Dear Parents and Guardians,

We are winding this marking period up so we have therefore been catching up on the things we need to work on, e. g. multiplication tables!

Please know that this Friday Ray School will host a jazz fund raiser to benefit our technology department. Ms Pickens and The Willie Pickens Trio, will play for this very worthwhile cause. The event will be held at Room 43, (please check to find out the exact location). You should call the school for tickets. Tickets are $50.00-$75.00 per couple and children are free. There will be food.  A flyer will be sent home with your child this week.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped out with the festival this year. Our room raised approximatley $120.00, not bad for the last minute idea! A special thanks goes out to Mr. and Ms. Fardo, Nicole's mom and dad. Mr. Fardo played basketball with the kids as well as manned the scooter rides. They stayed the entire time. What commitment! Many of you also made sure your "worker" was on time for their scheduled work time. The children a fine job of meeting their responsibility. Kudos to you and them! I will be purchasing books for our depleted classroom library with the money raised.

There will be a field trip on April 19th to listen to a concert at Mandel Hall. This is a walking trip and no money is needed. I need at least two parents to walk with us. We have to have at least 1 parent for every ten students to go on a field trip. Please let me know if you can attend. I will inform anyone who doesn't really have to come because we have enough parents going. Thank you in advance.

This week we will be working on the following:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We will take the unit test on Johnny Appleseed. We wrote legends, (the children were to have done this over the weekend). I sent home a classroom generated legend based on Ms. Butler. The students thought she would be a good person to write a legend about. We studied the elements of a legend and used a story map as well as a handout to assist in writing our legend.

We will begin a new selection in OpenCourt. We will read a nonfiction story entitled, <em>Kids Did It! In Businees</em>. This expository selection shares with the reader how even kids can be business people. I chose this selection because we are currently thinking about what we can do to start our own business. Who knows, maybe we have an inventor or a budding entrepuer in our mist.

SPELLING: CONTRACTIONS:

he'll she'll,  we'll I'd, we'd, they'll, you'd, that's she'd, you'll, it's, she's, what's, I'm, can't.

VOCABULARY WORDS:  Software,  profitable,  merchandise,  donates  invention

WRITING:

We will begin to think about writing a business plan for our business. Some things we need to consider: What is the service or product we intend to sell, What is the name of our business, who is our intended audience, how much money do we intend to invest in our business and were will get the needed funds to start our business, how will we advertise, how much will money will it take to operate our business or make our merchandise, etc.

MATH:

We are learning about fractions in Unit 8. We will work on Lessons 8.1-8. 4 this week. These units will review many of the concepts the children know but go into greater depth.

Please continue to work with your child on their multiplication tables.

HOMEWORK: Math Boxes, 8.1-8.4, Home Link 8.1-8.4.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

We will learn the next ten-eleven states, this time those states in the western region of the U.S. We will also begin to learn more about our great city, Chicago. We will use a book called Chicago.  This book provides information about Chicago's early history as well as it's present. We will have quizzes and test based on the information.

SCIENCE:

We will begin Science next week.

HAVE             A          GREAT           WEEK!