Monday, October 9, 2017

Hi everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful, long weekend and maybe had a chance to view the fireworks last night. I traveled to Long Beach with several of my Rio colleagues to attend the Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching annual conference. As always, it was a wonderful day of learning and inspiration that I get to bring back to our classroom. I'm looking forward to implementing many new engagement strategies, CGI (cognitively guided instruction) methods in math, and attended an amazing session on punctuation that has really shifted my perspective on teaching punctuation. It was time well spent for sure!

Language Arts: Our word wall words this week are:  went, who, will, want, why

In writing, we will be finishing up our narratives, focusing on creating endings that stay close to the "Big Thing That Happened", spelling strategies, and punctuation.

Math: Both grade levels will be focusing on CGI problems, learning how to explain their thinking, and using various strategies to problem solve.

Second grade will be studying place value, and first grade will continue with fact families and subtraction.

Second Grade Field Trip:  Our field trip to Elkhorn Slough is this Friday, October 13. We will be leaving school at 8:15 and returning at 1:15. For the first time in my teaching career, all parent drivers have their information on file and up-to-date in the office without any extra phone calls and pestering from me. Thank you for being so on top of it! It truly makes my job a lot easier.

First graders will be in the capable hands of our substitute, Lisa Bird, while we're away.

Harvest Festival: I look forward to seeing many of you at our Harvest Festival Friday evening.

Have a wonderful week!

Ms. Allen