Newsletter for the Week of November 18th

The Buzz in Ms. B’s Class

Issue #13: November 18, 2013

thebuzzinmsbsclass.blogspot.com

abutts@mesquiteisd.org

We are quickly approaching the Thanksgiving Holiday!  I am so excited because I will be going home for the first time since the beginning of August.  I cannot wait to see my family – three months is FAR too long!

Reminders:

-       - NO SCHOOL NEXT Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday (27^th, 28^th, and 29^th).

-       - Please practice the spelling pattern each night with your child.  Spelling patterns will get continually more complex as the year progresses and the more practice the better!

-       - Homework is due on Friday (RAH RAH and Math).

---- Please send $1 to school for the Smile Train!  This organization helps children with cleft palates and if every student in our school brings only $1, we will be able to help three children obtain surgeries!

-       - I will be out next Monday and Tuesday.  There will not be a newsletter sent home next week – this one is for this and next week.

        What is my child learning this week?

Spelling: consonant digraphs – shape, church, watch, father, wrap, check, finish, sharp, mother, write, catch, chase, shall, thick, wrote

Fry’s Phrases (these help with fluency – practice reading these daily)

-       You might be right

-       It seemed too good

-       Along the way

Fry’s Phrases are used to practice fluency.  They will not be on the spelling test.  Some are full sentences while others are fragments.  Please read these with your child often to increase fluency.

English/Reading:

-       - Our focus this week is sequencing and summarizing.  We will be reading stories throughout the week to practice our skills of sequencing (ordering) and summarizing (giving the gist of a story).

-       - We will also practice visualization.  It is important to visualize what we read because this helps with sequencing and summarizing.  I will read a story and your child will illustrate what they are hearing.  At the end of their visualization activity, they will have an order of events that they will be able to summarize.

-        - We are also learning about higher order questioning strategies.  There are six levels of questioning – from lower level to higher level.  We are aiming for the “thick” questions: levels 4-6.  Those are comparing and contrasting, inferring, predicting, and more.  We are getting SO good at recognizing the difference in questioning and our higher order thinking process is improving every day!

Math:

-      -  We are continuing out unit on division and then moving into fractions.

-       Division is taking a TOTAL and breaking it up.  That is very important to understand in regards to division.

-       - We have been connecting multiplication and division to each other in regards to fact families.

Social Studies:

-       We are learning about state government this week.  We will learn what our state government does for us in Texas.  We will be comparing our state government to our local government this week.

Science:

-       We are learning about weather patterns this week!  We learned about the water cycle earlier this year, so we will revisit this and then connect our new learning!

Have a wonderful week!

Ms. Butts