Sunday Update

Hello Families,

I hope you all have had a nice weekend. Here are a few updates of what we have going on in Room 116.

Reading Groups:  We have started meeting in all reading groups!  Some groups are starting with reviewing some of the features of non-fiction, and are beginning with short articles/texts.  Other groups are working in a longer text to begin with.  Some are working on fluency skills, while others are working on comprehension skills.  These targeted skills are based on my assessments with individuals at the beginning of the year.  All groups will have variety through the trimester, and most of the readings will stay at school.  You should, however, be seeing them read a lot at home for their November Read-a-thon minutes!! At times I will send home the reading group texts to have kids catch up, or share what they're reading at home. 

Math:  We took the Unit 2 test last week, and your students will get them back on Monday. The tests have the same assessment cover sheet that Unit 1 had. Your students will have the opportunity to correct any mistakes they made on a loose leaf paper and staple it to the test, and turn them back in with your signature (somewhere on the cover sheet). This will be due back by Thursday. We started Unit 3 last Wednesday, which focuses on geometry skills, including angle measurement.

Spelling and Word Work: We are now officially in to both of these areas.  Your student can explain to you that Word Work will not be tested, and is mainly in their yellow spiral at school.  Spelling lists were handed out today.  Students are placed in an appropriate developmental level as per their pretesting results.  If your child thinks their words are 'too easy,' remind them that this is meant to build strategies to help them spell correctly in all of their writing, not just for a test... AND that the patterns they are using need to be able to be verbalized by them.  They should each have a sorted copy of their list in their Homework Folder.  We are encouraging them to plan some simple activities at home throughout the week to ensure that they learn the spellings of these words (and others like them), so that they can show their spelling accuracy on a test next Friday.  On Fridays they will test with 10+ words from their list and a few new words that will test their transfer of the patterns. They will then be given a new list for the next week.

Field Trip Permission Slips and Money can be sent any time for our Nov. 17 trip to Northwestern College.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.


Thanks,
Mr. Norman