Commercial Games that Use Mathematics

Many games you have at home or see at the local store involve mathematical thinking. Children develop their skill in an almost effortless way when they play these games with each other and adults. The ages shown are suggested by the manufacturer, however, let the interest and motivation of your child by your guide when selecting and playing the games (Rf. Everyday Math, Home Connection Handbook).

Counting, Adding and Subtracting
Chutes and Ladders (3+)
Hi Ho! Cherry-O (3+)
Sorry! (6+)
Trouble (6+)
Uno (6+)

Attributes, Patterns, and Geometry
Crazy Eights - traditional card game (4+)
Guess Who? (6+)
Guess Where? (6+)
Jigsaw puzzles
Rummikub (8+)
tangrams (5+)

Strategy and Spacial Perception
The a-MAZE-ing Labyrinth (8+)
Battleship (7+)
checkers (3+)
Jenga (3+)
Connect Four (7+)
mancala (6+)
memory (many names exist for this game of matching face-down pictures (3+)
Mille Bornes (8+)
Othello (8+)
Pretty Pretty Princess (5+)

More excellent games can be found on the Internet by searching under "educational math games."

Week of October 25th

It was so nice to see you all at our Celebration this past Friday. I felt so proud of the students and I could tell that they felt proud of themselves as they got up and shared their published pieces. I can already see how much the students' writing is developing and can't wait to see how much they grow as writer's this year.

On Tuesday I will send home a copy of the story for you to keep and treasure.

There is lots going on this week at school and here are a few reminders:

* Picture Retake is on Thursday, Oct. 28th. Students must return their photo package to have a re-take.
* Halloween/Fall Festival is on Friday, Oct. 29th, beginning with a parade. The Fall Festival will follow. We are asking parents to please sign your child out of the classroom when you are picking up your child's bag and costume and are leaving campus. I will be leaving a sign-out sheet posted in the classroom for you to sign out. Please note that there will also be a sign out sheet posted in the L.D quad.
* The students will watch a performance called Amber Brown is Not a Crayon in the Janet Root Theater on Oct. 28th.
* Dr. Epstein will bring Mr. Bones in to visit us on Thursday morning.
* Poetry in the Park is on Wednesday, Nov. 10th at 8:30am. Your child should be learning to memorize the poem that they will perform on this day called Be Careful What You Wish For by Arden Davidson. A copy was sent home last Monday.
* Our Second Grade performance will be on Friday, Nov. 19th at 8:30. Please join us for a great show!

Current Events: Tuesday - Hailey, Channing; Wednesday - Shaherzad, Aidan; Thursday - Rylan, Zaynab; Friday - Lauren E, Gage

Language Arts
Phonics - long vowel o/oa, ow; compound words
Spelling - yellow, snowflake, sailboat carload, window, float, shadow, loaf, loaves, below, quite, special, believe, brought, impossible
Reading - Click, Clack, Moo:Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Vocabulary - brisk, strutted, gobbled, paced, request, negotiate, compromise, improve
Fluency - Expression
Comprehension - Plot and using story structure
Grammar - More Proper Nouns
Writing - Poetry

Mathematics - Unit 3
* Exploring numbers, time and geoboards
* Gather data, enter it in a table and draw a bar graph; demonstrate a strategy for finding the middle value in a data set
* Solve Frames-and-Arrows problems having two rules

Social Studies - South America
* Countries in South America
* Amazon Rainforest and rainforest animals

Science - Plants
* Plants make food; plants and light

We are continuing to watch our vegetable garden flourish. Come check it out next time you are at school.

We will also be doing some fun arts and crafts relating to fall and Halloween.

Have a fantastic week and I hope to see you on Friday at the fall festival.

Week of October 18th

Here is our week at a glance. On Friday, the students will share their published narratives, so please come along if you have some time. Starting time is at 8:30 in the classroom. Help us celebrate this special event.

REMINDERS:
* Parent Reader (Friday) - Mary Margaret Joswig
* Current Events - Tuesday: Lauren W, Jonathan; Wednesday: McIntosh, Brenna; Thursday: Samuel, Julia; Friday: Kendall, Abby
* Library is on Tuesday (please remind your child to bring their books to school)
* Keep helping your child practice the poems for our Second Grade Show
* October 29 - Fall Festival
* Keep sending in those Boxtops and Cash for Trash items
* I am collecting playground equipment and gardening gloves. Please think about donating any unused items you may have lying around at home for us to use at recess time

LANGUAGE ARTS
* Phonics - r-controlled vowel ar
* Spelling - barnyard, starlight, carpet, artist, market, spark, shark, garden, march, dart, winter, third, street, between, enough
* Reading- The Great Ball Game retold by Joseph Bruchac
* Fluency - Expression
* Comprehension - Story plot and story structure (beginning, middle, end)
* Robust Vocabulary - clutched, clambered, clumsy, ached, feud, superior, refuse, insult (v.)
* Grammar - proper nouns
* Writing workshop - Publishing personal narratives and sharing these on Friday morning

MATHEMATICS - Unit 3 (Place Value, Money, and Time)
* Review Unit 2 quiz
* Review place value in 2-digit and 3-digit numbers
* Review coin values and exchanges among coins; find coin combinations needed to pay for items
* Review telling time and practice writing time in digital-clock notation
* Represent and rename numbers with base 10 blocks; review time; make, describe, and compare geoboard shapes

SOCIAL STUDIES
* South America (exploration) - features, location

SCIENCE
* A leaf is a part of a plant whose main function is to make food for the plant
* Photosynthesis
* Leaf rubbings

Week of October 11th

I want to thank Mrs. Apter for a fantastic job she did working with the students while I was on personal leave the past two school days. It is nice to be back and I am looking forward to another busy week ahead working with your children.

REMINDERS:
* This Friday is a teacher workday and this means no school for the students
* Fall Festival dismissal and registration forms need to be returned by Monday, October 18th
* Scholastic Book Club orders are due this week
* Library books are due each Tuesday, which is our library check-out day
* Keep sending in those Cash for Trash items and Box Tops, which are programs designed to earn money for our school. Just a reminder that the contest for boxtops ends on Oct. 23. Thanks to all who have contributed so far. Well done!

Here is our week at a glance. The students will have their spelling and vocabulary quiz on Thursday, seeing they will not be at school on Friday.

Current Events: Monday - Lauren E, Gage; Tuesday - Hailey, Channing; Wednesday - Shaherzad, Aidan; Thursday - Rylan, Zaynab

Language Arts
* Phonics - a/ai, ay
* Spelling - mailbox, highway, daytime, raindrop, crayon, chased, waist, brain, gaze, spray, our, before, because, eight, October
* Reading - Gus and Grandpa and the Two-Wheeled Bike by Claudia Mills (Realistic Fiction)
* Fluency - Good readers read questions and statements with the correct intonation, or rise and fall of their voice
* Comprehension - Making predictions and using prior knowledge
* Robust Vocabulary - rickety, rattling, prying, impatiently, romp, defeated, jubilant, master (v.)
* Grammar - Singular and plural nouns
* Writing Workshop - Getting ready to publish; Proofreading and editing

Mathematics - Unit 2
* Practice identifying missing numbers in number pairs that are generated by a rule, and determining the rule used to generate number pairs
* Counting strategies for subtraction
* Shortcuts for "harder" subtraction facts
* Review and progress check

Social Studies
* Introduction to South America

Science
* Mixing solids and liquids
* Seeds

Parent Opinion Survey

Hello Parents! The window is still open for our parent opinion survey. So if you have not already completed the survey, I encourage you to do so. It should take approximately 20 minutes of your time. Also, if you live in a two-parent household, we encourage both parents to take the survey.

Thank you so much for your participation in this very important reflective process!

link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZBYF22R

Week of October 4th

What a great time I had chatting with you about your children at our recent Parent/Teacher conference. I hope you found the time we spent together informative and helpful. As I have mentioned before, it is such a pleasure coming to school each day and working with such an enthusiastic group of learners.

I am still collecting Scholastic Book club orders over the next week and thank Mrs. Counsman and Mrs. Fratello for volunteering to help me with the ordering process.

Just a friendly reminder that the students have library on Tuesday and need to return their library books that day.

Each Wednesday, the students visit the garden (usually in small groups), which they are looking after this year, along with a group of Upper School students. Gardening gloves and old t-shirts are not required each week seeing I have a class set of supplies that small groups of students can use. However, if you have any gardening gloves that you are not using at home, please send them in.

Please continue to practice the weekly spelling and vocabulary words and provide practice for addition and subtraction facts for sums up to and including 10. Quick recall of these basic facts helps later on when the students are learning how to add and subtract larger numbers.

If you haven't already complete the Parent Opinion Survey, I encourage you to do so. The link is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2BYF22R

Parent Reader - Kelli Dukes
Current Events - Tuesday:Lauren W. and Jonathan; Wednesday: McIntosh, Brenna; Thursday: Samuel, Julia; Friday: Kendall, Abby
Showcase Student - Shaherzad

Language Arts - Theme 2 (Doing Our Best)

* Phonics - i/ie, igh; inflections - ed, -ing

* Spelling - mighty, sunlight, lie, sightsee, frightened, high, nightstand, lightning, weeknight, fight, straight, brother, learn, cheer, caught, lose

* Reading - Winners Never Quit! by Mia Hamm

* Fluency - Intonation (Good readers use their tone of voice to help show what is happening or how characters are feeling)

* Comprehension - Using story details and prior knowledge to make predictions

* Robust Vocabulary - techniques, specially, struggle, traction, agile, spectator, competitive, worthwhile

* Grammar - Nouns (people, places, things and animals)
* Writing Workshop - Small Moments- writing story endings; revising and editing with partners

Mathematics - Unit 2

* Review -1, -0 shortcuts and to identify the subtraction facts related to given addition facts

* Fact Families (the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction)

* Exploring weights, scales, equal groups

* Name Collections (review the concept that a number can be named in many ways)

* Frames and Arrow Routines (using a given addition or subtraction rule to generate a number sequence, and identify the rule for a number sequence)

Social Studies

* Finish postcard from a famous landmark in North America

* Practice The Seven Continents Poem

* What is a map? (Review) What are map symbols?

Science

* Seed development (What seeds need to germinate?)

* Gardening with the Upper School on Wednesday

* Changes - Gas, Liquid, Solid

Parent Opinion Survey

Hello Parents! The window is now open for our parent opinion survey. You may access the survey through the link posted here. Please help us identify areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement by taking the survey. It should take approximately 20 minutes of your time. Also, if you live in a two-parent household, we encourage both parents to take the survey.

Thank you so much for your participation in this very important reflective process!

link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZBYF22R