September 17-21

Hello!

We will be taking a Community Walk next Tuesday!  We will be walking through the neighborhood and to our local McDonald's restaurant for a treat.  Your child will be encouraged to bring no more than $5 so they can buy themselves a treat.  I will not be holding onto their money for them.  They will use this as a learning experience on how to order and pay for themselves. 

Picture Day is on Wednesday!  If you are ordering pictures you should send in the order form by Wednesday. 

Common Core Night is Wednesday evening from 6:00-7:00.  If you plan on attending and haven't sent in your RSVP, then please let me know so we have enough space.  Thanks!  :)

Parent Conferences are next week!  I can't wait to meet with each of you to set some goals for the year and to discuss your child's progress with you.

Reading
We are continuing to make connections and ask questions about the text we read.  Ask your child to create a few connections and "I wonder..." questions after he or she reads from a book, and check to see if they can answer their own questions.  Small reading groups began today!

Spelling
The spelling pattern this week contains word families.  Each of the words in the list will contain one of these endings:  -ay, -an, -ip, -old, -ack, and -own.  The spelling test will be on Friday.

Math
This week we will be practicing our mental math skills as well as rounding and estimating numbers.
If your child is struggling with homework and you are not sure how to help, please encourage them to bring their textbook home so that you can reveiw the lesson with them.  This might help some frustration that your child may be havingwith homework.   

Writing
We will be writing a special poem this week.  Biopoems are poems that describe ourselves and our characteristics.  They should be finished in time for you to read at conferences. 

Social Studies
We are still studying communities and will review the differences between urban, rural and suburban communities.

Science
We will continue learning about solar energy by experimenting with sun beads and the effectiveness of UV strengths in various sunscreens.