Week of January 11-15

 Hello Everyone,

It is hard to believe next week is my last full week with your children!  Mrs. Kocourek will be coming back on January 20th.  We do have a big week ahead of us though!  You should have seen the math review come home earlier this week for our math test on Tuesday.  We are also doing i-Ready testing on Wednesday for math followed by reading on Thursday.  

Coming up:

January 13: Math i-Ready testing

January 14: Reading i-Ready testing

January 20: Mrs. Kocourek returns

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: Next week we are taking our unit test. You should have seen the math review come home earlier this week.

Writing: We are finish up our persuasive writing unit this week. We are going to be revising our pieces and making sure they are ready to persuade our audience.

Reading: We just started our new unit on character studies. We also started our new read aloud, "Because of Winn-Dixie," which we are all loving! In this unit we will be pretending the characters in our books are new friends that we are trying to learn about.

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

Jenny Kocourek and Miss Raasch

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

Week of November 23-27

 Hello Everyone!

I can’t believe next week is already Thanksgiving!  It is a short week next week.  We will only be in school on Monday and Tuesday.  We will be having our unit math test and our post writing assessment next week.  I hope everyone has a great and safe Thanksgiving break! 

Coming up:

November 25-27: NO SCHOOL

December 11: NO SCHOOL

December 15: Family Night

December 23- January 4: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum:

Math: Next week we are finishing our unit and taking our unit test.

Writing: We finished up our nonfiction writing unit and will be taking our pre and post assessments next week.  Our next unit will be persuasive writing.

Reading: We just started reading mystery stories.  We are going to be becoming detectives and try to figure out the mystery before the detectives in our stories do.

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

Jenny Kocourek and Hannah Raasch

Week of November 16-20

  Hello Everyone!

This week we have really been focusing on our multiplication facts and next week will continue our practice.  You might have seen our unit review come home yesterday which means our unit test is coming up!  I am planning on having the unit 1 test on November 24th after a nice review game on Monday.  We are also starting a new unit in reading next week and wrapping up our writing unit!  I am so thankful for everyone who came to conferences yesterday and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of you on Tuesday. I hope everyone stays healthy and has a great weekend!

 

Coming Up:

November 17: Virtual Conferences/Book Fair

November 20: Early Release (11:28 dismissal) 

 

November 25-27: NO SCHOOL

December 11: NO SCHOOL

December 23-January 4: NO SCHOOL

 

Curriculum:

Math: This week we'll be working on building fluency in our multiplication and division.  This week will be a lot of practice and reviewing for our unit test coming up on the 24th. 

Writing: In writing this week we will be wrapping up our nonfiction writing unit.  We are going to be talking about using what we learned in social studies and science.  

Reading: We wrapped up our nonfiction reading unit last week and will be starting our new mystery unit!  I am very excited for this unit and I hope your students will enjoy this unit as well!

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

Jenny Kocourek and Hannah Raasch

Week of November 9-13

 Hello Everyone!

Wow -- This week just flew by! We're coming to the end of the first quarter, so conferences are coming up next week Thursday. They will be November 12th and 17th, and they will be held virtually this year.  Please also fill out the survey that was emailed to you at the beginning of the week.  If you have any questions about conferences or need a link to be resent feel free to email me!

Coming Up:

November 11: Picture Retake Day

November 12: Virtual Conferences/Book Fair

November 17: Virtual Conferences/Book Fair

November 25-27: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum:

Math: This week we are going to work on our multiplication facts some more!  This week, we'll really focus on multiplication with 0's.  We will also be creating some of our own story problems.  

Writing: This week we are learning about the revision process for our nonfiction pieces.  We are slowly making revisions and some of us have started new books.  We are trying to make this book the best we have written so far this year!

Reading: We are nearing the end of our nonfiction reading unit this week!  We will be learning how we can become our own reading coaches!  We will be taking our post assessment this week as well.  We will start our next unit on mysteries later in the week!

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

Jenny Kocourek and Hannah Raasch