Week of October 13-17

This week's story in Treasures is called, The Perfect Pet (Unit 1, Week 5). The comprehension strategy is to analyze the story structure and identify the problem and solution. In grammar, students will learn about compound sentences and in spelling the words follow the long i pattern. As always, there are fun spelling activities at Spelling City to help in practicing the words to be ready for the test on Friday.  The Weekly Assessment on the skills practiced this week will be on Friday as well.

We are wrapping up Chapter 1 in GOMath this week.  The assessment will be on Tuesday.  Students will be tested on estimating, rounding to the nearest 10 and 100, and adding and subtracting within 1,000.  Students can maintain, practice, and improve on math skills by going to www.frontrowed.com and Moby Math (found on the Links page of the Elementary Page website).  I've noticed that many students do not know their addition facts fluently.  A set of flash cards to practice at home or even verbally asking your child math facts while you're driving in the car can help with math fluency.  We'll be moving into multiplication soon and a solid recall of addition facts will help immensely.

We are continuing our study of plants and plant parts this week.  We're focusing this week on pollinators and how important they are to the food supply.  The Chapter 1 assessment is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 21.  Students have their Vocabulary 4 Square Sort (the words are also here on the blog), a Summary Sheet, and a written short answer guide to help in preparing for the test.  Please help at home by asking questions and reviewing the important information on the study sheets.

In writing, we're finishing up a Personal Narrative about a time when students cared for someone or someone cared for them.  The writing has improved so much since the first writing sample on the third day of school! It's so fun to read their stories and hear their voice come through.  These Personal Narratives will be available for you to read at Parent Teacher Conferences (October 22-23). Thursday, October 23 is a half day (dismissal at 12:05) and on Friday, October 24 there is no school.

I'm still waiting for a few parents to indicate what days work for their schedules to set conference times.  As soon as all appointments are set, I will send home the letter indicating your day and time.  Many parents are asking for evening appointments.  Of course, that means a packed evening schedule.  If 15 minutes is not enough time to answer all of your questions or concerns, I can meet at another time.

There is a Parent Party Planning Meeting on Tuesday, October 14 at 6:00 PM in the classroom.  If you are willing to plan the classroom parties, please plan to attend the meeting.  If you want to plan, but can't make the meeting just let me know.