different levels and learned a lot! Thank you Mrs. Cain!

Our Osmos came! Yay! The boys and girls are in love with them! THANK YOU for making our classroom even more engaging! 

We went to the computer lab!