Behavioral Expectations

As we return from Thanksgiving break, it is a great time to REMIND our kids of the importance of good behavior. We are experiencing some disruptive behavior in class these first few days back. I know that there may be a lot of exciting things happening at home and school during the next few weeks but we have a lot to learn too. If your child has a bench slip in their backpack, please talk with them about why they received that consequence. The best way to encourage good behavior in school is having us on the same page with the same expectations. Thanks for your support!

Correcting spelling at home

One of the most frequently asked questions from conferences is always about correcting spelling. The short version of the answer is, no, you don’t have to correct spelling completelyJ. If there is a symbol for every sound, it’s ok for now. I do encourage you to make your child think about the correct way to spell things. If there is a letter that is completely off, have them sound it out to you and you can correct it together. At this point, a student should be able to spell words that they can read. When they become stronger readers, this gap gets bigger. So, phonetic spelling is ok but have them think about the sounds/spellings if it is way off.

We have finished our reading unit with the theme “Things that go”. We are now beginning our new unit with the theme “Our neighborhood at work”. We have learned digraphs such as th, sh, and ch. The kids should know how to use these spellings correctly. For the ch sound, they know that tch is only after a short vowel. We have been spending a lot of time working on comprehension.
This is the time of year when we are working a lot on writing applications as well as conventions. This is when we really solidify those two skills together. Of course, this is an ongoing skill to practice. We just practice as much as possible to meet those end of the year standards.

 In math, we have wrapped up a chapter on charts and graphing. We learned how to read and use a tally chart, bar graph, and picture graph. The kids are really good at counting tally marks. We say, “1, 2, 3, 4, tally up 5”.

I have my child's MAP scores. What do I do now?

When looking at your child’s Goal Setting Worksheet, notice that the bolded RIT Range score is the student’s area of strength and the italicized RIT Range score is the possible area of concern. The Goal Strand with the italicized RIT Range score is your student’s goal to work on. Here is how you can work on it at home:

1. Go to Rancho’s website: www.ranchoschool.org

2. On the right-hand side, you will see many resources to help your child at home. Click on “MAP Reading Skills for Students” (see attached pages for steps).

3. Find the Goal Strand section and click on the range that your child’s RIT Range score falls in.

4. Choose an activity and have fun! Be sure to try them all.

Other resources that can help improve your child’s academic performance can be found on Rancho’s website. From Rancho’s website, try:

*Reading Eggs (username and password have been sent home)

*MAP Math Skills for Students

*MAP Skills Support

*Math@Home

In this week's Friday Folder, you'll find a Home Activity Chart. When you do these activities, write them on your chart and turn them in at the end of the month for an Eagle Card!

Web-based games to try

There are some really good web-based games to play (meaning that they are a website) that will help improve your child's skills. Here are a few good ones:

www.readingeggs.com (Rancho sponsors this site)

www.starfall.com

www.ictgames.com/sharknumbers.html

www.missmaggie.org/scholastic/roundtheworld_eng_launcher.html

www.abcya.com 

If your child plays these games, they can add them to their Home Activity Chart!

Curriculum Update

So far, we have done the sounds/spellings for the following letters: short a, e, i, o, and u, b, c (spelled c and ck after a short vowel), d, f (spelled f), g, h, j (spelled j and dge after a short vowel), l, m, n (spelled n), p, r (spelled r), s (spelled s), and t. Since we haven’t really reached the point where we are doing all of the irregular spellings, you can practice the short vowel tricks with the kids if you want to help them (short vowel + ck and short vowel + dge). We expect the kids to be using these spellings correctly and that every sound has a symbol that makes sense (even if it isn’t completely correct).

In math, we have learned addition strategies and we are now on to subtraction strategies. We have learned counting on to add (say the biggest number and count on from there: 9+4= say 9, 10, 11, 12, 14). Using the same strategy for the inverse relationship, the kids have learned to count back (say the biggest number and count back from there: 9-4= say 9, 8, 7, 6, 5). The kids should NOT be using their fingers as a strategy at this point (for both addends anyway). They can also use a number line to count on and count back if that helps.

Academic Vocabular for math

Academic vocabulary is the words that we use to discuss specific concepts in school. Here are some of the vocabulary words that we've been discussing in math:

Sum: the answer to an addition problem

Difference: the answer to a subtraction problem

Addend: one of the “parts” in an addition sentence

Count on: a strategy for adding

Count back: a strategy for subtracting