Sixty-Fourth Day

Today we had a competition to see who could read sight words the quickest and one to see who was the quickest at addition facts. Then we wrote letters to and drew pictures for Santa.

Thanks to all the parents for the very nice party. Many students agreed: "It was the best day ever."

January reading logs have been sent home for the holidays. Have a great holiday and keep reading. The extra reading time some parents are putting in is really paying off.

Sixty-Third Day

Well at least we got it together by the third performance. Thanks to those who came to see us.

Reminder: December reading logs due tomorrow. Math for homework.

Sixty-Second Day

We finally completed the vowel poem. One child was able to recite the poem in its entirety and received a star and a Chance Ticket. We blended through the first two long-e spellings with dictation.

In math we estimated with time measurements and continued our work with equivalent expressions; this time finding a missing element in expressions such as: 11-2=_+5. We also briefy discussed square numbers as a tangent to a language arts question. I then challenged the children to find other square numbers graphically up to 144.

Sixty-First Day

Tying up many loose ends this week. Our second reading skills battery is complete but for a few make-ups. Generally speaking half of the class's fluency scores decreased as I had predicted and half improved. Those whose scores decreased did not have much buffer for a lower score and will likely be receiving unsatisfactory notices in the next notification cycle. The tests increase in difficulty each period and are administered every six weeks. The bottom line is some children just need to spend more time reading. Luckily, almost everyone passed the word reading and spelling portion of the test. Tomorrow I will send home certificates of accomplishment for those satisfying the 1st grade reading fluency goal. I will send home certificates each time we take the battery to those who pass and who have not yet received a certificate. As I stated at Back-to-School, those that are passing the test and making the district goal at this point in the year are likely not to slip below a rubric score of 3 for the year and likely not to the following years either. High score fluency was 130 WPM low score was 8 WPM.

We told time to the half hour today and will continue for homework. You should find your child's 1st quarter progress report in their folder as well as a schedule for Thursday's performance.

Sixtieth Day

We now have all but one of the stanzas to our vowel poem. We blended through long-u spelled "'u' all alone...and 'u_e'" We reviewed doubling the consonant before adding suffixes.

We discussed the difference betweeen analog and digital time which is also our homework.

I will send home the first quarter's progress reports tomorrow; look for them in work folders. Do not sign and return. These are your copies to keep.

Fifty-Ninth Day

We have finished introducing all of the consonant sound cards. Today we blended with 'v'.

We seem to be in pretty good shape for the winter program this coming week.

We began telling time to the hour today.

FYI: I read a book about Santa Mouse (a treasury from my childhood) to the children. A child asked me after I finished story 2 today, "Are you sure that's true?" Hmm....So the legend goes, that if you should happen to find a small (tiny) gift tucked somewhere in your tree, perhaps tied with a yellow bow, then you will know that Santa Mouse has been to your house. *Shrugs* I don't know, it's just what I heard. Who knows how these stories get started?

Congratulations to table 2 for tipping the scale this week at 90 grams. Next week's standard will be 95 grams.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. I will be attending a GATE conference in Pasadena on a variety of topics including differentiated instruction.

Fifty-Eighth Day

Today we reviewed long vowel spellings and had our first dictation with 2 syllable long vowel words. Two students had a perfect paper; a few others only had one mistake.

In science we explored the behavior of small particles of matter.

We have another pattern page for homework.

Fifty-Seventh Day

Today we had a brief introduction to long-a spelled 'ai' and '_ay'. We discussed homographs and compound words at length and did a small project on compound words.

We worked some more with patterns and equivalencies in math. We have a homework sheet on patterns.

Fifty-Sixth Day

Today we blended with two long-o spellings: "'o' at the end of a syllable or 'o' all alone," and 'o_e'. we also fininshed our week 12 writing assessment. You should find a copy of the fourth stanza of our vowel poem for memorization.

We will soon be ending our unit on simple machines. Our next unit of study will be: Transportation. We will explore various types of transportation and how they are powered. We will also be learning how to incorporate sensory details into our writing to make our writing more interesting.

Homework is a pattern math page.

Fifty-Fifth Day

Thanks parents for the very quick folding. It's nice to be done for the year.

Today we blended with long 'i'. Our two spellings today were 'i_e' and 'i all alone or i at the end of a syllable.' We also learned the third stanza of our vowel poem; you should find a copy of the poem in backpacks. We began our second writing assessment by making a tree map for our community worker. Tomorrow we will complete the assessment by writing our essay.

We reviewed patterns in math. We attempted to isolate the repeated elements in a pattern (not always easy). Homework is to finish the folded lesson page as that's all we had time for.

We took a test in science to show how much we knew about matter.

Fifty-Fourth Day

Today we reviewed the spellings of the week.

We learned location and movement on a grid.

Congratulations to table 2 for acquiring enough points to weigh 85 grams. Next week's goal will be 90 grams.

P.S. I have more folding.

Fifty-Third Day

Today we rehearsed for the winter program again.

We examined two new spellings for /s/: 'ce' and 'ci_'. We also practiced punctuating with quotation marks.

We used prepositions, placement and location vocabulary, in conjunction with plane shapes. This is also our homework.

For our violence prevention training (Second Step) we discussed talking over feelings and problems with an adult you trust.

Fifty-Second Day

Busy day. We started with a discussion (review) of proper playground behavior followed by our first winter program rehearsal.

We blended with our first long-vowel spellings 'a_e' (make, made), and 'a all alone, or a at the end of a syllable' (April, baby). Ask your child to tell you the long vowel spellings from today and see what happens. We also took home a copy of the first stanza of our vowel poem, one side written from memory, the other side copied from the board. Once we've learned all 5 stanzas, we can stand in front of the class and say the poem to earn a star.

December's reading log was sent home today with the math homework.

I am updating the class calendar with date and time changes made by the School Site Council.

There will be an informational meeting for the GATE program on Monday, December 13th at 3:15pm in the library. I will likely be in attendance.

I am including the email for those interested in contacting the district with their opinions about the calendar change for the coming years. The LAUSD school year would begin on August 12 and end June 4th. More information is available on the LAUSD Website under News and Events. All suggestions are requested no later than Dec. 10th. I'm not including the link because (at least from my computer) it seems to be inaccessible with a damaged file message.

Zsuzanna.Vincze@lausd.net