Reading Workshop

1. Turrill Elementary Lapeer Community Schools August 27, 2013 Room 127 Newsletter Mrs. Hribar’s First grade • Writing Workshop • Last week, we continued to practice the procedures of writing workshop. We are beginning to write like real authors by writing complete 5 page booklet stories. We worked on writing stories with a beginning, middle, and end. We learned that authors add into their stories by adding speech bubbles in their illustrations, they include the setting, and characters in the beginning of their stories, and they include the action in their stories through their illustrations. We also working on understanding that as authors we sometimes need to make changes thus we must write with pencils in order to make changes. • Ideas to increase your child’s writing at school • Have your child write stories to recap family experiences and vacations. • Reading Workshop • We are continuing our work on developing good reading workshop habits by meeting at the carpet quietly and listening to the mini-lesson, as well as reading independently without getting distracted. • This week, we review shopping for books and when the appropriate time is to shop. • We learned that we can book shop on certain days and that each student has their own individual day to shop. A schedule of shopping days can be found on the file cabinet near my desk. Students also reviewed the five finger rule. • The finger rule means that while a student is selecting books if there are five words in the book that they do not know they must put the book back in the basket because it is not a just right book. • Students also learned that readers use word attack strategies when they get stuck on a word such as Chunky Monkey (break the unknown word up into pieces), Lips the Fish (get your mouth ready to say the word, and Skippy the Kangaroo( skip the unknown word read all the way through the sentence and go back to reread the word checking the beginning sounds, picture, and meaning). • Please continue to practice the skills taught each week in writing and reading workshop at home. Remember the home-school connection is vital in helping your child become a successful writer and reader! Please take at least twenty minutes to read with your child every night. Your child must read everyday in order to become a competent and fluent reader. • Classroom Information • Classroom Rules-Please continue to discuss with your child making good choices, using good listening skills and being safe with themselves and others. • Box Tops and Campbell Soup Labels- Don’t forget to save box tops and Campbell soup labels for school. Please collect all tops and labels and send into school in a ziplock bag. • Notes & Info- Please remind your child daily to check for notes in their blue folder and let them know if they are to pass a note on to me first thing in the morning. • Questions or Concerns- If you should have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time at ext 4517 or thribar@lapeerschools.org • Snack- Don’t forget to pack your child a healthy snack daily, it helps to keep their brain running. • Homework • Anything that is not completed and has not been checked is considered homework. Please take some time to review any work with your child. All homework must be returned the following day unless it is due to absence.

2. Library- Our scheduled Library day is on Monday of each week. Your child bring home his/ her book on Monday. He/She should return it the following Monday. Your child should place the book in the red bag on our classroom door. • Math • In math, we are continuing to work on our counting skills both with objects and by writing numbers to 100. • This week, we learned that mathematicians use skills such as a number line. We examined the number line and we discussed numbers, where they live, their neighbors, spacing on the number line. Students also created their own number lines. This year as we pilot these new units, much of the work we will do in math asks that they students talk about their own thinking and how they got the answers or what other possible solutions. Thus as you help your child to review some of the above skills at home, remember you are there to guide them not give them the answer. • Ideas to help at home: • Have your child set the table during dinner and add sets of forks with the number of spoons. Talk about the different combinations possible. Word Study We continued to build cvc (consonant vowel consonant) words with short a, like cab. We learned that each sentence begins with a capitol letter and is followed by all lowercase letters and period. This week, we also built words with short i. We also learned that words that make the {C} sound begin with c when followed by a big vowel such as a, o,u and words that begin with {k} sound are followed by I or e and make a skinny Reading Workshop Responsibility/Stamina Rubrics Your child brought home his/her first reading workshop responsibilty rubric on Friday. This is a self-evaluation rubric that students are asked to fill out based on their independent reading during workshop. This rubric is meant to help your child see how they are progressing in building their stamina and reading skills. Students fill these out independently after some conferencing with me. These charts will go home at the end of each week. They should be signed and returned every Monday. The submission of these charts is part of your child’s reading grade.