Welcome back from Spring Break!  Hope everyone had time to enjoy some of the week!

The quarter ends this Thursday.  Please remember that Ray Festival is this Thursday evening, then no school on this Friday.  Our classroom will participate in festival with two events.  One is a clow-bean-bag-toss, the other is a painting spin art.  Your child will have a note today with them and if they can work a shift for our classroom that evening (the bean-bag-toss game) please sign and return the note with the hour indicating when they can work.  I'd like three kids working each shift.  Thanks for your help!!  It should be fun!  Remember, all money that goes to our classroom games will be used in our classroom-we talked about a pizza party and/or buying more classroom books!!

Language Arts:  Last day for AR points this quarter will be Thursday.  I read the obit from the NYT last week on Sid Fleischman, the writer of The Whipping Boy to the class.  We discussed his life.  What can they tell you?  We are reading this short chapter book this week-worth 2.0 AR points-we will finish by Thursday if your child wishes to take the test.

All this month we will be working on Poetry!  Your child will start today a Poetry Folder, adding work to it all month, so you will get this completed folder at the end of April.  This week our focus will be on Couplets (couplets are composed of two-line stanzas that rhyme.) andGiving Poetry (giving poetry names a subject that gives an interesting or unusual gift.)  Each week we will discuss different types of Poetry and then your child will have the opportunity to write their own poetry in these different styles.  Can your child tell you and show you how to "sign" a poem they learned today?

We will also be writing each day in either our Journals or our Writer's Notebooks.

Homework:  Your child should be reading at least 30 minutes each night.  Your chid's cursive work this week will focus around angston Hughes poem The Dream Keeper.  Your child should practice reading this poem over and over.  Then your child should copy the poem, both in printing and then in cursive. (I have attached an extra sheet of paper for the cursive writing.  This is due back on Thursday.  For extra credit, your child should practice memorizing the poem and will recite it to the class any day this week that they are ready to recite it.  Thanks for your help.

Other homework:  Monday-your child should write a paragraph (at least 5 sentences) about "What does poetry mean to me?"  Due Tuesday.   Both Tuesday and Wednesday they will have a worksheet on a Couplet poem that they should complete and return each day.

Math:  We will complet lessons 8.3 through 8.5 this week-exploring shapes, fractions and equivalent fractins.  We will also have several multiplication/division fact tests.  They should be practicing their facts at home!  Homework Monday through Wednesday.