1/26-1/29

Hello,

Happy NDLC week! It is a fun week to celebrate things we love about NDLC. One reason I love to work here is because of the students and families that attend here. We really strive to create a little community here that connects us all together. Feel free to email and share reasons you like NDLC! 

That reminds me, my new email is tumat@kaukaunasd.org, although I believe the wittmannt@kaukaunasd.org one is still connected and will still work. But if I have not responded to something it may be because I am no longer connected to my old email. Thanks for being flexible with all of these name change things!

 Spelling Words this Week:

• carry
• something
• any
• many
• how
• now

Upcoming Events:

1/26-1/29: Celebrate NDLC Week
1/26: NDLC Wear
1/27: Twin Day
1/28: Class Color Day: yellow
1/29: Fancy/Special Dress
1/29: Virtual Pep Rally
1/29: Book Orders Due: You can also order online: https://clubs.scholastic.com/home Our class code is QJMYM
2/1: Report Cards Sent Home
2/11: Wear red or pink
2/11: Valentine Celebration: Students will not be able to bring valentines from home but we are doing something as a school to help make the celebration special!
2/12: No School

Math

We continue our work of multi digit subtraction.  We are working to identify, before solving the problem, if regrouping will need to happen or not.  I want students to be flexible in their thinking...seeing that ungrouping problems can be solved much quicker than problems that need to be ungrouped. 

One way that you can support students at home with their math, is by playing games with them that provide fluency practice. Practicing addition and subtraction facts within 20. There are many great apps for this!

Writing

Students have been working hard to study Master Authors.  One of our biggest goals of this unit is to get students to edit and revise. The act of editing and revising can be hard work.  So we are celebrating this hard work in many ways. 

Researchers Workshop

We have had so much fun learning about different cultures and families.  We are moving into the next part of our unit where students will be interviewing their families.  Students created a list of questions they wanted to know...it’s so fun to hear what they want to know about. Stay tuned for how you can get involved! They may need to interview someone in their family!

1/18-1/22

Spelling Words this Week:

• large
• night
• was
• some
• were

Upcoming Events:

1/22: Early Release @ 11:28
1/25: No School
1/26-1/29: Celebrate NDLC Week
1/26: NDLC Wear
1/27: Twin Day
1/28: Class Color Day: yellow
1/29: Fancy/Special Dress
1/29: Virtual Pep Rally
1/29: Book Orders Due: You can also order online: https://clubs.scholastic.com/home Our class code is QJMYM
2/1: Report Cards Sent Home
2/11: Wear red or pink
2/11: Valentine Celebration: Students will not be able to bring valentines from home but we are doing something as a school to help make the celebration special!
2/12: No School

Reading: We are continuing our unit about navigating our ways through longer and longer books. This week we will focus on literary language. We will stop to notice when the author does something special and make sure we understand what is going on in our stories.

Writing: This week in writing we will continue our narrative writing unit. We are really focusing on revising this week. Seeing where we can go back and make our stories stronger. We will also do this in a shared story that we are writing and work on it together.

Math: We have been doing some tough new concepts in math! We are focusing on subtraction and will start moving into three digit number subtraction this week. We will talk a lot about ungrouping and noticing when we need to borrow or when we can subtract. We will also remind ourselves that we can do hard things and that in math (and life!) we will make mistakes but can learn from them.

Researcher's Workshop: This week we will be starting centers for our new social studies unit all about culture and family structures. We will be asking ourselves the essential question of how are our families the same and how are they different.

1/11 - 1/15

 Hello,

This week we will be taking the winter iReady assessment in the area of reading and math. I will send the results to you as soon as I get them. It's important to remember that these assessments are truly for the teachers use to see what the students need to learn and their growth throughout the year.

Upcoming Events:

1/22: Early Release

1/25: No School

2/1: Report Cards sent home

2/12: No School

2/15: No School

Researcher's Workshop:

This week we will be starting a new social studies unit all about culture and family structures. We will be asking ourselves the essential question of how are our families the same and how are they different. I want you to be aware I will be reading books about family structures and ones that are similar and different from our own.

In other news:

Join NDLC staff members and other NDLC parents and guardians in discussing the book The Read Aloud Family on Tuesday, Feb 9th from 8:00-8:30 pm.  The discussion will take place on Google Meet (a link will be sent prior to the meeting).  See below for a description of the book. The book can be purchased on Amazon or any other book retailer. 

The Read Aloud Family

Discover practical strategies to make reading aloud a meaningful family ritual.

The stories we read--and the conversations we have about them--help shape family traditions, create lifelong memories, and become part of our legacy. Reading aloud not only has the power to change a family--it has the power to change the world. 

But we all know that connecting deeply with our families can be difficult in our busy, technology-driven society. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to be fully present with our children, even after they can read themselves, but it isn't always easy to do. Discover how to:

• Prepare your kids for academic success through reading to them
• Develop empathy and compassion in your kids through books
• Find time to read aloud in the midst of school, sports, and dinner dishes
• Choose books across a variety of sibling interests and ages
• Make reading aloud the best part of your family's day

The Read-Aloud Family also offers age-appropriate book lists from infancy through adolescence. From a toddler's wonder to a teenager's resistance, you will find the inspiration you need to start a read-aloud movement in your own home.

Happy New Year!

Hello,

I hope you had a nice winter break! I am glad to be back and to get back into routine. The kids were all happy to see each other and to share about their breaks this morning.

Spelling Words this Week:

• large
• change
• every
• night

Before break, the whole school focused on Cooperation.  We read a book about helping others and then we completed an activity in small groups.  Each small group got to pick their material and come up with something they would build together.  I encouraged them throughout the activity to make sure everyone had a role, everyone had a voice, and that everyone was respectful.  

This was a great activity and it wasn’t natural for every one.  I think it’s common among adults and children alike to either take a backseat role or a control-all role.  See the pictures showing the work of each team!

Researcher’s Workshop:

With this being our first week back, we are going to spend time reestablishing classroom rules and goals for the New Year.  

--Students will revisit their beginning of the year Hopes and Dreams.  They will then set some new goals for the remainder of the year.

--We will then revisit our classroom rules and decide if each rule is still working for our classroom or if we should make some changes. 

--Finally we will talk about how each rule (separately)and what it looks and sounds like.  This will create a clear visual of what it should look like for students to be successful as a learner and member of our classroom family.

Math

We are starting a new unit in math.  We will start the unit review money and then quickly heading into subtracting multi digit numbers.  In next week's newsletter I will send a copy of our classroom chart, we will be creating, showing the different strategies students are using to subtract multi digit numbers.

A great way to support your student with money is by taking out a handful of change and having them count it.  They are working with Quarters, Nickels, Dimes, and Pennies.  Students can practice writing the total with dollar/cent notation. 

Writing

In writing we will start our next unit called, Lessons from the Masters.  Students will be writing small moment stories.  They will spend a lot of time learning from other author’s (the masters). 

Reading

We are also going into a new reading unit.  In this unit we will: work on fluency, stop to notice and understand literary language, track events across longer books, and learn different strategies chapter book readers do when they are starting and stopping the same book.