Team Anderson

Each week a new letter with its sound will be introduced to your child. Every other week two new sight words are placed on our word wall. Sight words are words that your child should be able to read by sight (without sounding them out). These words are frequently encountered in reading and writing. Please practice the letters, sounds, and sight words taught the current week and past weeks. We are also working on blending sounds to make words (/c/ + /at/ = cat) and segmenting sounds in words (cat = /c/ + /a/+/t/). You can practice this at home by having your child blend sounds to make a word and taking a word apart and telling you all the sounds in the word. We will also learn about word families this month. Word families can help your child read & write new words. Words in the same family end with the same chunk and therefore rhyme. Sight words to practice: my, we, like, big, can, a to, this,and, go, in, you, is ,here, get, did, for, have, it, am. said, to, the , me, will, with(Your child should be able to read and write these words.)
Word Families to practice: -at family-bat, hat, cat, fat,rat; an family-pan, man, can, fan, ran; it word family-sit, fit, kit, hit, mit, pit; ig family-pig, wig, big, dig; og family-bog, dog, hog, log; ot family-cot, dot, hot, lot, not, pot

We are learning about the following concepts of print: capital at the beginning of a sentence, end punctuation, directionality: left to right, where you begin reading, pointing to words while you read (one-to-one match between voice & print). You can help at home by having your child identify and/or practice these concepts during your nightly reading. We are practicing the following reading strategies/skills: making predictions, sequence of events, retelling, and questioning.
Good readers…
· make predictions about a book before reading (What might this book be about?) and while reading (What might happen next?)
· check their predictions as they read
· think about the order in which things happen in a story (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). (sequence of events)
· remember important story parts to retell a story and help them understand it better (beginning, middle, end) (retelling)
· ask questions before and during reading (I wonder why…, How can that be?, Who?, What?, Where?, Why?, When?) and read to find answers
Please remember your child’s nightly reading homework: record what you read to your child or your child reads to you on the 25 book reading log. These books will count towards the 25 book standard. Happy Reading!

This nine weeks we will continue to work on number sense. We will work on recognizing numbers 1 to 20, connecting numerals to quantities 1 to 20, and ordering numbers 1 to 20. We will work on our counting skills to 30. We will also work on understanding the concepts of "more than" and "less than" for numbers to 10 using manipulatives or a number line. We will also be learning about measurement by using non-standard units of measurements to compare objects for length. We will then move into geometry. We will learn to identify, name, and describe two dimensional shapes(square, triangle, hexagon,trapezoid) and we will learn to identify, name, describe, and sort three dimensional shapes. You can help at home by reviewing numbers, talking about more than and less than, and by finding geometric shapes in the environment. We also do activities with our calendar every day. Some of the concepts we discuss are: yesterday/today/tomorrow, days of the week, months of the year, birthdays, how many school days, today’s date, etc. You can help at home by using a calendar at home to review these concepts. Please also help your child learn his/ her birthday.

We use a strategy called “stretching the word” to be able to hear the sounds in the words we want to write. We have also learned how to leave spaces between words so that our writing is easier to read. We use a “spaceman”(popsicle stick) to help us leave spaces. This nine weeks we will be working on persuasive writing and report writing. The students have learned how to "persuade" someone to do something. They have learned how to use the word "because" and provide at least three reasons. They are also learning about writing reports that include facts gathered and learned. The students are expected to illustrate a picture that matches their words. Allow your child time to practice drawing at home. You can also practice “stretching” words with your child and have him/her write down the sounds he/she hears. Remind your child to leave spaces between words. Have fun writing with your child!

This nine weeks in Social Studies your child will be learning about the importance of Presidents Day, the Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day. We are also using a new curriculum called Second Step which teaches students how to manage their emotions. This curriculum is one way we are helping to make NBE a safe and civil environment for your child!

This nine weeks in Science the students are learning about day and night and earth and space in time. The students will learn that the sky looks different in the day than it does at night. They will also learn that the sun can only be seen in the daytime and that we can see the moon at different times of day and night. The students will learn that the Sun, the Moon, and the stars are still in the sky even if we do not see them. In all of our science exploration we teach that it is important to draw and write about our observations and that we can learn from the observations of others. You can help at home by discussing these concepts and making observations at home.