This week we begin celebrating our Student of the Week. When your child's name is picked, they will come home on a Friday with a special Me, Myself, and I poster to be completed over the weekend. There will be a note attached with a list of all the special things they will be able to do during their week, including show and tell each day, lunch with a parent (or other special adult) one day in our room (11:30), and more. Please don't send a treat when your child is chosen -- we reserve that just for birthdays. Our first lucky Student of the Week for Sept. 21-Sept. 25 is Jack McCarthy!
Here are the high frequency shoebox words that will come home this week: up, but, go, where, here, am. Soon we will begin weekly spelling tests; these will occur on Fridays. You will always be informed of the weekly spelling words by Monday or Tuesday so they can be practiced at home. We will include practice in class with fun games like Sparkle and Bean Bag spelling.
The children are adjusting well to the addition of science and social studies in their afternoons. Next week in Science, we will explore how water moves through plants.
This coming week, students will take their Unit One reading skills test. As I mentioned before, this unit was a review of kindergarten and they should do very well. Beginning Sept. 28, you will begin to see their Reader coming home twice a week as we start Unit 2. Your child will be asked to re-read to you the stories we've read together during class. Generally, this will happen on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Thursdays, they will take a Vocabulary and Comprehension Test based on Wednesday's story. The scores on these tests will be a part of their quarterly reading grade, but don't carry as much weight as individual fluency and end of unit skills assessments.
A note about grades...
I had a question about the online Engrade system from a parent. If you have a child in 3rd grade or higher, you have access to this system. We don't use it in the primary grades at this time. If there is an issue with your child's progress, you will see it right away on the work that come home weekly and will hear from me personally if I believe we need to take measures to help your child. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any concerns!
A final note about Jumbo book covers...
I'm sorry that the need for book covers was news to some. Apparently, they weren't noted on the St. Linus website's supply list and I wasn't aware of it. Please send them at your earliest convenience. The kids need two. Let me know if you have no luck finding them, because I have a few on hand that I can sell for $1.
Happy Monday!