Newsletter September 4-7

I hope that you all had  a nice Labor Day holiday.  I did!  We sure live in a beautiful area, as I witnessed yesterday, with my family, as we hiked to Cascade Falls. 

We are getting right back to work after the holiday.  Today I sent home new spelling words.  With only four days this week, you may need to help your child a bit extra at home.  This week I will add a sentence to your child's spelling test.  I will grade the sentences this way:  one point for capital at the beginning, one point for each spelling word spelled correctly, and one point for ending punctuation.

The August reading record is due today!  Please sign the August record and send it back with your child.  The August reading record is worth 50 points.  I sent home a September reading record today, it has apples on it.  The reading records from now on will be worth 100 points.  Please read with your child for 20 minutes every school night.

I hope that you saw my note about sight words in your child's backpack.  If your child did not come home with sight word list #1 (with words that need to still be practiced written on the yellow sheet), then they passed it off in class (I had 9 kids pass list #1 off).  Please work with your child on these sight words every night if necessary.  You can include five minutes of sight word practice as part of your child's 20 minutes of nightly reading.

I included Scholastic book orders in your child's homework folder today.  These of course are optional, but ordering  helps us get free books for our classroom, as well as helps to build your home library.  These book orders will be due Friday, September 14.  The easiest way to order is to use the online code from the letter that I attached to the orders.  You can also send in the order with one check made out to Scholastic. 

School pictures will be Monday, September 10th.  I sent home a picture order form last Friday. All children will have their picture taken, but if you do not send in an order form with payment, your child will not receive a picture packet.  You can send the orders anytime this week.  I will hold them and then give them to the photographers.

We have been busy learning about the weather.  Today we went outside and were "weather watchers".  I can't believe that it is raining now, after what we observed this afternoon.  I took some pictures and will post those later. We continue to practice our handwriting and learning that words convey meaning and have beginning, middle, and ending sounds. We also have learned that words are made up of smaller units called "syllables". 

Thanks to those of you that have offered to bring extra snacks or to those that have just sent extra snacks.   I appreciate it very much!             

I will be gone tomorrow, observing Dual Immersion classrooms in St. George.  I will miss my cute first graders!  I am one lucky teacher!

Happy Reading!