Mrs. Weeks
September Dates to Remember:
9/1: PBS School Color Day: Wear Yellow and Blue
9/4: Labor Day Holiday (No school)
9/6: Fall Pictures (individual)
9/6: Boy Scout Recruitment Night-6:30-7:30 PM
9/7: SAC/PTO Meeting- 5:30 PM
9/11: Interim Reports Go Home
9/12: PTO Board Neeting-2:30 PM
9/14: Volunteer Orientation-8:30 AM
9/14: Girl Scout Recruitment Night: 6:00 PM
9/15: Kindergarten Movie Night
9/18: Drama Club: 2:30 PM
9/21: Rosh Hashanah (No School)
9/25-9/29: Drama Club Smencil Sale
9/25: Drama Club: 2:30 PM
9/29: PBS-Favorite College Shirt Day
Reading
In Reading, we are working on fictional stories, focusing on characters and setting in a story, along with the plot (beginning, middle, and end). We are working on informational text, focusing on main ideas and details. We are studying Force and Motion, Push and Pull, Making Things Move, and Friction in Science. The students have also been working on Goods and Services, Needs and Wants, Past and Present, and How Things Have Changed in Social Studies.
AR is and has always been part of our daily homework. Children who practice daily reading skills become better readers! Our students need to read at least one book per night during the week in preparation for their AR test on the computer. Please parents, with beginning readers, it is important that you allow your child to read to you, and ask them questons about what they have read. This will help improve their fluency and comprehension skills. It is often helpful for students to read their books 2 or 3 times to fully comprehend the stories.
I also encourage parents to take their children to our wonderful public libraries! They can select from a large variety of books, and they also have AR books to check out! Our public libraries are open on Saturdays as well!!
Phonics
This year we have a brand new Phonics Program called Blast, from Really Good Reading. The kids use manipulative tile blocks to create sounds, syllables, and words. The kids enjoy the program, and they each have a workbook to go along with it.
Grammar
In Grammar, we are learning about pronouns, and how we can use them in our writing to make our sentences and stories more interesting.
The worksheets you see coming home on Thursdays provide extra practice for the Grammar skill we are learning in class that week. If your child has difficulty with the practice, it is helpful to provide extra examples to master the skill.
Writing
In Writing, we have been busy working on paragraphs. We have been writing narratives, expository, and opinion writing. I remind students to write their thoughts down first, then go back and look for correct spelling, punctuation, and capital letters. I want students to get their thoughts down first, and edit later! We have been writing on topics involving people, places, and things we treasure. I have seen some very creative pictures to go along with their interesting thoughts and stories!!
These are just some of the things we have been working on in class. Please continue to help your children with their Spelling Words, Reading and Math Homework, Writing complete and detailed sentences, Grammar, Accelerated Reading, Math, and Math Facts. I appreciate all of your help and support as we continue to help our children reach for the stars!!!
We had such a wonderful time with our Guest Readers for Read Across America Week! Thank you so much to our twelve adult volunteers who read interesting and entertaining books to our students, and inspired them to enjoy reading even more!
Also, check the link at the left for important and helpful links to various websites.
clipart from www.djinkers.com