We will work very hard in the 1st semester to review important skills and set the foundation for the rest of the year. Here is a list of things we will work on and will continue to practice in the 2nd-4th marking periods.
Reading
- Reading fluency – daily practice with oral reading will help your child read smooth and with expression. I practice with the children on a daily basis in class by partner reading and during group/center time. The children should also be able to talk about what happened in the story.
- DIBELS Oral Reading Winter goal is 23 words per minute and the spring goal is 47 words per minute. Keep on reading.
- Reading groups started in October. During this time, I meet with a small group of children to read a story and to work on specific reading skills. The children that I am not meeting with are working on independent reading, writing, and spelling activities or literacy review games.
- Spelling – It is important to keep up with the homework. If you notice low spelling scores try reviewing words in the form of a game, flashcards, or a practice test. I am looking to see if students can use the spelling words correctly in writing.
- With the Weekly Assessments, please review when it comes home. We are working really hard on the strategies for taking a test like to reread the story, check back in the story for the answer, to try each word with the fill in the blanks, and to listen carefully to the parts that the teacher reads to the class.
Writing
- Writing in response to prompt – I am looking for the student to stick with the topic or to answer a question. In class, I expect them to write 3 or more sentences related to the topic or question. We practice this in class on a daily basis with journal writing.
- Capitalization and punctuation – we will continue to work on using correct capitalization and punctuation when writing. I have noticed that capitals at the beginning of a new sentence are most frequently missed during writing.
- We are also working on run-on sentences.
Math
- We have worked on strategies for adding and subtracting. For example, we have used counters, drawn a picture to solve, and practiced with the number line.
- For the next marking periods, we will continue to work on memorizing the facts for addition and subtraction to 18. They must be automatic. Extra practice with math facts is always a bonus J
- Topics coming up in math are basic shapes/ geometry, number patterns and working with numbers up to 100, place value, time, and double digit addition and subtraction.
I hope that you find this list helpful as we make our way through the year. If you have any questions about anything listed please contact me and we can go over it. I really appreciate all your help and support during the year.
Thank you,
Miss Hospador