Week of December 21 and 22

Hello Everyone!

Wow! This is our last Friday of the 2020 school year!  Next week is only a two day week (Monday and Tuesday) and the students will then have off until January 4th.  We talked today about recess behavior and how we should be treating our friends.  There have been some issues on the playground of name calling and we want everyone to feel good at school.  I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful winter break! 

Coming up:

December 21 (Monday): Pajama day- you can bring a blanket or stuffed animal too :)

December 2 (Tuesday): Holiday colors and holiday wear

December 23- January 4: NO SCHOOL

Join NDLC staff members and other NDLC parents and guardians in discussing the book The Read Aloud Family on Tuesday, Feb 9th from 8:00-8:30 pm.  The discussion will take place on Google Meet (a link will be sent prior to the meeting).  See below for a description of the book. The book can be purchased on Amazon or any other book retailer. 

The Read Aloud Family

Discover practical strategies to make reading aloud a meaningful family ritual.

The stories we read--and the conversations we have about them--help shape family traditions, create lifelong memories, and become part of our legacy. Reading aloud not only has the power to change a family--it has the power to change the world. 

But we all know that connecting deeply with our families can be difficult in our busy, technology-driven society. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to be fully present with our children, even after they can read themselves, but it isn't always easy to do. Discover how to:

• Prepare your kids for academic success through reading to them
• Develop empathy and compassion in your kids through books
• Find time to read aloud in the midst of school, sports, and dinner dishes
• Choose books across a variety of sibling interests and ages
• Make reading aloud the best part of your family's day

The Read-Aloud Family also offers age-appropriate book lists from infancy through adolescence. From a toddler's wonder to a teenager's resistance, you will find the inspiration you need to start a read-aloud movement in your own home.

Curriculum:

Math: We are practicing our multiplication facts from 0-10.  This week we will also be focusing a lot on solving and writing word problems, especially two step story problems.  We will be using the order of operations to figure out if we should multiply first or add first.  

Writing: This week in writing, we are going to have some fourth grade students meet with us virtually to teach us what they have learned in their writing and encourage us to use their tips!

Reading: This week in reading, we are going to be using the clues we find to make predictions.  We will also be wrapping up this unit this week!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Jenny Kocourek and Miss Raasch

Week of December 14-18

Hello Everyone!

Next week will be our last full week until Christmas break!  In class we finished our read aloud The Absent Author which had a surprise ending none of us were expecting!  We are now being detectives in a new read aloud about stolen diamonds.  We are enjoying reading mystery books in book clubs, read aloud, and independently.  I love to see them so excited to read new books.  On Monday, we are having a Pagoni's Pizza fundraiser.  If you dine in, pick up, or get delivery on Monday and mention NDLC the school will get 10% of the proceeds.

Coming up:

December 14: Pagoni's Pizza fundraiser 

December 15: Family Night and Pajama Day

December 21 (Monday): Pajama day- you can bring a blanket or stuffed animal too :)

December 2 (Tuesday): Christmas colors and Christmas wear

December 23- January 4: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum:

Math: We are practicing our multiplication facts from 0-10.  This week we will also be focusing a lot on solving and writing word problems.  

Writing: This week in writing, we are going to be working on organizing our opinion pieces and adding in more details.  The goal is for the students to have a reason and then be able to give details and examples to support their reason.  

Reading: This week in reading, we are going to continue our detective work and then also see if we could use what we learned in other fiction books.  Using the predicting strategies we have been working on.  A lot of the students are filling up pages and post-its with suspect lists and clues and they are so excited to be figuring out the mystery.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Jenny Kocourek and Miss Raasch

Week of December 7-11

 Hello Everyone!

What a crazy week we had with having to change rooms.  All of the kids were so flexible and patient and we still had such a great week!  This week is only a four day week, there will be no school on Friday.  We will also be finishing up all the multiplication facts.  After this week we will know our 0's-10's!  It is going to be a great week!

Coming up:

December 11: NO SCHOOL

December 15: Family Night and Pajama Day

December 23- January 4: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum:

Math: This week will be working on our 7's and then we will be working on our fluency for all of the multiplication facts.  We are also going to be also creating some word problems this week.

Writing: In writing, we will continue to work on our persuasive speeches.  This week we will be working on finding reasons to support our opinions.

Reading: In reading we just finished our A-Z mystery read a aloud.  This week we will be studying mystery books and seeing how they go.

As always, feel free to to contact me with any questions or any concerns.  

Jenny Kocourek and Hannah Raasch