Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a great weekend. It’s hard to believe that we have come to the final week of our first quarter. It has been such a great learning experience for me and the entire class. I want to say a special thank you to all our parent volunteers: Mrs. Zinke, Mrs. Gerson, Mrs. Lavell, Mrs. Antoniello, Mrs. Everhart, and Mrs. Sinykin. We appreciate your dedication to Reading and Math groups. Here is a quick look at our week:  

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. Please, review homework as they come home.

List 1: song, sing, sang, winter, stone, free, lake, lace, page, nice, end, fall, went, back

List 2: paper, put, each, soon, came, Sunday, show, Monday, moon, yet, find, give, new, letter

List 3: take, Mr., Mister, after, thing, what, than, its, his, her, it’s, very, or, thank, dear, west

List 4: sold, told, best, form, far, gave, alike, add, brave,  corn, dance, dinner, doll, egg, fruit

READING – READING STRATEGY: Our reading strategy this week is analyzing characters. Children will learn to analyze character by focusing on what they think, do, say, and feel. We will finish Charlotte’s Web. Please, have your child bring The Boxcar Children to school.

 POETRY : Title: “Caterpillars” is our poem for this month. They will bring a copy of the poem home tomorrow(Students will memorize poem and say it individually by memory at the end of the month.)

SAYING: “keep your fingers crossed,” is our saying.  We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in it through meaningful use.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – This week, we will learn to use capital letters for proper names, initials, titles of respect, addresses, and poems.

WRITING – As we work with Writing With Ease , students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills.

LEVELED READERS

Please, encourage your scholars to take their readings seriously. I decided to wait till the second quarter before sending home the comprehension question log. I will explain the expectations to you all during our conference.

MATH

This week we will begin subtraction with renaming. In the past, I have observed that most children struggle with subtraction more than addition.  Please, do not hesitate to contact me if you think your child needs extra help.          

SCIENCE

We learned about the different states of water: liquid, solid and gas. We also started a conversation about evaporation. This week, we will talk about condensation and precipitation.

GEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAS

        We will do our History review on Monday, and students will come home with their History packets and study guide. Our test will be on Wednesday. I have carefully added notes to every lesson that children can review at home. Please, go over review questions with them.

VIRTUE

Responsibility

To hold yourself morally accountable for actions within your control.

OWN your actions

This week we will continue to emphasize the virtue of responsibility.

Quote

  Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.
                                    ― Noam Chomsky

Announcements

·      Guided reading will be  on Tuesdays and Wednesday. On Tuesday, it will be 12:30 – 1:30pm (60mins) On Wednesdays; it will be 11:50am -12:50pm (60 mins). We will also have Math groups on Wednesday mornings starting this week at 8:05-9:05 am.

·      Our field trip is on Friday. Please, make sure you send in your permission slips.

·      Our sign-up genius is up. Please, remember to choose a slot for our end of quarter conference. Here is the URL: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4da8a623a0f58-quarter

·      We have a parent coming in on Friday to present India to the class. We will gather in the MPR for a 30minute presentation.

·      We now have a wish list for our class. A special thank you to Mrs. Zinke and Mrs. Everhart for the Kleenex tissues.

·      Top on my wish list is a collection of chapter books for the classroom. By second semester, I would love to completely phase out most students into reading longer texts, hoping that they would have learned enough comprehension skills that will help them understand longer texts.

·      Have your child bring The Boxcar Children to school.

·      Tests: Math and Reading (Charlotte’s Web) will be on Thursday. History is on Wednesday.

Have a great fall break!

Sincerely,

Ms. Toyin & Ms. Peterson