Odyssey Charter School | Tammy Ritter RSS

Happy New Year!

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:32:40 GMT

Welcome back Room 13 Families!

This week's Word Wall Words were:

rain, quit, talk, very, enough

Reminder:

*No school on Monday, Jan. 16th

*Poetry Reading/Book Signing Party on Thursday, January 19th at 8:30

Room 13 News

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:40:47 GMT

Hello Room 13 Families,

I will not be sending home a Scholastic flyer for December because of the Scholastic Book Fair at school this month. I hope to see some of you here tomorrow for the Fall Fundraiser.

We will have a Writing Celebration sometime in January to celebrate all of the hard work your students have been doing in our Poetry unit. I will let you know the date when we return from break.

In this week's Thursday packet you will find a white envelope with an order form inside. This is for our class Poetry book that I am going to have published. PLEASE fill out the form whether you are ordering a book or not. The company will not publish our book if we do not have a form from each child in the class.

Often times being out of school for three weeks can cause students to forget vital information covered in class. Over the break, please have your student continue to read, write, practice word sorts and go over basic addition and subtraction facts. Writing letters and cards to family members is a great way for them to practice their writing skills. These cards and letters serve as a wonderful keepsake for years to come.

We have one more week of school left! Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication this first trimester! Room 13 is full of truly amazing students and I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with every single one of them. If I don't see some of you before the break - have a wonderful holiday season!

Ms. Tammy

Classroom News

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:26:11 GMT

Hello Room 13 Families,

Thank you all for the overwhelming support you have shown me since I shared my news of me being pregnant! You are all so wonderful and I'm lucky to be surrounded by such supportive families!

Last week we started yoga and had a beekeeper come to our class to do a presentation on bees! Ask your student about it.

Thank you for coming to our Writing Celebration last week. The kids were so excited to share all of their hard work with you. This week we are starting a new writing unit on Poetry.

In Readers Workshop we are beginning to talk about retelling and ways that readers think about books to grow ideas.

In math, first graders are learning about doubles facts such as 2+2, 4+4, 5+5 etc... Second graders are working on doubles facts, fact families and memorizing basic addition and subtraction facts.

Ask Me About:

+9 shortcut (2nd graders)

using doubles facts to help with "near doubles" (2nd graders)

how to retell a story using "time words"

facts about bees

yoga poses

our 5 senses

Room 13 is at 58% participation for the Annual Campaign!

Ask Me About

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:16:13 GMT

The pumpkin life cycle.
Contractions
Five Little Pumpkins Song

Word Wall Words for the week:

I'm

it's

can't

didn't

don't

Ask Me About

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:34 GMT

In Readers Workshop, we have been learning about how to figure out "Tricky words" - ask your student some of the things a good reader can do when they come to a "tricky word."

In Writers Workshop, we have been learning about how to "show not tell" by adding inner thoughts and talking to our writing. We have also learned about using sound words to make our stories more interesting. Ask your student about the writing piece they are working on.

Other "Ask Me About" ideas:

Four Corners Game

Word Wall Words and Word Sorts

Zero the Hero

Computer Lab

P.E.

Morning Meeting Activities

Music

Word Study

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:51:20 GMT

We started Word Study this week. Students practiced the following word wall words:

said

was

with

you

Students were introduced to their first word sort for the year. A photo copy of the word sort was sent home. Please help your student cut out the words and practice the sort daily. They should practice reading, writing and spelling the words in their word sorts.

Ask Me About:

How to read with a partner

How to "show not tell" by adding small actions to our writing pieces

My word sort for the week

Word Study activities

2nd Graders: Organizing and Collecting Math Unit

Week 3 "Ask Me About" Ideas

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:28:50 GMT

We have had a wonderful first three weeks of school! This week we learned about: how to choose just right books, how to plan stories, and how to correctly form frog jump capital letters. Often times, I will create an "Ask me about" list for you to use when talking to your student about their school day. Below are some great conversation starters.

Ask me about:

"Frog Jump Capitals"
How to choose a "just right" book
The 4 steps to planning a writing piece
Mr. Nick's Music lesson
Sharks and Sea Lions game

ILP sign-ups now available online!

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:41:15 GMT

Please see the ILP Sign-up link to the left to set up a meeting. I look forward to meeting with you all!

Team Building

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:39:01 GMT

Room 13 has been working on creating a sense of community in the classroom through team building activities. Check out our photo gallery for pictures of the first week of school.

Ask your child about:

2 on a crayon

Musical islands

Numbers on a log

No hand stand up