Changes in Reading

Parents,

As we are all aware, FCAT time is creeping closer and closer. Because of this, we will begin making some changes to our reading curriculum starting this week.

Instead of focusing on the Imagine It story all week long, we are going to only read it together for about two days maximum in class. The class is welcome to continue to look over and study the story at home, and we will do some activities with the story in centers. However, we are going to begin doing more "cold reads" (stories the students have never seen before) and focusing on FCAT based questions.

You will also begin to see a change in homework beginning tonight. Instead of our usual vocabulary page on a Monday, the students brought home an FCAT Practice page. Please go over the story and questions with your child, to help them be sure they are answering the question based off the test, and are aware of any "tricks" that may be there to trip them up. My best advice is to have them underline in the story where they find their answers (we do this in class) and have them underline key words within the question.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me, or set up a conference.

More Literacy Week Fun!

Today we had Celebrity Readers come to our classroom to read a story to the class. Our class was visited by several FAMU Football players! They read, "Faces of the Moon" to tie into our unit about space. It was very exciting!

Book Swap

Today was our Book Swap for Literacy Week. Here are our old books before we took them to swap for some new ones. Happy reading, everybody!

Literacy Week

This week is Celebrate Literacy Week. We have enjoyed some fun activities in the past two days. We had a very relaxing time reading outside in the beautiful weather yesterday. Then today, we met up with our Reading Buddies: Mrs. Brock's class, and partner read with our kindergarten friends. Once we finished reading, we constructed a special treat: marshmallow snowmen. At least we can still celebrate winter, even if it feels like spring outside!

Free digital scrapbook made with Smilebox

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a very restful break. I am very happy to see all of my wonderful students back at school and ready to learn. We have hit the ground running! We began our reading unit on space yesterday. The students are very excited about this one! They are loving all of the information they have discovered so far about our solar system, the sun, and Galileo Galilei.

A paper went home yesterday regarding a project they are to complete at home about the planets. Directions were included on the form. These projects are due January 24th.

Also, don't forget our annual Tech-get-ti Fundraising Dinner will take place  January 24th. Money from tickets purchased for this dinner benefit our school, as it helps pay for new technology such as computers, laptops, Promethean Boards, etc. Please try to attend if you are able.

Finally, next week is Celebrate Literacy Week! An email went home detailing what is happening each day. Here is a reminder!

• Monday: Bring beach towels/blankets for a P.A.R.T.Y (Pick Anything and Read to Yourself) Weather permitting we will go outside and have some reading time. If not, we will still spread out around the classroom with our blankets/towels and read inside.

• Tuesday: Read with Buddies. We will meet up with our Little Buddies in Mrs. Brock's class and read with them!

• Wednesday: Book Swap/Posters. Students may bring in old books to swap for new ones. We will make posters in class illustrating our favorite books.

• Thursday: Local celebrities will read to the class.

• Friday: Dress as your favorite book character/Character Parade at 1:00 (parents are welcome to attend).

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody enjoys their time off with family and friends. Here's a look at how we celebrated at school before we left for break. We had a holiday sing-a-long at the beginning of the week, but my phone wasn't working to take pictures. :( Shout out to Symaria for reading her Christmas wish in front of the whole school! She did a wonderful job!

I did get pictures on Wednesday and Thursday. We had a great time at Breakfast in PJ's. Thank you so much to all of you for bringing in food, stocking stuffers, and to those who stopped by to help. We appreciate all you do!

Thursday we brought some left over food, and whipped up some more hot chocolate for our Little Buddies in Mrs. Brock's class.

Another picture slideshow by Smilebox

A New Score to Beat!

During our Fall Rotations, I had posted my top score for the Punkin' Chunkin' virtual game. Well, Taylor in Mrs. Williams class has officially beat my record by chunkin' a punkin' 26,703ft.! Wow! So if you haven't played in a while, dust off the ole game and see if you can beat Taylor's score!