Thursday, October 6, 2011

October 10th-14th

This Monday is Columbus Day. The children do not have school on Monday. I will be at school meeting with parents throughout the day for fall conferences. If you are meeting me for a conference, then please double check your time. Conferences are only 20 minutes, and many of them are back to back. I want you to have your full time to meet with me and ask any questions that you have. You can check your conference time at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/fall2170 using the password "GW."

Reading
This week in reading we will continue to work with our Daily 5 groups, and we will begin to explore non-fiction texts. We will look at text features, discuss monitoring our reading for comprehension and also deciding between fact and opinion.

Writing
This week the students will be working on writing summaries and writing in a booklet format. The students will write a short summary of something the class has done in a fun booklet format to share with the class.

Math
We will be starting subtraction this week. We will focus on subtraction strategies and we will play many subtraction games. On Friday we will be making fun "Domino Fact Families" out of graham cracker, icing and raisins. Ask your child to share with you what they learned about fact families during this exercise.

Spelling
The spelling pattern this week is short u. Feel free to look up other short u words so that you can point out the pattern to your child. Try this fun website to help you study, too! http://www.spellingcity.com/

Science
We are going to finish up matter this week and test over matter on Wednesday. On Tuesday we will review everything we learned about matter. We had so much fun with all of our matter experiments last week! Thank you to everyone who helped us out in the lab and with supplies. Thursday and Friday of next week will be dedicated to the using the 5 senses like a scientist, and then magnet exploration will be our final activity of the week.

PTA Membership Drive
If you have not joined the PTA, then it is a great way to support your child's school. We currently have a contest that is almost up! Help us win by signing up for the PTA!

Box Tops for Education!
Box top collections are almost done! This is the final week to send in box tops! Send them in soon if you can to help us win this competition.

CONFERENCES
Please sign up for a time if you have not, using the password of "GW" on the website http://www.signupgenius.com/go/fall2170. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Reminders and Dates:
Columbus Day/Conference Day- October 10th
Box Tops for Education ends- October 14th
Tuesday Folder Basket- Nithyalakshmi Somasundaram
Principal's Pride- Abigail
Library Day- Wednesday all books need to come in- even if they are just being rechecked.