Welcome Back....

My how time flies when you are having fun!  I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to get back into school mode!

This week we will begin PALS testing again.  This is our mid-year assessment and will last about 2 weeks.  Please be sure that your child is well rested and ready to go each morning.  Please try to have your child to school on time daily as most testing occurs in the morning.  Word study this week will be a review.  Your child's homework includes flashcards for words to spell.  These are words that the county expects your child to spell correctly by the end of first grade.  Please practice spelling these words daily.  They will be assessed on these words.

In an effort to incoporate Science and Social Studies throughout the curriculum, we will read lots of books about winter and use many of the reading comprehension skills we have learned to date, ie...story sequencing, retelling, identifying problems and solutions, comparing and contrasting.  We will also write about how we get ready to play in the snow.  We will learn to use the words, first, next , then and last.

Our Science focus for the next 2 weeks will be how the changing weather affects plants, animals and humans.  We will focus our studies on the weather here in Spotyslvania and it's affects.

This week in math we will review skip counting, number sense, place value and shapes.  We will only review these topics as they have already been taught and most students have a firm grasp on these math SOLS.  We will also begin basic math recall.  At the beginning of each week, we will make flashcards to keep at school to practice.  We will begin with 0+.  We will practice them each day and then on Friday your child will take a one minute timed test on these addition sentences.  If they reach the goal ( 12 correct in one minute ), the following week they will move on to the next level 1+ and so on.  They will do 0+, 1+, 2+, doubles, doubles +/- 1, remaining facts mixed.  This can be stressful on the class but I plan to have them practice as much as possible in school and practicing at home will also be a great help!

A few reminders for this upcoming week:
Please remember to send in snack daily. ( If you can send in extra snack that would be greatly appreciated )
Please look to see when your child has PE and library.
Please send your child to school with a jacket and a light sweatshirt/sweater as it gets cold in our room.


I hope everyone is ready for another great year!  Happy 2014!  See you soon!
Mrs. Beltz