May 8-12

Here are a few events happening for us this week!

• We will listen to a presentation about the summer reading program at the library. It's a fun way to keep reading all summer long:)
• We look forward to celebrating the amazing job we did on our Knowledge-A-Thon on Friday. We will be celebrating our SUPER learning by going through a super hero obstacle course in the gym.

Here is the link to our school's May newsletter.

Here is the May lunch menu.

The NDLC Facebook is almost to 500 likes. Are you one of them? If not, follow us here! It is a great way to keep informed. You will often see photos of different class and school activities that your child is involved in.

Upcoming events:
May 10: Bike to School Day meet at The Recyclist at 7:30
May 22: Family Night
May 26: No School
May 29: No School
June 6: Mini-courses and Field Day-more information to come!
June 7: Last Day of School
June 11: Timber Rattlers Game 1:00

A peek at our week: 

Reading:  We will start a new unit on characters this week! We will start to learn the ways you can ‘meet’ the characters in our books. Some ways to do this are to pay attention to the title, cover, and setting. We will also take picture walks and think about the feelings our characters have. By the end of the week, we will be focusing on the changes in character feelings. 

Writing:  Just like readers, writers will learn to make sure that their writing looks right, sounds right, and makes sense! Our minilessons will also be focused on checking words in their writing to make sure they look right. Writers will search for and edit any incorrect sight words. We will use vowels charts to ensure that each word has a vowel. Finally, we will use blend charts (sh, ch, th, etc.) and alphabet charts to make sure we are getting the right sounds and letters in our writing.

Math: Last week, we learned to play speed! This card game helps students practice the number that comes before and the number that comes after a given number. We also call this the +1 or -1 strategy. Ask your child to teach you how to play. Here are some other fun ways to build fluency with adding and subtracting!I especially like the game called Build a Tower. Some of the games may be too challenging, but feel free to choose the games that would work best with your learner.

Word Study: Students have been exploring long and short vowels during our word work time. We talk about different vowel teams. Vowel teams are two vowels that work together to make the long vowel sound. As you are reading, go on a hunt for different vowel teams! Some of the vowel teams we have been talking about are: ee, oa, and ai. You may also find vowel-consonant-e words such as like, twice, bike, ride, cute, etc.! You'll be amazed on what your young learner can find!

Science: Our inquiry continues as we ask ourselves, “How can we make a ball?” We will use many different materials to try to create balls. We will look explore balls that were cut in half to decide what we should use when we are making them. Later in the week, we will introduce ramps. We will watch videos to build our knowledge and visit the gym to do tests on a large ramp.