Newsletter August 27 - August 31

I'm just going to get right to it. 

Here are this week's notes and happenings:

• Today I sent home a note about Sight Word Soldiers.  Please take a moment to read that note and get your children excited about the program. The more words students know automatically the better readers they will become.  I won't get stuck on words like "the" as they read.  Adam's mom will be helping the students pass of these sight word lists.  She will come every Wednesday at 9:00.  It would be great if you child's first list was returned by THIS Wednesday and a new list was passed off every week.  
• If you want to order from the Scholastic book club please submit those orders by this Wednesday, August 29.  
• I didn't get a few "student information" sheets back so I sent home another one in your child's folder if you haven't turned it in yet.  These are helpful if I need to contact you and I also use them to update the school e-mail group.  Mr. Moyle, the PTA and other e-mails come home and if you haven't given me an e-mail that I can't add you to the group and you'll be missing important information.
• Remember that Friday is Spirit Friday.  Have your child wear their East elementary t-shirt or any "very blue" t-shirt, just not a spot of blue.
• We are having an issue with shoes being untied and students not being able to tie their own shoes.  I must have been asked 15 times today to "tie my shoes".  It's very distracting during class not only to stop and have to tie shoes, but if students try themselves and they can't do it it becomes distracting as others around them try to assist or they "play" with their untied laces.  Shoes with velcro are great or could you please spend some time teaching your child to tie their shoes and practice with them if they already know how.  Thank you! 👟
• Tomorrow we will take our DIBELS (reading) test.  These results will help us better place students into small reading groups.  These groups will not start for a couple of weeks and I will let you know if you child will be going to a reading intervention group.
• In our learning this week we will continue to work on addition concepts.  Today we talked about numbers being a "whole" number or "part" of a number.  We modeled word problems using a bar model.  We took the parts we knew and combined them to make a "whole" or counted up from the "one part" to the "whole" to find the missing part. We will continue with this modeling tomorrow and then review and then move onto adding zero to a number and adding in any order (3 + 4 = 7 so 4 + 3 = 7).  In reading we just finished our last Fable and will move onto Folktales from around the world tomorrow.  With our first folktale being Medio Pollito from Spain.  Through these fables and folktales students are learning about story elements (characters, plot, setting, problem and solution, cause and effect, morals). We are also focusing on short vowel sounds and writing complete sentences. 
• I sent home one more thing today.  The PTA is running a fundraiser selling Starving Student Cards.  Each student came home with a Starving Student card today.  These are $25.00  It is optional to purchase one.  You either send back $25 dollars and/or the order form back  in the envelope provided and keep the card or just send back the Starving student card back (in the envelope).  Don't keep the card without payment.  Don't send your child around to sell these cards just sell to those you know. 
• I hope you are forming the habit of nightly reading with your child for 10 minutes.  This is the only homework I will require. We have one more week in August and I will send home another reading calendar after Labor Day.  Shortly, our take-home library (book in a bag) program will start and you will have an easier time finding a book every night because one will come home daily.  
• If you are reading this on your phone make sure that you scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit "web version".  That way you will be able to see everything available on this blog.

Have a nice three-day weekend!  and
Happy Reading!! 📕📗📘📙😊