Newsletter February 24 - February 28

I'm getting back on the newsletter "wagon".  This week I will be gone both Thursday and Friday for state basketball games at Weber state where my son's team from CHS will be playing.  In the morning we are heading to the Heritage Center for a piano concert.  If someone would like to walk over with us please let me know.  Right now I haven't heard from anyone yet--I'd love at least one volunteer to walk with us.  I talked to my students today about respectful appropriate behavior during a concert please reiterate that at home tonight and as you send them to school tomorrow. 

Here are other happenings this week:

• Nice job with those that are choosing to participate in our 100-book challenge.  It is proving to be motivating to some students and I love how excited they are to share their lists with the class.  Remember take-home books count and if you child is reading nightly this challenge will be easy to accomplish.
• In math this week we are finishing up our unit on addition and subtraction relationships.  We have worked a lot with related facts and how to find a missing addend.  Today we worked with two equations and determined if they were true or false for example, 4 + 3 = 9 - 2 is true.  We will review for the test on Wednesday and the substitute will administer the test on Thursday.
• In reading this unit deals with different consonant spellings for the same sound.  For example /t/ (sound) is spelled 't', 'tt', and 'ed'.  We are also learning about root words and endings as well as punctuation for declarative, questions or exclamatory sentences (., ?. or !).  We are becoming experts at writing paragraphs.  We have written paragraphs about groundhogs, the Desert Habitat and this week will write a paragraph about the Forest Habitat. These paragraphs have fit in well with our unit on Animal Habitats (smart right?).   This week's paragraph will be included on mastery connect.  In order for students to be proficient on paragraph writing the need to have an opening sentence, at least three details using facts for the middle of the paragraph, and a closing sentence.  I will also check for correction punctuation and capitalization.  Next month, our focus will go from informative paragraphs to opinion paragraphs.
• I sent home a notice about Dr. Seuss week, March 2 - 6,  sponsored by the PTA.  Students are welcome to wear crazy socks and crazy hair on the assigned days.  We will read many Dr. Seuss books and learn a little bit about Theodor Geisel's life especially about his determination to publish a book after being turned down many times by multiple publishers. 

Thanks for all of your support and Happy Reading,

Mrs. Armstrong

Newsletter February 10 - February 14

I am going to make this short and sweet today.  I am running to get bags so we can make our Valentine's day bags (thanks for sending 50 cents to help with those) and my son has a basketball game tonight (maybe you have heard about my Luke who helps in my classroom).

So here goes:

• Our Valentine's day party will be this Friday, Feb. 14 from 1:00-2:00.  I have already received help with the cookies, icing and sprinkles, but if you'd like to come and help you are more than welcome to come.  Students can bring their Valentine's to pass out that day.  We will pass them out during the party.
• PTA reading awards are this Thursday, Feb. 13 at 3:00 in our classroom.  Notices were sent home today in your child's folder if they will be receiving an award.
• If you have any Box Tops send them by Friday.  The class with the most will receive a donut party.
• Scholastic book orders went home today.  They will be due next Wednesday, Feb. 19.  Order online it's the easiest!
• 100-book challenge notes were sent home yesterday. Bentley, Austin and Addison are already on the board with 10 books each!  If you have questions about that (it's optional by the way) please send me an e-mail or text through REMIND.  I know you have a lot to do to track with reading.  Calendar, blue notes in their book bags, and PTA bookmarks and this might feel like just one more thing, but every year I am amazed at all of the books that my students read and if your child is reading their take-home books it's a piece of cake to complete.  Remember you can back track starting on January 21 using the purple note inside your child's take-home book bag is a good way to remember the titles of the books.  
• I'll fill you in more on curriculum next week.  Just know that we are reading, writing, doing  math daily and learning about animal habitats :)

Don't forget that it's President's Day Holiday next Monday.  Have a nice three-day weekend!

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Armstrong