Focus: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /ē/ spelled _y, _ie_, and _ey.

Words to practice blending with your child include happy, city, heavy, chief, field, cities, key, hockey, and valley.

High-Frequency Words: Have your child review and practice reading the following words: come, every, going, here, me, pretty, some, too.

Grammar: Your child will review simple sentences and subject-verb agreement. Every sentence has two parts—a naming part and an action part, and the subject and verb must agree. (The puppy sleeps on the rug.)

Writing:  Students will continue writing their opinion paper using the elements of an opinion that they learned last week.  Students will introduce the topic, state an opinion, and supply a reason for the opinion in their writing.

Focus: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /ē/ spelled e. e_e, ee, and ea.

HAVE your child write a word that contains each new sound/spelling and draw a picture of it.

High-Frequency Words: Have your child practice reading the following words: be, green, or, take, two.

Grammar: Your child will learn how to make nouns that end in y plural (penny→pennies) and add commas to a list. (Sam brought a sandwich, grapes, and water for lunch.)

Writing:  Students will write their opinion paper using the elements of an opinion they learned last week.  Students will introduce the topic, state an opinion, and supply a reason for the opinion in their writing.

Focus: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /ō/ spelled o, o_e; /ū/ spelled u, u_e.

HAVE your child find words that contain these sound/spellings in children’s books or magazines. Help your child read the words as needed.

High-Frequency Words: Have your child practice reading the word “over”

Grammar: Your child will capitalize the days of the week and months of the year and correctly use commas in dates (Sunday, January 1, 2017).

Writing:  Students will be learning to identify and explain the elements of an opinion writing piece.  Students will learn how to introduce the topic, state an opinion, and supply a reason for the opinion in their writing.

Phonics: We will be reviewing our magic e, soft c and soft g sounds this week using fun holiday games.

Words to practice blending with your child include find, mild, bike, five, ice, cent, circus, circle, page, large, margin, and ginger

Reading: “Holiday’s Around the World”

Grammar: Your child will learn that names of people and proper nouns need to be capitalized (Anna, Marcus, Central Park, Empire State Building).

Writing:  This week, our writing will be embedded in our Holiday’s Around the World unit such as letter writing, explanatory writing and opinion writing.

Phonics: We child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /ī/ spelled i, i_e; /s/ spelled ce, ci_; and /j/ spelled ge, gi_.

Words to practice blending with your child include find, mild, bike, five, ice, cent, circus, circle, page, large, margin, and ginger

Reading: “City Life and Town Life”

Summary: The characteristics of a large city (New York City) and a small town (Alden, New York) are compared and contrasted.

Essential Questions: How is living in a city different from living in a small town? How is it the same?

Grammar: Your child will learn that names of people and proper nouns need to be capitalized (Anna, Marcus, Central Park, Empire State Building).

Writing:  This week, our writing will be embedded in our Holiday’s Around the World unit such as letter writing, explanatory writing and opinion writing.

Phonics: we will learn the following sounds and spellings/y/ spelled y, /v/ spelled v, and /ā/ spelled a and a_e.

Words to practice blending with your child include yes, yard, verb, seven, table, April, ate, and gave

Reading: “Just Listen”

Summary:  Sounds are made by vibrations. These vibrations travel through the air, water, and solid things such as wood, to your ears.

Essential Question: How can observations lead to new discoveries?

Summary: You can learn a lot about Earth and the Sun by looking at shadows.

Grammar: Your child will learn that an imperative sentence gives a command or makes a request. It ends with a period or an exclamation point.

Writing:  This week, we will pick up where we left off on writing their personal narrative about a celebration.  Students finish their rough draft and we will go through the editing process as they begin to write their final copy.

Phonics: we will learn the following sounds and spellings: /Ə/; /Əl/spelled -al, -el, -il, and le; /nk/ spelled ■nk; and /kw/ spelled qu_.

Words to practice blending with your child include ahead, happen, person, metal, camel, fossil, puzzle, link, thank, quiz, and squint.

Reading: “Ben’s Bright Idea”

Summary:  Ben Franklin was a leader, scientist, and inventor. His invention of the lightning rod kept buildings from catching on fire.

Essential Question: How can observations lead to new discoveries?

Summary: You can learn a lot about Earth and the Sun by looking at shadows.

Grammar: Your child will learn that an imperative sentence gives a command or makes a request. It ends with a period or an exclamation point.

Writing:  This week, we will be writing a “How To” on how to cook a turkey.  This will be a fun writing assignment for them about following directions.

Phonics: We will continue working on r-controlled vowels such as -or, -ar, -er, -ir and -ur, ear, and /ng/ spelled ■ng

Words to practice blending with your child include sir, bird, fur, turn, learn, earth, sing, and searching.

High-Frequency Words: Have your child practice reading the following words: any, but, do, from, girl, her, like, long, my, no, water, where, and with.

Reading: This week’s reading selection: Me and My Shadow

Summary: You can learn a lot about Earth and the Sun by looking at shadows.

Essential Questions: Where have you seen a shadow? When do you see your shadow?

Grammar: Your child will learn that an exclamatory sentence shows strong emotion and ends with an exclamation point. (Great job!)

Writing:  Students will write a narrative in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

Phonics: We will focus on r-controlled vowels such as -or, -ar, -er, -ir and -ur

Reading: We will focus on elements of a story and how that relates to the stories that we write.

Grammar: Your child will learn that an interrogative sentence asks a question and ends with a question mark. (What time is it?)

Writing:  This week, finish their personal narratives about their favorite celebration.

Phonics: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /e/ spelled _ea_; /sh/ spelled sh; /th/ spelled th; and /ch/ spelled ch, ■tch.Words to practice blending with your child include head, shell, brush, math, thread, check, and catch.

Reading: This week’s reading selections: “From Seed to Flower”

Summary: A sunflower grows from a seed into a flower.

Essential Question: What changes do you see when watching a flower grow?

Grammar: Your child will learn that an interrogative sentence asks a question and ends with a question mark. (What time is it?)

Writing:  This week, students will write their personal narrative about Halloween.  They will use the elements of a story that we have been discussing to plan, write and edit their stories.

Phonics: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /e/ spelled _ea_; /sh/ spelled sh; /th/ spelled th; and /ch/ spelled ch, ■tch. Words to practice blending with your child include head, shell, brush, math, thread, check, and catch.

Reading: This week’s reading selections: “Jake’s Tree”

Summary: Jake writes a poem as he observes the changes of a big tree in his yard during the year

Essential Question: What changes in nature can you see?

Grammar: Your child will learn to identify and write simple sentences using a subject and verb and capitalizing the first word. (The dog buried its bone.)

Writing:  Students will start editing and writing their final copy narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

Phonics: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /ks/ spelled ■x, /e/ spelled e,/ed/ spelled -ed, /d/ spelled -ed, and /t/ spelled -ed.

Words to practice blending with your child include ax, six, text, melted, spelled, and hopped.

High Frequency Words to know: down, help, its, red, six.

Reading: This week’s reading selection: Time Is When

Summary: Measurements of time include seconds, minutes, hours, seasons, and years.

Essential Question: What measurements of time can you think of

Grammar: Your child will learn to identify and write simple sentences using a ubject and verb and capitalizing the first word. (The dog buried its bone.)

Writing:  Students will narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

Phonics: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /j/ spelled ■dge; /u/ spelled u;/z/ spelled z, zz, and _s.  We will also discuss the FLOSS rule.

High-Frequency Words: as, ask, get, he, his, just, of, to

Reading: This week’s reading selections: “No Wolves Allowed”

Summary: Walter Wolf was not allowed to join Polly, Poppy, and Peter Pig’s clubhouse initially, but he convinced them that everyone has something valuable to contribute to the group.

Essential Question: What can others teach you about friendship?

Grammar: Your child will learn about helping verbs (is, are, has, have, was, were) and practice using adjectives.

Writing:  Students wrote their opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the subject they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure. This week, we will continue editing their writing and write our final copy piece.

Phonics: Your child will learn the following sounds and spellings: /k/ spelled c; /aw/ spelled al, all; /k/ spelled k, ■ck; and /r/ spelled r. Words to practice blending with your child include can’t, calm, call, kid, clock, and rock.

Reading: This week, we will be continue our reading centers and students will work on their fluency practice, blending sounds to words and learning about sound boxes.

Grammar: We will continue to review the different parts of speech, and practice identifying those parts of speech in our writing.

Writing:  Students will write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the subject they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure. Students will also learn to focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

Phonics: Last week, we went back and reviewed some phonetic patterns that the students were confused with and practiced some of these patterns in centers.  We will pick up the following sounds and spellings: /k/ spelled c; /aw/ spelled al, all; /k/ spelled k, ■ck; and /r/ spelled r. Words to practice blending with your child include can’t, calm, call, kid, clock, and rock.

Reading: This week, we will be starting our reading centers. Students will continue their fluency practice and we will focus more on comprehension and fluency drills to increase their fluency in reading.

Grammar: Your child will learn to identify adjectives and add them to sentences. Adjectives describe words that tell more about a person, place, or thing.

 Writing:  Write opinion pieces that introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.