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THE FOX MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 2009 |
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WELCOME TO 2009! 
The new year's here, so celebrate! May the months ahead be really great! January, January - Happy New Year, Happy New Year! Balloons and confetti- everyone is ready - to give a cheer, to give a cheer! 
I hope that everyone had a fun and relaxing vacation! Now it's back to a busy month of learning! WELCOME MS. Vigoda, our student teacher! ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTS Week of 1/5: Since we had several interruptions the last week or so before vacation, we will now spend this first week back focusing on the pioneers of the 1800's. There are many stories we will read to learn about this period in history including the one in the anthology entitled: The Pony Express. Skills include the short e key: ea as in feather and review of synonyms, verbs, commas, and using a dictionary and thesaurus. During Writing Workshop, the students will write a brief "diary" pretending they are pioneer children (including the facts they have learned). They will also write winter poetry in the form of "cinquins". A great way to practice adjectives and verbs! Week of: 1/12: We will learn about the state quarters in Time For Kids. There will also be a Mc-Graw-Hill reading and skills assessment. All previous skills from mid-November and December will be reviewed including "possessive s" and "plural s". Week of 1/20: We'll read the interesting story Charlie Anderson about the two different lives of a cat. Skills include the oo key as in "wood" or "book" as well as more verbs, antonyms, proper nouns with capital letters. Week of 1/26: A informational rain forest photo-story entitled: Fernando's Gift. Our student teacher, Ms. Vigoda, will focus on the different rainforest animals and the students will begin their animal research projects to be done over several weeks during Writing Workshop time. This writing will be "published" as "All About Books" which is a type of non-fiction. Phonics include the "soft g and soft c" sounds in words such as "dance" and "cage". We will continue to focus on antonyms, verbs, nouns, and combining sentences. We frequently do the activity "Making Words" and now "Word Ladders" will be introduced this month. Both activities build reading and spelling skills. Cursive writing continues. I hope your child practices at home! 
MATH We begin Chapter 8 on "Solid Shapes" which teaches about the faces, vertices, and edges of cubes, cylinders, spheres, square and triangular pyramids, cones, and rectangular prisms. It is an intersting "hands-on" topic. Chapter 9 follows with its focus on "Fractions". 
SCIENCE Activity Days continue on Tuesday afternoons. We are halfway through our second "six week session". The topic of "Solids, Liquids, and Gases" will be further investigated in my room while Mrs. Warren teaches health topics and Mrs. Wilkes teaches social studies. As previously indicated, we will be learning about rainforest animals. There will also be lessons about animal hibernation, migration, and adaptation. 
SOCIAL STUDIES This month, besides map studies and the pioneers, we will learn about the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I have many interesting biographies about him in the classroom 
HOMEWORK Thank you for regularly assisting your child each week at home. Reading and writing each day, studying spelling and vocabulary, and practicing math skills and cursive writing are all important parts of your chikd's homework. Please take the time to read the weekly poems together. Reading them outloud builds fluency and use of expression. Plus, it's fun! Also, please remind your child to fill in the reading log each week when it comes home in his/her homework bag. I hope that your child and you enjoy the books/stories that come home! 
WINTER WEATHER Remember snowpants, boots, hats, gloves, and warm jackets! Even if there is only a little snow on the ground, boots are needed on the playground! Hopefully, we'll have some more snow and temperatures above 20 degrees so the children can finally go sledding! Each clothing item should have your child's name inside! BOOK-It and SCHOLASTIC BOOKS Look for January's Book-It project and the newest Scholastic book order form in your child's bookbag. GUEST READERS Would you like to be a guest reader? There are so many wonderful winter books! Would you like to share one or two with us? 
WARM and COZY Wishes, Mrs. Fox
Mrs. Fox
East Greenbush
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