WELCOME TO 2013

January 2 - 4
Welcome back!  Can you believe it is a new year and we are still here despite the Mayan Calender?  I am grateful for the break but am ready to begin the new year.  Our family stayed in NC this Christmas.  One outing we enjoyed thanks to our son Esteban, was a trip to the Raleigh Art Museum.  I highly recommend this short venture if you would like your children to experience a bit of culture.  The museum was very child friendly and had a beautiful outdoor path to travel once the indoor artwork had been viewed.  Thumbs up Raleigh Art Museum!

BACK TO SCHOOL STUFF!

This week since it is a short week we will be doing a bit of review and mid-year assessing.  There will be math homework, but no written reading or spelling homework.  The math will be direct review for the mid-year assessment that will be given next week.

MATH!

It is time for a 2nd semester assessment.  The assessment will cover the following topics:

MONEY

TIME

STORY PROBLEMS

BAR/PICTOGRAPHS

ADDING/SUBTRACTING PLACE VALUE BLOCKS

 Homework for the next four days (not including Friday) will be in a math block form.  Each night the students will complete ONE math block to help review for next week's test.  If you see your child struggling with a concept, please take the time to review with them so that he/she is ready for next week. Especially be wary of the story problems.  Watch to see that your child is comprehending what the problem is asking.   The Assessment will be given on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

SPELLING!

This week I will be assessing the students for record's sake and next week we will

 Return to Words Their Way. 

I have made up some manila folders to help keep the homework straight.  These folders will have the nightly homework listed and explained so that your child will be able to study appropriately.  Words Their Way focuses on various English Language Norms.  

I also have included a helpful website that allows the children to digitally sort their words.  This might prove helpful to you as the parent.  (It helped me when I had a difficult time figuring out the oddball words!)

educationextras.com/withingwordpatternsorts.html

READING!

This week I will be assessing WPM (words per minute) as well a few other assessments.  In addition to this we will be looking at adjectives a bit more closely and writing some descriptive sentences while viewing some pretty cute and cuddly animal pictures.  Next week we will dive into our final Patricia Polacco text titled, When Lightning Comes in A Jar.  

Also, for small groups next week we will be studying SOUND through some solid non-fiction literature.  There will be homework twice a week based on this text.  There also will be a project due the first week in February concerning this Science Theme of Sound.

READING LOG!

Please continue to fill in December's reading log for January.  I decided to just continue this December log since December was so short.  EVERYONE should have if filled in by the end of January!  (No Excuses!)

SOCIAL STUDIES!

This week we will continue where we left off concerning our study of our three levels of  government.  

I'm looking forward to sleeping through New Year's Eve and seeing everyone Wednesday!