BRRRR . .. It's very cold!

Well, the cold weather has finally found us!  Please make sure your child has the appropriate clothing to stay warm...hat, mittens, snow pants, snow boots, and a warm coat.  We will be having recess unless it is below zero.  Children must have snow pants and snow boots to play in the field or on the big toy when there is snow on the ground.  If they do not have snow pants and snow boots they are limited to playing only on the blacktop.  Also, feel free to send an extra pair of shoes with your child to change into in between recesses.  LABEL ALL ITEMS WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME.  It is amazing how many of us shop at the same stores. Hats and gloves often go missing.  It really helps us keep track of them if your child's name is on them.

Thank you to the parents who came for parent teacher conferences.  It was great to have a chance to visit with you. Together we can make sure your child has a great year!

Also, a big THANK YOU to the families that brought money for the All for Books Coin Challenge. Our class raised almost $21.00.  That is a lot of coins!  Thank you!

We will continue with unit 2 in Lead 21.  This week we will try to answer the question "How do things move and change?"  Please have your child bring in one picture of movement from a magazine, newspaper, online, etc.  We will be making a movement collage this week for our inquiry project.  

We will be working on short u words in spelling.  Remember, letters need to be on the line properly, no capital letters in the middle of words, sentence needs to start with a capital letter and end with punctuation, and must have spaces between the words.  We will have our test on Friday.

In writing, we will begin learning about topic sentences.  Hopefully, by the end of the week we will know how to select a topic and be able to write a topic sentence.

In math, we will review the subtraction strategies we have already learned, counting back and using the number line, and learn a few new strategies.  We will also learn how to add 10 to a number.

Have a great week and stay warm!

Report Cards come home on Tuesday!

Wow!  We had a busy week.  We completed math and reading assessments.  It was exhausting!
Report cards will come home on Tuesday.  Report cards are now a standards based progress report. This means we look at the full year expectations and report where your child is currently.  However, in the reading categories we look at the current quarter's reading level expectations and report based on those reading levels.  There will be many 1s and 2s on your child's report card.  This is perfectly normal.  A 3 is our goal for the end of the year.  A 1 does not necessarily mean your child is not where they should be academically.  It could also mean that we have not taught all parts of the standard.  We will go over your child's report card during conferences and visit more on how your child was assessed.

Congratulations to Trinity!  She was the October winner of our Purple Hand cookie.

We did have a little fun this week in between assessments.  Our class made pumpkin bars!  They were delicious!

Then on Halloween, we made spider soup.  The students chose the ingredients throughout the week and we made it into a poem for our poetry binder.  Most of the kids actually ate it!

We will begin unit 2 in Lead 21 this week.  Our theme question is: How does our world change? This week's focus question is: How do plants and animal grow and change?  In order to answer this question, we will be reading a non-fiction book about desert plants and animals during whole group and many books about plants and animals during reading groups. 

In math, we will begin learning about subtraction and different strategies to use when subtracting. We will also begin learning about fact families.

The Book Fair Coin Challenge starts Monday! I sent home a information sheet Wednesday.

Book Fair at Bitterroot

Tuesday, November 4th 8-8:20 and 3:10-3:30

Wednesday, November 5th 8-8:20 and 12-4pm

Thursday, November 6th 8-8:20 and 12-6pm

Friday, November 7th 8-8:20 am only

Have a great week!