Week of September 10th

I am so proud of all my students!  Our first Grandparents Day and first program of the year was FANTASTIC!  I enjoyed meeting all of the grandparents and discovering their painting talents.  All of my students have worked very hard this week on their assignments and I could not be more proud of all they have accomplished these past four weeks of school.  One of my favorite moments this week, was from one student to another, "You are substantial."  Precious encouragers!

Here are a few reminders for this week:
-  Wear jerseys Monday for P.E.
-  School pictures will be Wednesday.
-  Field Trip this Friday!
-  Please check out the supplies needed this week for conceptual down below.

Here is what we will be working on this week:

Reading:  We will begin reading "A Family Under the Bridge" by Natalie Carlson.  The students will be introduced to new vocabulary words and will learn their meanings through context clues.  They will also discover the meaning of words by learning how to use a dictionary.  I want to encourage you to read through the book with your child.  I suggest read a couple of pages a night, but please do not read ahead.

Language Arts:  This week, we will wrap up our studies on capitalization with a formal assessment on  Monday.  I have taught them an analogy to help them remember what words to capitalize.  The analogy is M.I.N.T.S.  M is for months, I is for the word I, N is for names, T is for titles, and S is for the start of a sentence.  We will also begin learning pronouns and how to use them within our writing.  Remember, a pronoun replaces a noun.

Spelling Words:  Thursday, bridge, buggy, which, family, one, sock, rock, block, clock

Challenge Word:  architecture

*There will be no sentence dictation this week.

Math:  On Thursday, we will wrap up our topic on addition strategies with a formal assessment.  The students will be engaged in lessons to help develop these strategies further.  Look for a study guide on Wednesday.

Science:  We will continue our studies on solids, liquids, and gases.  Because of our crazy week last week, we will catch up on some hands-on activities that will help the students grasp the differences between the three types of matter.

Conceptual:  I am really excited to be teaching our new unit!  We will need blankets, sheets, and large boxes for an activity that is planned for Wednesday and Thursday.  Please label these items and plan on them being at school through the weekend.  We are also in need of 26 dowel rods.  The size does not matter.  I will need these for our lesson on Tuesday.  Please let me know if you are able to help with any of these supplies.

Anna Laura is in the process of trying to reschedule our field trip to the Children's Museum.  As of right now, we are hoping to go on Friday, September 21st.  I will let you know definite dates as soon as I can.  Thank you to all of the parents who have helped make this past week run smoothly.