Monday, October 31, 2011

Plant Projects

I absolutely LOVE all of the creative plant projects that are coming in. Just a reminder that they are due this Wednesday, November 2nd. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, thanks!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Happy Halloween!

That’s right, MEAP testing is over! That means that it will be back to our regular routine. Thank you to everyone once again for all of your support with the testing the last couple of weeks. Your kindness and encouragement helped make the children more confident and ready to do their best.
Language Arts: We are finishing the read aloud “Because of Winn-Dixie”. In the book Opal asks her dad to tell her 10 things about her mom, so we made a list of 10 things about each of us. This is a beautiful story of how a lonely and sad girl turns everything around once she meets a dog that she names Winn-Dixie.
We also continue to read AR books and take tests. Just a reminder, the children may read these books at home and at school. I am trying to encourage the kids to take at least one test a week. We discussed how exposing ourselves to different types of literature can help expand our vocabulary, increase our fluency, improve comprehension, and it can also show us different ways to write our own stories!
We also started doing text talk this week. We read a story and pull vocabulary words out and trying to incorporate them into our everyday speak. This week’s words are obedient, misconception, and despair.
Math: We have been focusing mostly on number stories, addition and subtraction practice, patterning, split sums algorithm and count up subtraction method. You may remember it as carrying and borrowing. This can be a difficult concept for the children. Please don’t be alarmed, it takes practice
Science: We are finishing our living things unit. Believe it or not, we still have 3 crayfish out of 4 living! Their names are Darth Vader, R2D2, and Rocky. They are all quite feisty but have been great pets. I hope everyone has seen the flower homework that came home last week. This is due on November 2nd.

Dates to Remember:
October
28 Halloween party.

Agenda:
1:40-2 All school recess
2-2:15 get into costumes
2:15-2:30 All School Costume Parade
* Parent set up for party during parade
2:30-3:10 Classroom party
3:10–3:30 Clean up & Kids get ready to leave

November
9th-10th Parent/Teacher Conferences. Look for slips to come home today
11th No school.

23-25 No school, Thanksgiving.

Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns. Have a great week!

Friday, October 7, 2011

MEAP Begins...

We’ve enjoyed another wonderful week here at Valley View. Starting next week on Tuesday we will begin MEAP testing. We have three days of testing over the next two weeks. I find that children often do a better job with a snack. If you want to send a special snack with your child that is fine, but I will also be providing a snack in between testing. Remember to get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast. The most exciting part to the kids is that we have NO HOMEWORK during the MEAP. The only thing is that we still do spelling tests, so the children still need to study their words and take a test on Fridays.

Language Arts: We continue working hard to improve our writing. We talked about going back to edit and revise our work. For read aloud I have started a new book called “Because of Winn-Dixie”. We are getting close to finishing all of our lower case cursive letters. I am so impressed with how beautiful everyone’s handwriting is!
I have had a few questions about AR testing. The students need to have an AR book from the library that they read here and at home. They are required to take at least one a week and can take no more than one a day. On this week’s weekly report, I have attached your child’s testing information.

Math: We have finished unit one and moved into unit two this week. Concepts that we have been learning about are frames and arrows, practicing addition and subtraction, following rules for in and out tables, fact extensions, and more math games.

Science: The kids are enjoying learning about all the parts of a plants and flowers. It’s also so exciting to watch our crayfish. We have 3 out of 4 still with us.

Dates to Remember:
October
11 MEAP begins
28 Halloween party-Thank you so much to ChrisAnn Lilly our wonderful room mom for planning this year’s festivities. We look forward to an awesome party! Also a huge thank you to everyone that is donating items. Your generosity is greatly appreciated

Today’s candy sale was a big success. So big that we ran out and had to get more! Thank you so much for saving the day Laura Bargwell!!! We are looking to get a new electric pencil sharpener and dust buster for our room with the profit.

Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.