September 1 - September 5

Please remember that we will not have school on Monday in celebration of Labor Day. Almost everyone knows their lunch number!  And everyone came in from recess on time this week!  We are still having problems with students not bringing their homework folders to school each day. We also had a few hiccups with homework this week.  Only 40% of DLI students turned their homework packet in today, and only 40% met their reading goal for the week.  Those are very disappointing numbers.  The homework packet is always due on the last day of the week (usually it is Friday, but not always).  To meet their reading goal (read their take-home book for 20 minutes a night for five nights), they must read their book and then show me their signed book list in the morning.  When they show it to me, I check it off and put a tally by their name.  If they have five tallies at the end of the week, they have met their reading goal (during short weeks, they may have fewer tallies).  I hope this helps to clarify.  If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of us. Here is what we will be working on in the English side this week:

• take-home book reading goal = 80 minutes (4 nights of 20 minutes)
• art - we will finish our self-portraits on Tuesday morning
• making and identifying simple sentences: starts with a capital, ends with punctuation, makes sense, contains a noun and a verb
• adjectives - What are they?  How do I use them?
• creating a class mission statement - What do we want to accomplish this year?
• comprehension strategy: back-up and reread (didn't get to this last week!)
• comprehension strategy: cross-checking
• social studies: choices and consequences
• Daily 5: continuing to increase our stamina for reading to self, continuing to practice our word work routine, and introducing our procedure for buddy reading
• math talk about 10

Here is what we will be working on in the Spanish side this week:

• math: fact families
• math: working with 6 and 7(bonds, composing/decomposing, counting by, etc)
• social studies: choices and consequences
• using complete sentences when they speak in Spanish
• math picture talk with numbers (showing the students a picture and talking about the groups and configuration of objects in the picture)
• comprehension strategy: back-up and reread (didn't get to this last week!)
• listening to songs, trying to sing along, and following along with the words on the screen ( the songs are Mi Gallito, Pollito Amarillito, and Pin Pon)

August 25 - 29

The first two days of school have gone smoothly.  We only had only one child that did not bring their homework folder back to school (that's awesome!).  Thanks for making sure it got back to school!
Here is what we will be working on this week in the English side:

• Comprehension strategy: check for understanding
• Comprehension strategy: back-up and reread
• The three things  needed to make a sentence: a capital letter at the beginning, punctuation at the end, and a complete thought (a noun and a verb)
• Nouns, verbs, and adjectives
• Words Their Way test to determine their spelling levels for word work
• We will begin working on our Daily 5 routines - focus on read to self this week
• Math Talk about 5

Here is what we will be working on in the Spanish side:

• Social Studies: community (people in the school)
• Math: working with 5 (bonds, composing/decomposing, counting by, etc)
• listening to stories and songs
• Comprehension strategy: check for understanding
• Comprehension strategy: back-up and reread

First Day

The first day went very smoothly, and everyone was well-behaved for the most part!  Please make sure that your child is working on their lunch number if they don't already know it (they should have come home with a lunch number sticker on their shirt).  Their lunch number will be used for their password when they visit the computer lab, as well as for lunch, so the faster they learn it the easier it will be for everyone.  Thank you for your help and support.  We are going to have a great year!

Ready or Not!

We spent last week at the statewide dual immersion conference, and we are now eager to get started.  School officially begins on August 21st at 8:10, bright and early in the morning.  We will have back-to-school night the evening of August 20th.  It will be from 6:00-7:30.  We will begin in the gym, and stay there until 6:20 getting important information from Mr. Grunig.  He will excuse everyone at 6:20 to visit classrooms.  After that, there will be three 20 minutes sessions: 6:20-6:40, 6:45-7:05, and 7:10-7:30.  We look forward to meeting you and your children on the 20th!
Before you spend too much on school supplies, please know that you do not need to buy anything to bring to school.  We will provide everything that your child needs at school, but it is convenient (and sometimes necessary) for your child to have certain things (pencils, erasers, crayons, scissors, glue) available to them at home.  And if you are feeling generous, we are always grateful for donations of tissues and hand-sanitizer!