Week of 10/1

Happy October! It sure will be a busy month! Tomorrow is the Watchdogs kick-off at 6:00. This is a great opportunity for dads to get involved here at school. The kids LOVE to see dads around the building! We also have Book Character Day (so be thinking about which character your child will be) and Pumpkin Day at the end of the month. More information will be coming home soon about those special days. Other important dates follow at the end of this post. 

Thursday is Read for the Record Day. The featured book is Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad. If your child would like to wear red and black, or some even have ladybug wings, feel free to get in the spirit of Ladybug Girl and her 'squad'! I'll be borrowing my daughter's wings for the day! 

Reading groups/literacy activities are underway and the children have done an AWESOME job with working quietly, and staying on task. Volunteer sign ups to come in and monitor students doing activities while Mrs. Day works with reading groups were at Back to School Night. If you were unable to attend or sign up, I still have Tuesdays and Thursdays available. We start rotations at about 9:45 and end at about 10:50. Just shoot me an email if you are interested in coming in each week on Tuesdays or Thursdays. 

PALS testing is complete and I will be sending home results and an information letter later this week. 

I sent an email last week about sending in items for our 5 Senses Stations -  if you have something you'd like to send in, we are starting those this week.

Here is what we are working on this week:
Language Arts: 
Strategy: Questioning
Skill: Context Clues
Phonics: ending sounds n, t, d, p, g, m and -at, -an word families
Writing: complete sentences, capitalization, punctuation, 4-square organization of writing

Math:
We've begun our 1.5 unit, adding and subtracting. Students are learning various strategies - drawing pictures, counting up, skip-counting, etc., to help them with their facts. Please practice facts at home, either with flashcards or simply by calling out facts, then repeating unknown facts until they are mastered. Mastering their facts will lay the foundation for many other math skills. There are some fun math sites listed on this blog (under "Useful Resources").


Science:
This week, we will focus on our 5 senses and how we use them to explore our world (SOL 1.1). We will use our senses to conduct some experiments, which I know the children will LOVE. Have you heard your child sing the "Scientific Method" song yet?

Reminders/Important Dates (LOTS!): 

• 10/2 - Watchdog Kick-off Pizza Party at 6pm
• 10/3 - Interim reports will be issued
• 10/4 - Read for the Record  - this year's book is Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad by David Soman and Jacky Davis
  (click link below for more information_
• http://www.jstart.org/campaigns/read-record 
• We are still in need of Treasure Box items like Dollar store items/Target dollar bin items -it does not have to be a class set of items. 
• 10/8 - PTA Fundraiser begins
• 10/9 - PTA meeting - 6pm
• 10/17 - 1:00 dismissal
• 10/19 - School pictures and PTA Decades Dance (7-9pm)
• 10/20 - Education Foundation Gala and Auction - 5:30pm
• 10/26 - Book Character Day
• 10/31 - Pumpkin Day