Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my students and their families! May 2015 bring you peace and happiness in all that you do!

      Nothing like returning from vacation and hitting the ground running! We will be working at a fast pace this week finishing up our non-fiction independent book projects! Most students are at a point of having written his/her summary and having added information about the two most helpful text features. These students are ready to copy all of this over on to a flip book and compete the illustrations. Some of this copying and artwork may be coming home for homework as we are moving on to a study of the mystery genre!

     This week I will begin our mystery read aloud, modeling the appropriate thinking and think notes for the genre. I like to use, Lucky Lottery an A to Z Mystery by Ron Roy. It is a just right model for many of the mystery characteristics students will be expected to recognize in their future group and independent reading. Some of the genre characteristics that we will experience together are cliff hangers, red herrings,  and an integral setting. Ron Roy is a very descriptive author using many similes and idioms that we discuss as a class. We will also visit Ron Roy's website. Stay tuned for future blogs with pictures of our in class anchor charts. If you are interested in talking to your child about the genre study or asking questions as they are reading, you will both be able to speak the same language.

     During our mystery study we will also listen/watch some mystery books being read to us on Tumble books to gain experience with note taking while watching and listening, not just as part of an independent reading activity. This is really a very specific skill set that will be needed when students take the Smarter Balanced Assessments later this year! Practice in this area is beneficial!

     Finally, you will see information coming home today concerning keyboarding homework. As I mentioned to many parents at conferences in December, it is critical for our students to master basic typing skills in order to show what they know on future testing. Aside from this very immediate concern, typing has become a critical skill for simply getting along in today’s world. No longer is keyboarding something that can be put off until middle school or high school.

      In the interest of addressing this concern, I have taken some time to research and find a program similar to Xtramath. The program that I found, TypingWeb allows students to practice keyboarding skills as part of his/her homework. I will receive a report that allows me to see student progress and minutes practiced. I will begin including this as a part of the nightly homework assignment.

     Please feel free to check out the website, so you will be familiar with the homework expectations for your child. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send me an email or call.