Weekly Letter October 1st-5th

Dear Parents,

            We finished up our second story in Theme 2: Celebrating Tradition: Anthony Reynoso Born to Rope today.  Tomorrow we will begin our third story in our theme: The Talking Cloth, which is about the African culture in Ghana.  Our Grammar Focus will be on Singular to Plural Nouns.  Our Comprehension focus will be on Main Idea and Context Clues.  In Math, we will be working on 2 digit and 3 digit by 1 digit multiplication. We will also be working on Solid Figures in Geometry as well.   In Science, we are learning about our Solar System.  This week we will be learning about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.  In our Literature Unit, we are continuing to read Number the Stars.  Book project will be coming soon, so if you would like to check out the book or buy the book, this would be still a good time to do that.

            We will also begin Benchmark 1 testing on Wednesday.  Your child will be given a multiple-choice test in Language Arts and Math that is provided by the District.  They test will be on all the standards we have covered thus far.  They will also be tested on their Writing and Fluency this week within the benchmark as well.

**Parents it is very important that your child learns their multiplication facts by memory.  The goal was to know their multiplication facts by the end of September.  I gave the timed test on Friday and only 4 students passed.  Please work with your child on this standard/skill for them to be successful in Math this school year.

Ways to help your child this week:

1.    Flashcards!! They need to know their Multiplication Facts! Big Test that will be timed on Wednesday!

2.    Check out our classroom website and practice the skills/standards on the game links.

3.    Number the Stars at the library/book store.

4.    Planet Books at the library/book store.

Important Dates this week:

1.    Early Release tomorrow 1:00 dismissal

2.    Picture Day is this Thursday, October 4^th!

3.    Library is Wednesday. Please do not forget your books.

Mrs. Monroe

Weekly Letter for September 24th-28th

Dear Parents,

      We finished up our first story in Theme 2: Celebrating Tradition: The Keeping Quilt today.  Tomorrow we will begin our second story in our theme: Anthony Reynoso Born to Rope, which is about the Mexican Rodeo culture and traditions within this boy’s family.  Our Grammar Focus will be on contractions.  Our Comprehension focus will be on Main Idea and Context Clues.  In Math, we will be working on 2 digit and 3 digit by 1 digit multiplication.  It is very important that they learn their multiplication facts by memory by this week.  In Science, we are learning about our Solar System.  This week we will be learning about Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt.  In our Literature Unit, we are continuing to read Number the Stars.  Book project will be coming soon, so if you would like to check out the book or buy the book, this would be still a good time to do that.

Ways to help your child this week:

1.   Flashcards!! They need to know their Multiplication Facts by this Friday! Big Test that will be timed on Friday!

2.   Check out our classroom website and practice the skills/standards on the game links.

3.  Number the Stars at the library/book store.

4. Planet Books at the library/book store.

5.  Show up to your assigned Parent/Teacher Conference.  I cannot wait to sit down with you and talk about your amazing child.

Important Dates this week:

1.   Parent/Teacher Conferences this week

2.   Early Release all week 1:00 dismissal

3.  Twin Day is Thursday! Find a friend and coordinate an outfit to match on this day! It should be lots of fun!

4. First Flag Assembly on Friday.

5.   Book Fair: buy one get one free!

Mrs. Monroe

Weekly Letter September 17th-21st

Dear Parents,

We are beginning our second theme in Language Arts this week.  The theme is Celebrating Traditions.  The first story we are reading is called The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Pollacco.  It is a personal narrative about her Russian culture.  Our grammar focuses are contractions and verbs.   Our reading strategy focus is evaluate.  Our spelling focus is on the long vowel sound patterns in a and e. 

We began Proficiency Block last week.  This focus block of time will be on the standards Main Idea and Words in Context.  This first block of time will last for 4 weeks. 

In Math, we are focusing in on their Multiplication Facts.  They will begin having timed tests daily.  We will also focus on their division facts, area, and subtraction with regrouping, which is a review standard/skill from 2^nd grade.

**Parents your child has 2 weeks or 10 school days to learn their multiplication facts by memory. Please work with them daily on there facts.  Their math tests on Friday showed me that only about 5 students are practicing this standard. 

In Science, we are beginning on our Solar System Unit.  They will learn about our Solar System, our Sun, Mercury, and Venus this week.    

Our literature focus, we have begun reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry today.  This has the same theme as our anthology stories, Celebrating Traditions.  The story is about World War 2 and the Jewish people in Denmark. 

Spelling Words this story are:

1.    paint          5. neighbor                  9. eight                13. need

2.    clay            6. clean               10. play               14. weigh

3.    feel             7. seem               11. speak             15. needle

4.    leave          8. paid                 12. lay                 16. crayon 

Ways to help your child this week:

* Multiplication Facts Flashcards.  They will soon have to know all of their facts by memory.

*Go to our class website and review concepts already taught.

* Check out Solar System books from your local library. This will be our first Science Unit starting next week.

·      Our next classroom chapter book will be Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  If you would like check it out from the library or purchase it at a book story for about 5 dollars.

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·Important Dates this week:

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·      Friday is Library Day: remember your library books!

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·      Early Release Day is tomorrow 9/18 at 1:00.

·      Please return back grade folders if you haven’t already done so. 

·      Please return back parent/teacher conference form as soon as possible.

  Mrs. Monroe

  

Weekly Letter September 10th-14th

Dear Parents,

We are finishing up reading The Waterfall this week.  We will end on Thursday. The rest of the week in Language Arts we will focus on writing a summary of the story.  We will also review all the grammar concepts taught for the theme: Sentence or Fragment, 4 types of sentences, Subject Predicate, Syllabication, Base words, and Inflected Endings.  They will have a test on all grammar concepts on Friday.

We began Proficiency Block today.  This focus block of time will be on the standards Main Idea and Words in Context.  This first block of time will last for 4 weeks. 

In Math, they will be working on their 11’s and 12's multiplication facts, 10's, 3's and 4's division facts, review and memorize all multiplication facts, and be introduced to finding the Area of a plane figure. 

In Social Studies, we will be finishing up California Regions. Also, Wednesday is Constitution Day, so your child will be learning about the constitution of our country.  

Our literature focus, we finished up reading James and the Giant Peach on Thursday.  They will write a paragraph describing their favorite character in the story in class. For Homework they will be creating a triorama of their favorite scene from the story, and write a descriptive paragraph about it on the index card provided.

Ways to help your child this week:

* Multiplication Facts Flashcards.  They will soon have to know all of their facts by memory.

*Go to our class website and review concepts already taught.

* Check out Solar System books from your local library. This will be our first Science Unit starting next week.

* Our next classroom chapter book will be Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  If you would like check it out from the library or purchase it at a book story for about 5 dollars.

Important Dates this week:

Friday is Library Day: remember your library books!

  Mrs. Monroe