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August/September Newsletter
Grades on Papers- If you do see not a letter grade on a paper, it is because we did the paper together or it was a paper I did not want a grade for (or both). Sometimes, I look over papers we did together and then put a star or something on it. If there is nothing on the paper, it is because we did it together and then I just had the students take them home. Students are expected to participate in group work and do accurate work, so I will look over those papers from time to time. Please look over your child’s ungraded work to ensure he/she is staying with the class.
Accelerated Reader- I do not use this program as part of your child’s report card. It is simply an incentive program to promote reading. Prizes are earned. Books are staying at school at this time for AR. I also encourage them strongly to read whenever their work is done. They may have started lower than they ended last year to “get back into the swing of things.” When things “calm down,” students will be able to take an AR classroom book home in a special AR bag I have for them. Students are also encouraged to check out AR books from the library that may go home as well.
Spelling- We will have pretests on Thursdays and final tests on Fridays. The pretest and final test will also include dictation sentences. I sent home a list of spelling words for the next five weeks. Please use this to practice with your child at home. We will be working on: short vowels, long vowels, consonant blends, adding ing and ed to words, and digraphs ch, tch, sh, the, and wh.
Reading- Usually on Tuesdays your child will bring home his/her reading book with a parent signature sheet in it. It is very important for your child to read this story to you at night. Students earn a “little prize” if the signed slip is brought back to school. Please help your child make sure the book comes back to school the following day even if the story was not read. Your child may take the book back home the following night. Try to ask your child questions about what is being read. Sometimes students do not remember or comprehend what has just been read. The best way to remedy that is to consistently ask questions as you go. If there is not a note in it, your child should know what story we are working and can always go back or read ahead. Please just make sure the books are returned to school. We are working on character, setting, main idea/details, vocabulary words, author’s purpose, realism/fantasy, and compare/contrasting. It is important that your child reads at home at least 15 minutes per evening. I also send home paper “decodable readers” (little books)during the week so your child practice.
Phonics- Reviewing all letter sounds, long and short vowels words, consonant blends (cl, bl, etc), adding –ed and –ing to base/root words, digraphs (tch, sh, th, wh), words with ar, or, and ore, and contractions
Grammar- Subjects, predicates, statements, and questions. Writing complete sentences with capital letters and correct punctuation
Math- place value, counting forward and backward, skip counting (counting by 2,3,4,5, and 10), even and odd numbers, finding number patterns, ordinal numbers (first, second, etc), less than/greater than, ordering numbers, 10 more and 10 less, solving a problem using a model, and taking 1 and a half minute timed tests on addition and subtraction facts.
Social Studies- Communities