September 21-25, 2009

READING AND LITERACY STATIONS
Every week a new unit is introduced in our Whole Group Reading routine. This new unit introduces one new letter sound which serves as the stimulus for all activities that follow. The new letter sound is usually related to an animal and/or science term which gives us our theme that we will be reading and learning about during the week. Our writing jobs also come from the theme we are studying in our whole group reading.

Our whole group sound for this week is /n/ as in the word “nest”. We will be doing activities related to birds.

ACCELERATED READER
I hope you received the note with your child's AR report included. There is no need to return this report, it is simply for your information. Please help your child prepare to take AR tests, ideally 2-3 tests a week. Also, continue to indicate when your child is ready to test by putting a sticky note on their book. Right now I will not let a child test unless they have the note. If children take a test unprepared and make below a 60, it’s very hard to get their average percent correct up. Thank you for your help with AR.

MATH
We are in Chapter 6-I sent the Family Involvement letter home today. This chapter focuses on Addition Facts Practice. This is where I strongly recommend that you make addition flash cards and begin memorizing addition facts. Homework for math will be Chapter 6 lessons in the math practice workbook. We will test on this chapter probably next week. As always, look for the Test Review sheet to come home the night before the test.

LANGUAGE -(DOL)
We have covered Grammar rules 1-6. These rules can be found in your child's take home notebook. We will continue to practice Rules 1 - 6, I will not introduce a new grammar rule this week. Be sure to look in the Keep at Home side each day for DOL papers ~look over them Thursday night to prepare for Friday's daily DOL grade. Sentences for Friday come from sentences practiced Monday-Thursday. We will have a test on these rules Thursday. I'll send a review sheet to practice for the test.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION AND REMINDERS

*A big thanks to Mrs. Gaeta (Amelie's mom), Mrs. Backus (Sarah's mom), and Mrs. Garrison (Emma's mom) for watching the class while Mrs. Itson and I enjoyed Teacher Treat Day with the other teachers. It was delicious!!

*Mrs. Itson will continue to teach the class this week. Her last day with us will be next Wednesday, September 30th. Please look for a "secret" note to come home with your child tomorrow about a little surprise we are planning for her!:)

*The Montgomery Humane Shelter came today to speak to the children about "Bite Prevention". The children were so well behaved and seemed to really enjoy our guest speaker.

*Library Day Tuesday, September 22nd- make sure your child brings their library book to school.

*September 21 - Blount Spirit Night at Chick-fil-a

*Yea Room 123, we have met our PTA goal of 150% membership!! A big thank you to everyone who joined!

*Please be sure to initial daily conduct calendar EVERY night.
I’m still noticing a few calendars without signatures.

Thanks for the trust and support you have in me with your sweet and precious one.

Thought for the week: When time runs short, remember this verse: "You will always find time for the things you put first!"