Mrs. Topolosky's Web Page
Welcome to Basic Skills!
Basic Skills is a program in which we support the reading, writing and math instruction in the classroom. Repetition and extra practice encourage success.
The program is designed to support both the reading and math curriculums. Students work in small groups and lessons focus on skills and strategies.
In addition to reviewing and practicing concepts taught in the classroom, Basic Skills uses Recipe for Reading, a visual, auditory and kinesthetic program that teaches sound/letter correspondence and correct letter formation.
Students will build their sight vocabularies by the use of games and flashcards.
Students will learn how to blend words and use other reading strategies to figure out unknown words.
Reading web site you may visit for games and activities:
The second grade Basic Skills program in reading includes a review of phonics rules using the Open Court program and the development of strategies that good readers use. It also stresses the development of reading fluency, expression and comprehension skills.
The Basic Skills program is designed to support the Everyday Mathematics program which is used in your child's classroom. Students work on math skills and strategies within a small group setting.
The Everyday Mathematics program offers the students a broad background in mathematics. It offers a problem-solving approach based on everyday situations, a variety of formats for frequent practice of basic skills, an instructional approach that revisits concepts regularly and a curriculum that explores mathematical content beyond basic arithmetic.
Topics covered in first grade math include:
Number and numeration
Operations and Computation
Data and Chance
Geometry
Pattern, Functions and Algebra
One-to-one correspondence
Counting & tallies
Telling time to the hour & half-hour
Counting coins
Number stories & basic addition and subtraction facts
Topics covered in second grade include:
Telling time to the five minutes
elapsed time
reading, counting and ordering numbers from 100-1000
counting coins & making change
making up & solving number stories
basic addition and subtraction facts
place value
addition of two digit numbers using the partial sums slgorithm
subtraction of two digit numbers using the trade first algorithm
Kaboose is a web site for math games at every grade level.
Rainforest Maths (http://www.rainforestmaths.com/) a wonderful website for math games and practice.
I look forward to working with your children this year. Please revisit my site as it will be updated to reflect current skills being covered!
Basic Skills Update
First Grade Reading
In reading , we have reviwed and worked with the words that make up the "short a" word families. We have also started to work with sight (Dolch) words. We even made our own "Portable Word Wall" so that our words are catagorized by their beginning letters. We will add new words to this word wall each week and use it daily.
On the first day of each week, 2-5 sight words will be introduced and the students will follow a routine to:
Point to the word and read it aloud
Use it in a sentence
Read it again
Clap, chant or cheer the word
Outline the shape of the word with a highlighter
Rainbow trace the word with a crayon
Throughout the week, these words are reviewed and students will find them in the books they are reading, practice writing sentences using the words, play games with the words, etc.
A set of "flash cards" will be sent home on a regular basis so parents are aware of the sight words we are practicing. Some great ideas for sight word review are:
1. Use index cards to write each word twice. Play a game of "concentration".
2. Find the words in book and magazines. Use highlighter tape (may be purchased at a teaching supply store or on-line at a teaching supplies website) or a highlighter marker to identify/color sight words from our flash cards.
3. You may even choose to work with your child for a few minutes each day doing one of the activities from our "routine"
We are using leveled picture books to focus on using many helpful reading strategies.
Thank you for your help at home in the area of Reading.
In reading, we are working on using decoding strategies to unlock unknown words. They include looking for known chunks in words (chunking), sounding the first letter(s) in a word (getting your mouth ready), blending sounds, using picture and context cues (does it make sense?), and thinking about language or how we speak (does it sound right?). We are reviewing short vowel sounds and beginning and ending consonant blends.
After reading short poetry or a leveled picture book, we retell the piece with details, and in sequence. We are also practicing how to retell a story or poem to identify the main idea (retelling in one or two sentences). We often write a sentence about the story or one related to it. Sometimes these sentences are cut up into sentence puzzles to be reconstructed for language development and sight word reinforcement. Also, we are practicing how to read with more fluency and expression!
These skills are continuouly reinforced by rereading the text in school and at home. Fluency improves as children become more proficient in Reading. Your continued support is greatly appreciated!
In math, we are working on number sense writing numbers correctly and without reversals. We are using a number grid from one to fifty for simple moves such as counting forward and backward from a given number (We play "Rolling For 50" game) , naming the number before and after a given number, and solving simple word problems. Tallying and money (pennies, nickels, and dimes) are concepts we have addressed. At home practice counting pennies, nickels and dimes and exchanging pennies for nickels and nickels for dimes would be helpful reinforcement.
Telling, writing and showing time on an analog clock to the hour and half hour is another math concept we will explore. Please continue to practice skip counting with your child by 2's and 5's. We are also working on beginning addition concepts, as we finding the sums of ten. We play the "Two Fisted Penny Addition" and "penny plate" games to help reinforce and strengthen our adding abilities!
In second grade math, we are learning and practicing turn-around and doubles facts. We are always working with our number grids to fill in missing pieces of it, counting ahead and back, and skip counting.We have been playing games such as: "Addition Top-It" to practice our addition facts and "Dice Subtraction" to practice subtracting. We are writing and solving number stories. We cut out our own "fact triangles" and are using them to learn about "fact families". Please continue to talk to your child about what they are doing in Basic Skills math. Your support is greatly appreciated!
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