Overall it was another great week with the students. I really feel they are being exposed to lots of new material and vocabulary on a daily basis. I am proud of them for staying focused most of the time so that they can process the content in every subject. Here are a couple of updates and notices that have come up.
WEEKLY MATH CENTERS: Please make sure your child is bringing home and showing you his/her Math centers work each week. Many are being left in their folders. It is a weekly grade and there is some very good information for you. They are supposed to be moving the work into their blue folder to bring home on Mondays. It is too much paper to ask for you to sign and return them every week, so I will trust that you will start asking to see their work on Mondays.
TOPIC 3 Retest--I truly feel that the students did not pay attention to what they were really be asked to do on the majority of the test questions and therefore I spent Thur. and part of Fri. reteaching the topic, practicing how to follow our strategies for solving word problems, and how to use our vocabulary knowledge to help us. There will be a retest, but if it is evident that errors continue to be made due to not reading the whole question there will be no more retests.
Spelling Tests and Word Work--Our "Word Work" center will be opening the week of the 8th. For this short week students will work with their vocabulary words in the center. After that they will be each be getting a spelling list weekly. Those will be the words they work with normally. Several different lists will be given to students to accommodate individual needs.
READING LOGS--Writing down your child's nightly reading activity is not required. Your child will be given individual reading goals and incentives through the "BOOK IT" program beginning in Oct. To be honest, I just don't have the time to keep up with another aspect of homework. The Book It program will be a huge help in giving your child credit for their Reading minutes.
Scholastic Book Clubs--Your child should have brought home one Scholastic catalog in their Friday folder last week. At the top is our class code that you may register online to complete orders there. I prefer you order online, but if needed I can also accept CASH orders at school. I encourage you to register online and buy books through Scholastic. It will help your child with the "voracious" reading they should be doing and will earn books for our classroom!