Dear Parents/Guardians,

Due to a family emergency last week I was absent on Thursday and Friday. It seems all went well in class! This week we will continue to complete the lessons and activities we weren't able to complete last week.

On Wednesday, October 14th, the first five week Progress Reports will be sent home. Some children will receive remeditiation plans that will help us come up with a plan of action to support students that are in need of extra assistance. Please arrange for a conference with me if your child receives a Remediation form.

There were no Science of Social Studies grades submitted in our classroom at this time as we have really just gotten started in those subject areas. In Science, the children are learning how to take notes and keeping their Science folders organized. Participation as well as focus is very important in Science and will be a part of the grade.

Obviously, anyone reading this newsletter knows how to access Room 204 Blog, Right!!! I am happy to say I will be using the blog as another way to communicate with you. You cannot send a response so therefore please continue to jot me a note or email me at <a href="mailto:pjjack@cps.edu">pjjack@cps.edu</a>.

This week we will be working on the following:

<strong>Language Arts:</strong>

We will complete reading <em>Ramona, The Pest</em>. We will take a test on the book on Friday. Aside from reading a chapter book that I think is age/level/and interest appropriate for third graders, the focus has been on reading stategies such as predicting, summarizing, specific spelling patterns and other things author's do to make reading enjoyable. Fluency is another reading skill that is needed in order to understand what one is reading. Students that read "primarily in larger, meaningful phrases, and who read smoothly, paying attention to expressive interpretation and pausing guided by author's meaning and punctuation with few slow-downs", (Fountas/Pinnell Benchmark Assessment), typically are students that read on grade level or above. Reading text aloud can help to emphasize these and other important elements of reading comprehension.

We will review the short "e" sound spelled with an "e" as in the word <em>test</em>, or the "ea" pattern as in the word <em>head</em>. Words for the week are :

deck, tent, spent, fence, head, dead, bread, desk, thread, sweater, edge, bell, next, send, them.

A test will be given on Friday.

<strong>Writing:</strong>

We will continue to work on extending our writing to include more details. We will also work on developing cohesive paragraphs. I will use the <em>Language Arts Grammar</em> books for structure. There will be various writing assignments that include checking for spelling, omitted words and punctuation.

Math:

We will complete Unit One this week. The remaining lessons include <em>determining when it is appropriate to make estimates, counting money and exploring patterns.</em>

Homework: Home Link 1.10-1:12, Math Boxes as assigned. The test for Unit One will be given after we review. The test will be scheduled for Friday or Monday of next week.

Science:

We will continue with exploring how water interacts with different materials as well as exploring surface tension.

Social Studies:

We will continue with Activity One, "<em>Our Communities From Above</em>" in Map Essentials.

I will be sending home a Birthday Organizer for the month of October. If your child's birthday is in this month, please indicate what you would like to bring to share in the end of the  month birthday acknowledgement. So far the birthday's in October are Sean Young and Tyniah Moody. I will set the date for the last Friday in each month. This date will be October 30th at 2:45 p.m. If there is a change in this time, I will let you know.

<em>                 HAVE                    A                    GREAT                 WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</em>