And We're Off!

This week may be a short week for the children, but we have a great deal going on. The Book Fair started today. I took the children over for them to take a look at the incredible display of books for purchase. They will be coming home with a wish list. If they do decide that they want to purchase any books, I will be taking them back over the library on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, we have guidance in the morning and picture lady in the afternoon. Wednesday is Poetry in the Park. We will keep our fingers crossed that the rain is long gone by then. The title of our poem is, Mad About Math. We hope you will be able to come and join us.

I completed the report cards over the weekend. I am proud of my children in many ways. They have worked hard and I feel that they are ready for new challenges and expectations . In the first reporting period, I observed the children closely in their interactions with each other on the playground and in the classroom. I was and will continue to be insistent that they treat each other with respect and kindness. My little group is courteous and is very respectful of authority. Though these areas continue to be important, I am going to focus even more closely on the effort and the quality of work that the children produce. I want them to begin to take on more responsibility for proofreading their work and independently use the tools around them while working. I have noticed the amount of misspelled words and missed questions on homework assignments. We will begin our new reading theme, Perspective Taking. The children will be introduced to higher level reading skills such as character analysis and the perspective of the writer and the reader. We will take our time and multiple practice lessons will be planned. I will begin to send home "baggy books" for the children to read over a couple of days. I would encourage them to not only read these books out loud to an active listener, but to also read the text at least once independently. Please continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts. I did send home the beginnings of multiplication. I will send home the remaining tables later. Please just focus on the ones I sent home for now. I will at some point begin giving little timed fact quizzes to check on the progress of this skill. I will let you know ahead of time when to expect these to begin.

Please remember to turn in the nightly book log that the children keep. Once they turn it in, I give them a new one to take home. I do keep track of these and give the children credit for their effort.

The spelling this week are words with the long i sound with various spellings of this sound. There are no rules associated with this list this week However, I will be giving them dictation sentences tomorrow to practice for the Thursday test.

I would like to thank you for your continued support. Once the report cards arrive, you may have questions and concerns. Please do to not hesitate to email me.