Fall is here!

It is so hard to believe that October is almost here! We had a blast today walking for the Valley View Voyage. It was a great day and a wonderful chance for everyone to be active and raise money at the same time. Thank you so much to everyone that donated money for not only the Valley View Voyage, but also for Entertainment books. Your kindness and generosity is amazing!
Reading: The children started their first story in our anthology books. We read and did many activities with the story “Miss Nelson is Missing”. We also have many exciting things coming up. Starting next week we will be starting Literature studies in groups. This is where I group the children and they all select a book at their level. I work with the kids to focus on different reading strategies and at the end of the book the group selects a presentation to tell about their book. We also begin the Accelerated Reading program next week. I require the kids to get an AR book from the library and when they are done reading they get to check their comprehension by taking a short test on the computer. For every test they pass they receive points. At the end of each month, we have an AR store where the children can use their points to buy different items. I always get the question from parents “Should my child be reading these books at home, or at school?”, the answer is both. They should read at LEAST one AR book a week, so taking the book they choose from the library back and forth is often essential in helping them reach that goal.
Writing: I’m sure that your child has probably already shared with you some of the new cursive letters that they have learned. I have tried to stress how important it is to learn the correct way to make each letter. So far all the children are doing a fabulous job! We have started our Writing Workshop. Currently we are selecting someone that is special to us and writing about a specific memory with that person. Before we start we sketch scenes to our story to help us remember details and then we write. The next step that we will be working on is editing and revising. I tell them that their writing isn’t wrong, but everyone can revise to make something better. This can be difficult but will be something that we work on all year.
Math: Unit 1 is coming to an end and the first test is next week. Tuesday night’s homework will be a unit 1 review. The review will be very similar to the test, so if your child struggles with anything, please let me know.
Computer Lab: We started a fun typing program called Type to Learn this week. It helps build beginning typing skills and helps increase typing speed as well.
Science: What an excited, engrossed, engaged group of scientists! We are learning about how things move and how changing a variable can make a difference in the motion of an object.
Spelling: These past few weeks we practiced words ending with –s or –es and also some basic high frequency words. This week we are studying words that have consonant blends.

Dates to Remember:
September
28 Dogs for Dollars @ the Corner Bar.
October
2 Reading celebration in the library with Mrs. Kalee
13 MEAP begins
23 Parent auction at English Hills
Picture retakes
30 Halloween party


Thank you so much to Kristy Stites for volunteering to be our room mom. I know she will be contacting people soon to help with our Halloween party. Please feel free to contact me with any comments questions or concerns.