Classroom News
10/30/17
Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Hughes
Email: lindsay.fox@acsgmail.net
Website: claxton.ashevillecityschools.net
Location: Claxton Elementary School, Merrimon Avenue, Asheville, NC, United States
Phone: 828-350-6528
Snacks
Reading Homework - November
Our reading homework will continue as usual, with a different reader being sent home each night (provided the previous one has been returned). Please ensure that all those little red books are sent back to us. Your child earns a visit to the treasure box on Friday if they have colored at least 5 pies that week.
Reading Strategy: Cross-checking. For those unknown words that are not sight words, get your child to get their mouth ready to say the first sound of the word, and to check the picture for something that starts with that sound.
Class Halloween Party, October 31st, 1:30
A Look At Our Week....
Fundations: phonics and reading instruction
We are half way through our first unit where we introduce the letters/sounds and work on correct letter formation. These are the letters, keywords and sounds introduced so far:
t-top -/t/, b - bat /b/, f - fun /f/, n - nut /n/, m-man /m/, i - itch -/i/, u-up-/u/, c-cat/c/, o-octopus/o/, a-apple/a/, g-game/g/, d-dog/d/, s-snake/s/. This week we will be introducing the last vowel: e-ed /e/, and the consonant r-rat /r/.
We will be reassessing letter naming and sound identification this week, and that information will be shared with you in the KEA report coming home to you the following week. If your child did not know all their letters when I spoke to you at the parent/teacher conferences please check that they know the ones explicitly taught in our daily Fundations program. The children really need to master this so that they can get going in their reading and writing.
Writing: Storybooks
We will be finishing up our Storybook writing this week celebrating with our Writing Buddies in second grade (Ms.Morgan's class). Before the children share their work with their buddies they will be working on adding words and dialogue to their stories, and editing their work ready for publishing.
Math
This week marks the end of our units on counting and measuring. We have had great fun measuring the pumpkins this week, and counting how many cubes long they are. We will be carving those same pumpkins at the party on Tuesday! We have been working a lot at comparing numbers and sets up to 10. Key vocabulary this week is: more/less, greater/fewer, shorter/longer. I will be reassessing your child's object counting abilities this week for our upcoming KEA report release.
Reading
We practice our reading skills during Guided Reading and Reader's Workshop each day. Thank you to the parents and grandparents who have volunteered during Literacy Center time, this has really helped Ms Hughes and I deliver small group reading instruction while the volunteer helps the other students work on their literacy skills. We will be reading "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes, "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni, "Koala Lou" by Mem Fox and "No David!" by David Shannon during our read-alouds this week. All of these authors are wonderful to introduce to your child, check out their books at your local library! During Reader's Workshop, your children work together and independently to reread our favorite storybooks. I will be mixing it up this week by introducing them to new partners.
Leader In Me
We have spent the last few weeks learning about what a leader is/does. Your children are developing problem solving skills, and are really learning to work together to form one happy class family. We want every child to feel valued, and to be an integral part of the class by using their special skills to contribute to the community. It warms my heart each day to hear them encouraging each other, and paying compliments to each other. There is kindness all around in our classroom!
I realized last week how tightly our classroom family has bonded, when one of our children moved and transferred to a different school. Everybody lined up and offered him words of encouragement, good wishes and lots of hugs to send him on his way. We are all hoping that we bump into him around Asheville!
A Note from our Librarian...
Dear Claxton parents,
I wanted to extend my most sincere apologies that our much-anticipated visit from author/illustrator Peter Brown was cancelled this week. Unfortunately, the circumstances were completely out of our control as we learned the evening before that his flight was cancelled due to weather. As you might recall, our first scheduled visit in September with Mr. Brown was also cancelled - this due to the hurricane. At this point, we do not expect a reschedule. We are so grateful to Malaprop’s Bookstore who had arranged for this author to visit Claxton. We hope to work with them again in the future to bring in exciting and appealing authors and illustrators to inspire the budding readers, writers and illustrators in our students! I appreciate your understanding. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at amy.brown@acsgmail.net.
Sincerely,
Amy Brown
Media Coordinator