September 29 - October 3, 2008

We have been so busy in room 123 and can tell that fall is here! I cannot believe that we have been in school 8 weeks! The children have already learned so much. I am so proud of them and want to thank you for your support and help at home!

I hope you enjoyed looking through your child's writing portfolio this weekend. The children were so excited to bring them home and share them with you! Writing Portfolio's will come home at the end of every month for you to see.

We are dong a great job working during our literacy block. Our small groups are working extremely hard. I have added more homework stories for red and yellow groups to practice reading at home. If you will notice I put a sticky note on the story we are reading this week. Please do not go ahead but feel free to go back and review old stories. I usually add 4-5 stories at a time. If you have questions about your child's reading please do not hesitate to set up a conference or e-mail me. I will be more than happy to sit down and talk with you.

Our Accelerated Reader (AR) testing is going great! Thank you for continuing to send in sticky notes when your child is ready to test. I hope the AR reports that I send home on Friday are helpful in showing you what tests your child has taken and how well they are comprehending. If you have any problems understanding the reports let me know I will be glad to go over them with you.

I introduced asking sentences this week. This grammar rule will be our focus for two weeks. You can help at home by talking about the difference in an asking sentence and a telling sentence. Give examples and let your child tell you if a period or a question mark would go at the end of the sentence. This can be a tricky concept so extra practice at home would be great!

We are continuing to practice addition facts in the classroom. I made each child their own set of doubles flascards. When they have memorized the doubles and can recite them "quickly" without counting on fingers, I have a special treat for them. PLEASE practice ALL your flashcards for a few minutes every night. (right after you read WITH your child for 20 minutes.;))

Monday, October 6th is a holiday. Enjoy your long weekend! I will be sending home permission slips for Charlotte's Web next Tuesday. Please return these on Wednesday. Also, our First Grade t-shirts will be here next week. The children may wear these t-shirts on spirit days, field trip days, and days when we have a guest speaker. I will let you know the days we have guest speakers. Scholastic book orders came in last Friday. I will be sending home a new book club order home on Tuesday, book orders will be due on Friday, October 10th. Thank you to everyone who ordered books, I was able to get 8 new books for our classroom library! YEA!

Thought for the week ~ No one can do everything, but everyone can do something!