October 24th - 28th

Math:

This week in math, we will be reviewing all of the skills taught in the first nine weeks through problem solving.  Each day we will take a math concept and do a problem together in class.  Then each child will do an independent problem similar to the one taught as a whole group.  The concepts that will be reinforced this week are: skip counting, ordering numbers greatest to least, time, and place value.  All worksheets will be graded and placed in the Tuesday folder.  If you notice that your child hasn't mastered a concept(s), please reinforce at home as we will need to move forward in math with new concepts that will build on the concepts already taught.

Social Studies:

The students had so much fun learning about properties of matter in science, and this week we will rotate back with our social studies unit.  This new unit is on Texas. We will make a special Texas book that will teach the Texas motto, symbols of Texas, and the Texas Pledge.  We will have fun learning all about being a Texan! :)

Words Their Way:

This week will be a review of the word sorts taught in the first nine weeks.  We will illustrate pictures, search for pictures in magazines, and search for words in our reading books that follow our spelling pattern.  The green group will review word families (-ut, -ug, -un, -eg, -en, -et, -ag, -ap, an, at).  The blue group will review "H" friend words (ch, sh, th, wh, st, sp, sk, sl)  The red group will review long a, u, e, and i vowels in words that follow this pattern: CVC, CVCe, CVVC.  Assessments will be given this week in spelling.

Language Arts:

This week during our Reading Workshop our mini lessons will focus on strategies for strong readers.  The students will learn that strong readers notice beginning, and ending sounds of words they don't know.  They can figure out tough words by moving through the whole word.  They can think about what makes sense and they can use the pictures to help them figure out the words.

In Writer's Workshop, we will continue for one more week our unit on Poetry.  The children LOVE writing poems!  We made our anchor chart "Strategies Poets Use" and will spend more time this week learning how:
* Poets find a big topic that gives them big, strong feelings.
* Poets find a small object or moment or detail that holds the big feeling.
* Poets look with poets' eyes and see this ordinary thing in a new way.
* Poets write about it, experimenting with line breaks.

Our poetry folders will go home when we complete the unit.

We will also spend some time on Halloween Literature with some fun activities that go along with the unit.  The children have already told me in their writing what they want to be for Halloween....it sounds like everyone is excited and ready!

Reminders:

*Red Ribbon Week is Oct. 17th - 21st! 

School-wide activities:

MONDAY      “Sock it to Drugs” day so wear crazy or mismatched socks

TUESDAY     “Drugs and I Do Not Mix” day so wear mismatched clothes

WEDNESDAY   “Say No to Drugs” day so wear a red-colored clothing

THURSDAY   “Boot out Drugs” so wear boots or western clothing

FRIDAY  “Say BOO to Drugs” so wear a Halloween shirts or orange or white-shirts

*Oct 26 is Early Release Day (12:45)

*Calling all DADS!!!  On Monday, Oct. 31 at 8:30, we will carve pumpkins and do several activities with our pumpkins.  Please let me know if you would like to come.  We need you to provide a pumpkin and carving tools.

Thank You!
Classroom helper - Judy Lopato
Classroom Chores - Cheryl Borden
Tuesday Folders - Vera Djohan
Friday Helper - Jennie Phillips
Gabe Rupertus - has volunteered to come in on Oct 31st with a pumpkin and carving set.