Mrs. Sendelweck's Newsletter

Kona Ice was a hit this past Friday! Students enjoyed the special treat and got to hang with friends outside while enjoying the yummy treat!

Students also got an extra recess this week because our class earned their reward for our classroom positive tool: Building Mrs. PotatoHead!

Important: There were a few important papers sent home Friday regarding skills assessed over the last several weeks. Please let me know if you have questions about your child and their assessments.

Notes on Upcoming Events:

Please send library books back on Tuesdays. Thank you!

Parent Teacher Conferences are Sept. 30th and Oct. 7th via a Zoom Video. A link will be sent out to sign up for our individual conference on your student.

The Homework Card is always sent home on Fridays. Saxon Phonics and Math homework is Monday - Thursday consistently. High Frequency words should be practiced on the back of the homework card along with reviewing the other skills on the back of the card. This is our Weekly Focus Wall that we teach with every day. Reviewing these skills at home would be helpful!

Practice often or as needed

• Addition and subtraction facts 0-6 addition and subtraction, or your child's current "scoop" level if they have already passed their timed test or tests

• First 100 and 200 Sight Words (sent home on Friday 9/11)

• Saxon Phonics rules

This Week: Letter F, H, G, and R

Students are missing the coding on the homework. They have been taught it at school so please just remind them to code their Saxon and that their handwriting is neat and correct.

At this time they should be able to tell you 2 rules by heart and know how to code:

Vowel Rule 1: A vowel followed by a consonant is short; code it with a breve.

Vowel Rule 2: An open, accented vowel is long; code it with a macron.

Please refer to the parent help letter at the bottom of the homework and help your child by checking to see if the coding is correct.

It is so important to practice this at home because the rules will add up so keeping up will help them become proficient readers. Also, when they are reading and come across a word they don't know please refer to the rules and have them use them to figure out a word.

• On the top, the new letter will be introduced. Your child will need to write 5 of the capital letters and 5 of the lowercase letter. I ask that you sit down with your child and make sure he/she is forming the letter correctly according to the Zaner-Bloser printing guide I included in your open house folder. You can also use the button below to see the correct way to form the letters. All letters start from the top and your child should put a space between each letter. The circle letters like a, d, g, o, q are tricky so please help your child get the correct starting point. These letters DO NOT start at the bottom. Letters b & p start by making the stick first.

We have given 2 math quizzes. 1 has already went home. This last Friday they completed the Lesson 3 math quiz. The students had to listen to the directions on the problem I displayed and also had to solve it with showing their work. The biggest problem we have encountered so far is not paying attention and following directions. The entire test was read to them and the test was up on the panel board. Each problem was worth two points: 1 point for showing the correct answer on the blanks, and 1 point for showing the strategy they used to solve the problem. This particular math series is all about teaching the kids strategies that will help them figure out problems. The kids must show me that they understand each strategy. Just like phonics, these strategies build upon each other.

In General:

• We ask that your child does not learn to add by using fingers. Tokens or objects are ok when explaining the concept of adding 2 numbers.
• The ultimate goal of math facts is MEMORIZATION.

Please continue to have your child practice, practice the addition flashcards!!

The students are doing well on their timed tests. Please continue to practice 2-3 times a week.

I sent a notecard with your child's login and password in the sleeve of his/her take-home folder. Please put this is a safe place because they will need it to log into Canvas.

Once logged in:

The "homepage" has a modules button and right now this takes them to the monthly reading and math number sense. I will be adding buttons to the home page as the year progresses. If we go to eLearning there will be a button for that.

The blue hyperlinks on the left-hand side will give your child access to:

Connect Ed which houses our reading series called Wonders: You can pull up the reading material from there. This is useful if your child forgets his/her reader. I will also be putting assignments on there to get them prepared for Elearning.

Clever: Learning A-Z is a leveled reading site. Your child can practice by reading and listening to books on his/her level.

Learning games: Freckle, Prodigy, & ABCYa

Canvas Observer

I will also be inviting each of you to be an observer to our Canvas Course. You will be able to view what your child is working on and is available to them on Canvas using your own login information. This will enable you to see what is happening on Canvas, and access current and previous newsletters and announcements. Let me know if you have any questions.

Students LOVE using Epic in our classroom. It's a way for students to find MANY books online to read. We've been taking Accelerated Reading tests in the classroom. The enjoy reading the book and taking the test for comprehension. Check out the link below for an awesome reading website:

Get Epic

You can then bookmark this site and your child can get on it anytime. You bookmark a site by clicking on the star in the address bar.

Math:

• ordinal numbers
• Addition and subtraction facts 0-6
• Solve real-world problems using facts.

Reading:

• Recognize the components on a sentence (starts with a capital, complete thought, and ends with a punctuation mark)
• Blending Sounds to make words
• Add/delete or substitute sounds to change words. Change the i in pig to e and write the new word. pig = peg
• Distinguish beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
• Segment sounds pig /p/ /i/ /g/
• Read common word families cap, gap, map, sap, trap, clap, etc
• Read accurately and fluently supporting comprehension. Books have levels of difficulty from A-Z. Level C is considered on level 1st quarter. I will be adding level C books to Raz kids for your child to practice.
• Ask and answer key details about the main idea and details in a fiction text.
• Plot, Character, and setting
• Ask and answer questions in a non-fiction text.
• Use context clues and text features for unknown words.
• Sort words into categories.
• Write upper and lower case letters legibly.