October 27 - 31

Obviously we didn't have spelling words with the two short weeks we just had.  I sent home a new list of spelling words today.  For the last two spelling tests, the dictation sentence was counted at bonus points.  This week it will count as regular points (hopefully that makes sense).

I hope that you saw the note I sent home about Halloween costumes and the costume parade on Halloween afternoon.  I will not elaborate more here, but if you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me. We will finish our apple head witches for a little Halloween party.  We will do that Halloween morning. 

The PTA sent home an information sheet about their new reading program (3,000,000 minutes).  They sent home little papers for you to put your child's weekly reading minutes on.  Since most of the teachers if not all require reading minutes in their classrooms, we have decided to make it easier on parents and just use our classroom reading calendars and tally up the minutes that way.  You do not need to fill out the PTA reading minutes anymore.  Just continue to read with your child for 20 minutes each day and color in the icon (ghosts this month) and I will turn in the reading minutes for our class at the end of the month.

We just finished our Math Test #2 a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to remind you that I have a high school helper who helps make corrections on those tests.  So if your child has missed some points, but you look over the test and see that everything is correct, then corrections have been made.  I do this so that my student's will understand why they missed the problem and have immediate feedback (well, as "immediate" as I can get it).

I can't stress the importance of sight word practice and having those be words that are automatically read.  If your child is not working on at least List #3, then they are behind with their sight words.  I will test all students on List #3 starting on November 3. 

Remember that picture retakes are tomorrow.  Only those that send their picture packets back or send money or have requested retakes will be sent down for pictures. 

I will have grades for the first quarter by the end of this week.  The October Scholastic book order that I sent home last week will be due this Friday, October 31 and the take-home librarian was absent today so your child will not have a take-home book today.

Congratulations to Dane and Brennan.  They were our classroom Catch the Vision winners for October.  They are both wonderful deserving students. 

Happy Reading!