Welcome to Mrs. Piskura's Pad!!!
April, 2008
Stephanie Justin Kaitlyn Christopher Zachary
Bryton Lila Madison Aaron Anna Nicholas Elaina
Khaled Brandon Daniel Kelly Sevi Alison Mitch
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Don't forget to check out the website links at the bottom of this page. They're fun alternatives to video games and tv!!! Also, you can log onto our school website (www.glastonburyus.org/schools/hebron)
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Some Important Dates for April:
April 2nd - Flat Stanley will be coming home.
April 4th - Scholastic book order due
April 5th - Hopefully Flat Stanley has already been sent on his adventure.
April 14th - 18th - Spring VacationNo School
April 24th - Townwide YARC Celebration
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Reading:
Keep up that super reading!!! Thank you for helping your child be responsible by remembering their reading group book! I make a big deal when everyone has remembered their books! The children are very proud of themselves.
In our reading groups we continue to focus on:
reading for meaning
using our prior knowledge to understand the story better and to help us make connections to the story
retelling the events of the story using the sequence...characters, setting, problem, events and solutions
increasing our fluency while reading (so it flows like a conversation and is not choppy)
we discuss and practice 6 strategies to help us with unknown words as we're reading
1. Check the picture.
2. Go back and re-read.
3. Get my mouth ready.
4. Think about: "Does it sound right?, Does it make sense?"
5. Look for "Chunks"
6. Skip the word (say "blank", then go back and figure out what would make sense).
making text to text (book to book) and text to self connections to deepen comprehension of stories.
beginning to self-correct our reading errors for better understanding of the text.
Writing:
Our Motto is: "When I'm Done...I've Just Begun!"
We are continuing to focus on spacing, punctuation and proper capitalization in all aspects of our writing curriculum. In addition, focus on sounding out and spelling words more accurately is stressed. By now your child should have a growing number of words they can spell correctly...without having to sound out. Our new focus is on editting our own work. We need to read our written work back to ourselves and look for errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization and omissions. I stress to the class that they need to be able to read to others what they have written.
We have just finished our first, detailed story. We filled out a story web and included an idea of what our story would be about.
From this story web we developed characters, setting, a problem, 3 events making the problem worse for the character and a solution for our story.
Look for these coming home in the next week!!
Math:
In math we are concentrating on:
(newer concepts are in italics)
beginning addition and subtraction skills
telling time to the hour and half hour in both analog and digital times
identifying coins and their values
computing the value of different coin combinations of coins including dimes, nickels and pennies together
understanding the concepts of greater than and less than
patterning using the Frames and Arrows template
using our hundreds number grid to solve more complex addition and subtraction problems
using dominoes to write 2 addition problems
reviewing thermometers and temperature
beginning to discuss measurement
place value including hundreds, tens and ones
greater than, less than and equal to
fact families using dominoes
measuring using inches and centimeters
fact triangles
name collection boxes
identification of and explaining the difference between 3 dimensional shapes and flat shapes
symmetry (horizontal and vertical)
Spelling:
Formal spelling lists to study at home with weekly Friday spelling tests began in January. Thank you to everyone for working with children in learning these weekly words. It is apparent work is being done with these words at home weekly.
Encouragement in spelling at this time of year is on neatness and printing the words correctly among the headline, midline and baseline of our handwriting paper. Stretching words for sounds they already know. I have seen dramatic changes in the students' printing skills!! I hope you have too!!
Miscellaneous:
Below are links to useful, fun and educational websites where your child can play.
There are also links to the calendars for February parent volunteers, the February sharing schedule for students and a February calendar showing daily routines and specials. These calendars were also sent home in your child's take home folder...nothing new has been added.
To repeat what has been noted before....
** If you're interested in volunteering for Centers, Reading to the class or Computer time, the contact is Karen Vigeant at 432-4985, K4Kota@cox.net
** If you're interested in supplying for school gatherings and activities, the contact is Kimberly Eagen at 649-0101, roberteagen@sbcglobal.net
To contact me, feel free to send in a note, call the school at 652-7875, email me at piskuraj@glastonburyus.org or email me through this school notes webpage.
I am thrilled being a partner with you in this exciting and rewarding year !
JUST A REMINDER ABOUT SPECIALS!!!!!!
Monday:
Spanish 12:40 - 12:55
Art 2:30 - 3:15
Tuesday:
Library (Return book this day)
9:00 - 9:30
Thursday:
Spanish 12:40 - 12:55
P.E.(Please wear sneakers) 2:30 - 3:15
Friday:
Music 1:40 - 2:25
Lunch 11:45 - 12:10
Recess 12:10 - 12:35
