The Weber Weekly

First of all, thank you for coming to your child's conference!  I greatly enjoyed sitting down with each of you to discuss your child's progress thus far.  I'm so happy that you took the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me.  I feel really motivated to take on each individual's needs for the second quarter.  I truly believe when we all work together, children WILL succeed!  Thanks also to everyone who chose an apple from our "Giving Tree" at conferences.  Your donations to our second grade classroom mean so much to me!  I really couldn't do it without your generosity.   

I'm thrilled to begin teaching math again this week with a guided approach.  I will set up math groups much like guided reading groups.  Each morning, I will teach the kids a whole-class lesson.  The children will then break into math centers while I teach small groups of students at their skill level.  This approach will allow me to meet every individual's need, whether it's to provide extra support or to give a bit of a challenge.  Our focus this week is on Mental Addition.  The children will learn how to use models, mental math, and a hundreds chart to add two-digit numbers.

In shared reading we will be learning how to use our schema to infer meaning of unknown words as well as meaning of the text.  Some of our mini-lessons will include initial and final r- and s- blends, appropriate pacing, and vocabulary.

This week's writing focus is response to literature.  We will be reading several picture books and responding in our writing through character letters, sentence stretchers, and summaries.  Later in the week, we will be writing our recipe for November Snazzy Snacks, "Helpful Squanto's Snack".

I'm happy to announce that we will be having a Thanksgiving Feast next Tuesday, November 20th, in the afternoon.  I'm hoping that each child will be able to bring in a food for the feast.  I will assign each family an item; be on the lookout in your child's folder on Monday.  If you're not able to donate items for the feast, I completely understand.    

Here's a few other things happening this week:
Tuesday, November 13th - PTO Meeting at 6:00 pm in the Media Center
Wednesday, November 14th - Picture Re-take Day and Scholastic Book Order Due