Newsletter April 24 - April 28

I hope you all had a glorious spring break.  I know I was yawning this afternoon and my kiddos were asking for snacks today.  It's amazing how long that felt (almost like we'd been gone for the summer).  We still have four plus weeks left and will continue to learn and grow up until the end.

Here are this week's happenings:

• This Wednesday, April 26 is our walking field trip to SUU for Bard's Birthday Bash.  We will leave here at 9:00 (so please make sure you child is here on time).  We will walk to the Shakespeare center for activities like Renaissance dancing, jousting, improv, and cake with the queen.  We will return at approximately 11:30 right before lunch. Thanks to those that have volunteered to walk with us to SUU.  
• We have a minor (fun) change to our trip to the St. George Children's Museum next Monday, May 1.  In addition to our trip to the museum and lunch we are able to ride the carousel adjacent to the museum.  That will up the cost just a bit.  Instead of just $1.00 the cost will now be $1.75 ($1.00 for the museum and 75 cents for the carousel).  If you haven't already sent your money please do so by this Friday, April 28.  I have three parents that have committed to coming down with us to the museum.  I still need one more parent that can commit to coming with us that day.  The museum requires 1 adult for every 5 students.  If you can come please let me know ASAP.  You are welcome to ride the bus with us or follow us down or meet us at the museum.  
• Spelling Words were sent home today.  They are a bit tricky and will require some extra study at home for most students. The test will be this Friday.
• This is our last week for reading intervention (special) reading groups.  I will continue to hold small reading groups in my class through the month of May, but the reading aides will be testing students, and taking inventory and closing up shop for the summer.  I so appreciate all of the wonderful assistance we receive at East Elementary especially when it comes to small group reading interventions.  Our final end-of-the-year Dibels test will be next Wednesday, May 3 in the morning.  Please help by ensuring that your child gets a good nights sleep and food in their tummy that morning.  If they are sick or absent they will be tested another day. 
• May 17 is the final day for our 100-book challenge.  I have several that are so close to getting to the 100 book mark!  We will have our Pizza party the following Monday, May 20 and I will submit a picture of all of the kids that read 100 books to the Iron County Today newspaper.  I will let you know the date of that publication after submission.
• We will continue our Sight Word Soldier program for three more weeks.  Thanks to Mary's mom who has faithfully come in every Wednesday to help keep that up.  It really helps!  Some necklaces are overflowing with beads and that means that little brains are overflowing with sight words too. 
• I really will get Scholastic book orders out this week.  They will be due next Wednesday, May 3.  That will be the final order that I will send home this year.  They will be back in time before the summer break. 
• We just started our final unit in reading today and as I noted earlier will be working on that until the end :). Today we learned about other spellings for the /ae/ (sound)--'ai' and 'ay'.  I love it when my students point out those "newly' learned spellings in their reading.  In math, we are working with two-dimensional shapes.  Today we continued with sides and vertices (corners or angles) and added trapezoids and hexagons to the mix. We will continue to learn about the history of the earth and then move into Animal Habitats to finish out the year.
• One last field trip request--I only have two parents that have volunteered to come swimming with us on May 9.  I need two more (but will take as many as want to come).  Please consider coming with us and swimming with the kids.  As a reminder, we will leave the school around 12:40 and return by 3:00 on Tuesday, May 9.  
• Take-home books again were not sent home today as our librarian was out sick today. 

Have a great night!  and Happy Reading!

Newsletter April 10 - April 14

We have fun things planned for this week before our Spring break.

Here are this week's happenings:

• Thanks for getting me all of your lunch preferences in for our field trip to the St. George Children's museum on May 1.  I have one parent that has volunteered to help us that day--I still need three more parent volunteers to accompany us on that trip.  You can ride the bus down with us (leaving at 9:00 a.m.) or meet us at the museum at about 10:00 a.m.  Please contact me if you can help us.  The museum requires that many helpers so if we can't get a few more we may be forced to cancel the trip. I have had a couple of you send in your $1.00 for that trip.  You can send that in anytime before May 1.  It's easier if I get the $1.00 before the day we leave so I can get a count to our secretary in advance rather than running around the morning of figuring our money situation.   
• Our Easter Egg Hunt is scheduled for this Thursday at around 2:15 at the Canyon Park.  We will go to the west side of the park (by the hill, pavilion and bigger playground) instead of the east side as originally planned since the Kindergarten classes will be going on Friday and we won't have competition for that space.  I have two parents that have volunteered to help come and get the eggs and "hide" them for us.  I would love to have some more helpers.  Let me know if you could come and help.  You would need to come to our classroom at about 1:30 to get the eggs and then take them to the park and "hide" them.  We will leave the school at 2:00 right after library to go to the park.  We still need more eggs!  Please consider if you can help us by sending in a dozen plastic- candy filled Easter eggs by Wednesday, April 12.  You can either buy them already pre-filled (easiest way obviously) or fill them yourself.  Please secure them with a piece of scotch tape if you fill them as they tend to pop open. 
• For our swimming field trip, I have two parents that have volunteered to help.  I need a couple more for that field trip.  We will go on Tuesday, May 9 in the afternoon (12:30-3:00).  Let me know if you can help with that also.  The PTA is sponsoring that field trip and will sponsor parent volunteers also.  
• Tomorrow we will take our Chapter 11 math test (three-dimensional shapes).  We will then move onto our final chapter (parts of a whole) and then review some tricky parts of our addition/subtraction chapters as well as work on concepts that will help with moving onto second grade.
• We do not have spelling words this week.  We are also concluding a unit in reading also.  We will pause for a few days and work on personal narrative this week and finish our reading book called "Grace".  When we return from spring break we will begin our final unit in reading!  CRAZY!  Don't think we're done as we have our end-of-year reading test (DIBELS) on May 3.  Reading intervention groups will commence on May 1, but we won't stop small group reading instruction.  I will continue to have small reading groups within my classroom for the month of May.
• It's the week of new units.  We just started our Unit on the History of the Earth (think rocks, geology, continents etc.).  I'm amazed at what my students already know, but I will be amazed at what they learn also.  Today we learned about Geologists and the three terms that all "geologists" understand that cause changes in our earth--those are "heat", "pressure", and "time". 
• Take-Home books will come home Monday-Thursday only this week.  The take-home librarian wants to cut down on lost books over the break so books will not come home on Friday.  Please take this time to find your book if it's been missing for a while. Remember that the replacement cost for take-home books is $5.00.  
• I didn't get Scholastic book orders out last week.  I will do my best to get them separated out and sent home this week.  I will send home both April and May brochures and that will most likely be our final order of the year. Thanks for ordering--that is one of the ways that I acquire "free" books for our classroom and adds to the collection of books that I give my students as the progress through the 100-book challenge. We have another 100 book club member--Tenley reached the 100 book mark last week.  Congratulations!  Keep reading towards that goal.  We have a little over a month left. 

I hope that you all have a nice Spring Break--I am hoping it actually feels like spring for it!  Send Easter eggs if you can and haven't already :)  and Happy Reading!

Newsletter April 3 - April 7

It seems like writing my blog newsletter brings the snow.  It's doing the same thing as last Monday--snowing!  I am going to write a note about our upcoming field trips in April and May so watch for that to come home by Wednesday. 

Here are this week's happenings:

• The next spelling test is tomorrow.  The words were sent home last week and are on this blog.  Some students need extra practice at home with these words--count it as your ten minutes of reading if you spend that time studying the words.
• We are in the middle of our Astronomy Unit.  Today we talked about the space race between the US and the Soviet Union and then the students acted as "engineers" and designed and named a rocket that they would launch into space.  We will continue with our study of the first men on the moon (my students always wonder if we are related :) and then will go more into depth about the planets.
• In math we are working with three-dimensional shapes.  Today we combined these shapes to create "new" shapes.  
• Tenley has joined our 100 book Challenge Club by reaching the 100 book mark today!  May 17 is the final day for this challenge.  
• I will send home April Scholastic book orders this week.  They will be due April 12.  
• One activity I wanted to mention (it will be on the note I send home too) is the Easter Egg Hunt.  We originally planned it for April 14, but need to change that to Thursday, April 13 due to a Life Skills assembly scheduled on April 14.  
• I hope you are checking and talking to your child about their weekly behavior charts.  These were meant to open up discussion about your child's behavior daily.  

Have a nice snowy night and Happy Reading!