Report cards go home today, Monday, October 22nd. Enclosed with the report card is an assessment to explain your child's progress in more detail. Normally we would be having conferences with this report card and many teachers are missing the Fall conference time - myself included. Conferences will now only be held in the Spring. I felt compelled to give a little more explanation of how your child is doing by enclosing grade averages, strengths, weaknesses and recommendations. I hope you find this helpful. Also enclosed is a report of your child's Accelerated Reader history and points obtained this school year. For any student, Accelerated Reader is a helpful activity, but it is especially helpful for those who are struggling with reading and/or comprehension difficulties. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns regarding your child's progress.
Please email me or ask the front office to leave me a paper message. I cannot get to the telephone voice mail many days until way after you've left a message.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Red Ribbon Week - all week long, this week, with a different activity each day.
Please refer to the red sheet sent home at the end of last
week.
Friday, 10/26 - SPIRIT DAY - Please remind your child to wear green/gold, or
CHALKER spirit wear.
Saturday, 10/27- FALL FESTIVAL
I'll be there and will also be auctioning myself for a special
activity for the highest bidder!
November 5th and 6th - STUDENT HOLIDAY!! (Darn! Not for teachers!)
This will be a long weekend for students with Mon. and Tues. off.
November 14th - WAMU Banking Day
November 16 - PICTURE MAKE-UP DAY, for anyone who missed it or didn't like
the first picture!
DONATIONS NEEDED:
Lysol Wipes, extra healthy snacks, more playground toys
**PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO SEND YOUR DONATION FOR THE FALL FESTIVAL THIS SATURDAY!! We want our auction basket to be bid on and for all to have a really fun time.
WHAT WE'RE UP TO:
MATH:
We've been using number lines to better understand addition and subtraction. We have learned how to add using regrouping and will now be working on subtraction regrouping. This is the reason that knowing + and - facts is so important - the numbers are getting larger! Please continue to work on these facts at home so your child's speed will increase. We have been working on them at school and I have seen some amazing improvements through constant repitition.
SCIENCE:
We are on our 2nd week of studying about the 3 States of Matter - Solids, Liquids and Gases. We began by looking at all of them and will now do experiments and learn about each state individually. Later this week, we will be making Oobleck. What in the world is that? It's green and goopy. Is it a solid, a liquid or a gas? When we are finished your child can teach YOU about it!
LANGUAGE ARTS:
We continue to have individual Guided Reading Groups on a daily basis. While these groups are working with me, the other students have a story and a reading comprehension activity. Many students are rushing through their reading activity to move onto something else. The result for some has been that they must go back and correct wrong information on their papers due to rushing through it. Please help me inform students that they must take their time during Reading time and read thoroughly and slowly so that they will remember the information contained in each story.
We continue writing on a regular basis and have begun Writer's Workshop. Most of this writing will not be available to you until the end of the year. These stories take a long time to write and they follow the writer's procedure of brainstorming, writing, editing and publishing. They may have to edit several times. It is exciting and the finished product is worth saving. The students and I are talking about publishing some of these stories on our blog so that everyone can read some of our work.
Our class has been thrilled with our new computers! They add such an extended learning and teaching resource to our room that I don't know how we have ever lived without them! It is a fight to the finish each day to see how many students can have their computer time. I am amazed with their familiarity with the key board and the web. I wish I had a computer for at least half our class as there are so many learning resources available.
MANY THANKS TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS (Copy moms, Computer Lab moms, Fall Festival Volunteers, Media Cntr. volunteers and PTA volunteers!) Our school wouldn't be as great as it is without you!
MANY THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT FROM HOME!
