Newsletter for the Week of Jan. 9

Room 104 Families,

Morning Meeting:

• Greeting: We Are Here
  
• Sharing: Students will share one thing they did over winter break
  
• Activity: Endmark (?) poem and GoNoodle Activity
  

Literacy/Literacy Centers:

• Sight Words: be, with, it
  
  • Previous Sight Words: I, like, see, the, we, like, big, little, and, to, look, at, my, yes, no, you, have, a, am, run, go, here, eat, he, she, in, out, was, me, is, on
    
  • We will use our sight word in sentences and learn sight word songs - be prepared to hear these songs and they will stick in your head.
    

• Who Let the Letters Out? Song. We are now singing this song out of order!  
  
• Centers
  
  • Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, Listening Center, iPad Center (ABCMouse), Writing Center, Teacher Time
    
• Phonemic Awareness and No More Letter of the Week are worked on in our reading groups during centers
  
• Predictable Sentence: Can the _____ be with it? This will come together as a class book.
  
• Beginning, Middle, End
  

Theme (Science/Social Studies):

• Classroom Rules
  
• Character Education
  

Writing:

• We will continue to independent journal this week. We start with how to make a WOW Picture and come up with a list of topics to write about.
  
• Students get to share their journals with a partner almost daily and three students can share with the whole class.
  
• We have started to focus on labeling our pictures, spaghetti and meatball spacing (spacing between letters and words). Starting our sentences with an uppercase letter, and ending with an end mark (punctuation).
  

Math:

• Math Journals
  
• Math Survey
  
• Moving with Teen Numbers
  
• Building Hexagons
  
• Building Numbers
  
• Exploring Weight
  
• Pattern Block Shapes
  
• Math Centers
  
  • Top-It, ST Math (JiJi), Winter Graphing, Exploration
    

Closing Circle:

• Each day three students will be asked to share something they liked that day and three students will share about someone who was nice that day.
  
• Good bye song.
  

Important Dates:

• Winter Break (no school) is from Dec. 26th - Jan. 6th. School starts again on Monday, Jan. 9th
  
• There will be no school on Monday, January 16th in observance of Martin Luther King Day
  

Things To Do Over Winter Break:

• Read everyday
  
• Practicing counting
  
• Practice reading, writing, and spelling sight words
  
• Number identification
  
• Letter identification and letter sounds
  
• Practicing zipping coats and putting on winter gear independently
  
• Practice tying shoes (students who regularly wear shoes with laces to school should be able to tie their shoes on their own!)
  

Things to Know:

• Please check regularly and use the Things To Be Working On At Home link on the blog.
  
• Homework is due on Fridays unless otherwise stated.
  
• We are ready for volunteers. See the document sent out by the Room Parents in our google group. Thank you to those who are already coming in! There are games for both math and literacy centers that have been prepared. We love volunteers in Room 104!
  
• Each student now has a Bob Book in their Read to Self bags they can read with our reading buddies or helpers. Once they can independently read the book on their own to me they will pass onto a new book.
  
• Don’t forget to sign up for Remind. See my blog post, the paper sent home, or email me for details.
  
• Warrior Wednesdays! Students should wear Ray gear or our school colors of green and white every Wednesday to show their school  spirit.  
  
• School starts promptly at 8:45 a.m. I will pick up the students on the north playground at the spot labeled 104. If a student is tardy they should go directly to the security guard and obtain a tardy slip. They will then hand that to me when they get to the classroom.
  
• Dismissal is 3:45 p.m. Students are dismissed by the specials teacher (Library or PE) since they are with them at the end of the day. Dismissal is still the same! You can continue to send me notes if your child is going home with someone else and I will get that to the specials teacher. The earlier in the day I get the note or email the better.  
  
• You may contact me at rmaltz@cps.edu or by calling the school. My blog address is rmaltz.weebly.com. Check my website often for updates. Please look around my website and the Ray School website; questions you have may be answered on them.
  
• If you would like to go paperless with my weekly newsletter, send me an email to let me know.
  

Ms. Maltz
rmaltz@cps.edu        rmaltz.weebly.com