Welcome Parents and Students!

 Reading

We started this year with a new reading program.  Ask your child what "tapping the sounds" means and how he/she uses it to read and spell.   We began with a review of all consonant sounds, short vowels (a,e,i,o and u) and the digraphs(ch,ck, wh, th, sh).  For the upcoming weeks we will be concentrating on glued sounds,  closed syllables and the exceptions to that rule. 

Reading Tip:  Please read every night with your child.  When students struggle with reading, they often avoid it.  When you read with your child, don't have them sound out the words, (we do plenty of that at school) have your child read to you and support them by helping them with words they don't know.  Let them choose the book- often students have a higher interest level then they can actually read, so please take the time to read with your child books they would enjoy, even if they can't read them independently yet. Home reading should be enjoyable for both of you!

Math

We are working on becoming fluent with multiplication skills.  Students are learning "multiplication stories" for hard to learn multiplication facts.  The stories will give them something to think of visually in order to help remember the facts.  Once the facts are learned, we will practice throughout the year to become fluent(able to recall the facts automatically) Ask your child what multiplication facts each story stands for:  Three Blind Mice, The Southgate Cheer, and Bart Goes Hang  Gliding.    

We are also working on place value, rounding, estimation, and problem solving.

Math Tip: There are many words that tell us to round numbers to make it easier to add, subtract, multiply and divide.  Often students take a lot of time trying to compute these numbers when the question is really asking them to round up or down.Words that mean round up or down are: about, approximately, and estimate.

 Have a great day!!!