Here we go:
- Halloween is Thursday!! Remember that students can come dressed in their costumes, but no masks, blood, gore or weapons. The Halloween Sing will be at 2:20 followed by the parade. The best place to view that parade is from the cafeteria. We will have a regular morning and in the afternoon after WIN time we will finish our apple head witches and have a healthy snack before heading down to computers, the sing and then the parade.
- I sent home spelling words yesterday. This will be the only time I will do that. We as a team decided to NOT give the traditional spelling tests from the CKLA program that we use. We have spelling "tests" after we teach each phonics pattern and input those scores onto mastery connect, but we feel that the tests from the CKLA program are not a reasonable assessment. Research tells us not to give lists of words that students will later forget, but rather embed spelling into our curriculum which we are doing. Like I said, we will still "test" our students on specific patterns like a_e, but it will be right after the teaching and the list will be words that they would use frequently. In later spelling lists from CKLA students are asked to spell words like perfume--though it's nice to know how to spell that how often will they use that word. We would rather have them spell words they will use frequently and that will not be frustrating to our students. We feel that we will be better able to gauge if a student is mastering a certain spelling pattern by giving them assessments of our own design.
- This week we are finishing up on our addition strategies unit. Starting in November we will move to geometry and time and measurement rather than dig deeper into the meaty addition and subtraction chapters. We did this last year and it worked out beautifully. During the busy, sometimes hectic months of November and December we worked on those chapters at the end of the book and then in January we will resume with addition and subtraction relationships until the end of the year.
- I am so impressed by all of the take home books that are coming back EVERY day! I really think we have a 90-95% return rate on those books. I don't know for sure but I am so appreciative that you take the time to read with your child every night. The PTA book marks will be collected this week for the awards program the second Thursday in November. I will send home notices to those students who will be receiving an award. Please get those PTA bookmarks in by this Friday.
- We had our silly string party last Friday. I hope that you saw the picture I sent home. Thanks to those that registered for the fundraiser and helped us reach our goal. Our class will receive 10% of the profits and I will use that for Christmas gingerbread houses and other Christmas projects. I will still need donations around that time, but that extra 10% will be less money out of my pocket and I appreciate that!
Please make sure that you send your child with warm clothes. It's freezing right now in my room as they turn the heat off or down right at 3:30. It's supposed to be getting colder. I would make a recommendation to put your child's name on their coat or jacket somewhere. We have so many coats or jackets that get misplaces and never claimed from the lost and found and then donated. If your child's name is on the coat then we do our best to find the owner without a name we can't do that.
Happy Halloween week!!!
Mrs. Armstrong
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