Week of 10/22-10/26

This week the News-2-You will stay at school and we will do various activities with it.  The theme of the paper is the World Series.

• On Monday, we will talk about the vocabulary words assigned to the theme. We will discuss the definitions and glue the pictures and written definitions into our personal dictionaries. We will then read through the paper as a class and the students will independently complete all the pages in the newspaper except for the writing section. The students will also complete a journal entry over their weekend activities and share with the group.
• Tuesday: We will review what we read on Monday and the students will answer the questions over the paper. The students will then identify three things that they remember from the paper and construct grammatically correct sentences that they will then share with the group. The students will then do an activity that involves putting words in the correct order to create a complete sentence. We will then discuss how in order to be on a baseball team, a person has to be able to practice "team work", "sportsmanship" and being the "best" member/person you can be. We will relate this to our own personal lives and discuss those examples. Students will be given the saying, "A team is only as strong as its weakest link" and we will discuss.
• Wednesday: Student's will participate in the functional activities that are designed and facilitated by Mrs. Eichorn.
• Thursday: Send in the library books as we will going to the library. Two selected students will navigate the campus and lead the class to the library. The students will check-out new books and we will spend sometime relaxing in the library and reading. At the end of the period, two different student's will then lead the class back to the classroom. I sometimes "block" certain hallways which requires the student's to find an alternate route back to the room in order for them to become more comfortable with navigating different ways throughout the campus. I then test each individual student on their reading progress using the AIMS web program. We will then work on more activities that relate to our News-2-You theme. The students will answer Wh? over the paper and we will create posters to hang up in the room about sportsmanship and team work. The students will complete a writing activity where they will identify a time in their life that they showed team work or good sportsmanship and write about it in their journal. They will then share these with the class where we will work on eye-contact, voice clarity and speech volume.
• Friday: Students will be assessed on their unit vocabulary words. We will then wrap up any assignments or activities that weren't completed earlier in the week. Student's that had a "green" week receive 30 minutes of "Friday Free-Time" where we play various board games. During this activity, we practice skills necessary for fair game play and friendship skills. Upon completion of this activity, we will watch a video clip showing team work and discuss the video clip as a group and how it relates to what we have been focusing on all week. The last 30 minutes of the day, I will read from the student chosen chapter book, "The Amazing Adventures of Edward Tulane".  

HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK: The students should continue to read for 20 minutes each night and complete their reading log. On Monday, each student will receive a short story that was selected for them based on their individual reading level. The students should read this aloud with you ensuring that they understand the words, the questions at the end of their story and their meanings. They then need to read the story again to themselves and answer the 5-7 questions at the end of the story. Students should highlight the section in the reading selection where they found the answer to the question(s) at the end of their story. Students should turn in the entire book with the questions answered on Friday. After the grade is taken, you will receive the book back to add to your child's library at home.

WEEKLY REMINDERS: Tuesday and Thursday night are the Parent-Teacher Conferences. I will be available both nights so please make sure to sign up online for one of the time slots under my name. I look forward to meeting with you all to share the awesome progress that your child is making! So far, only two people have signed up and I'm hoping the rest of you will sign up tomorrow!!

As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns that I can help you with! Have a great week and GO CARDS!!!