Snack: 1st and 2nd grade have our first snack time during literacy. Please make sure your child knows which food is for their lunch meal and snacks. Healthy snacks are always the best choice. Please do not send cookies or candy for your child to eat during the morning snack time. Emergency snacks are provided to students who do not bring a snack from home (while supplies last). We are currently out of emergency snacks. Please consider donating some snacks to our class.  

Foundational Skills (Phonics, Decoding, and Spelling) 

Before Spring Break we finished up our unit on homophones and learned to read and spell words with the long vowel pattern –ai (for example: wait, tail, rain, paid, etc.). 

This week, students will learn to read and spell words with the long vowel pattern –ay (for example, tray play, day, etc.). We will also learn the second sound of y, which is that “y says the long i sound at the end of one-syllable words” (for example, my, by, sky, try, fly, etc.). 

Reading  

Before the break, we continued reading the selection, “Flower Power.” We worked on using context clues to help us understand the meaning of unknown words. Context clues are words that surround the unknown word and can help us understand its meaning. Students also learned about cause and effect and nonfiction text features (caption, diagrams, headings, etc.).  

This week, we will continue our study of nonfiction text features. Understanding how to use text features will help your child as they read texts about their Passion Project topic.  

Please continue to read to your child each night and have them read to you! It is all beneficial. 10-15 minutes of reading a day has been proven to make a big difference in your child's reading development.

Writing 

Before Spring Break, some students continued writing their rough draft, and some students began writing their final draft of the how-to piece. Students can continue to work on their how-to pieces during the writing center during the Literacy Center time. 

This week, students will focus on research and note-taking to prepare to write their informational paragraphs for their passion project. 

Grammar  

Before Spring break, students learned about capitalization of Days, Months, Holidays, Cities, States, and Geographic names.  

This week, students will learn about prepositions and prepositional phrases. A preposition is a word that tells you where or when something is in relation to something else. For example, before, after, under, and toward are all common examples of prepositions that you might see in your students’ writing.