I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I would like to thank Sam’s mother and Nina’s grandparents and great grandparents for being mystery readers last week.  I only selected 4 families for the month of October.  Many parents volunteered and I would like to have anyone who is interested read sometime throughout the year.  I will be sending home a November calendar next week.  A few notes for the week:

 
<ul>
	<li>Math Family Night is scheduled for this Thursday, October 22<sup>nd</sup> at 6 pm.</li>
	<li>Thanks to all of the families who have donated items on our wish list.  I really appreciate your support.</li>
	<li>Please send back the trip slip and $13 for our field trip next week.  If you would like to volunteer and did not make note on your child’s trip slip, please let me know.  <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">I will only accept slips and $$ through Monday, October 26<sup>th</sup>.</span></strong></li>
	<li>Progress Reports must be signed and returned.  If you are interested in scheduling a conference, please send a note or email (<a href="mailto:hahall@cps.edu">hahall@cps.edu</a>).</li>
	<li>There is a PTA meeting tonight at 6:30 pm.</li>
	<li>Thanks to all of the families that were able to attend the Hispanic Heritage Celebration last Thursday.</li>
	<li>There is no school this Friday.  It is a professional development day for teachers.</li>
</ul>
 

Please see that you are spending time reading with your child and working on sight words nightly.  The books from Ms. Travis’ traveling library are great books for you to read <strong>to</strong> your child.  If you would like a bag of books specific to your child’s reading level, please let me know.  This week we are continuing on with the chapter book “Stuart Little”.  We have been using this book to reinforce the strategies <em>Making Predictions</em> and <em>Summarizing</em>.  The students have also started writing Reading Responses to books that they have selected.  We are completing a writing response weekly for a book I have read aloud to the class.  In phonics this week we will work on hearing the first and last parts of words and blending them together (onsets and rimes).  In writing we are continuing to practice using the alphabet chart for sounds and the word wall for words we already know.  Children are working on real stories from their lives (narrative writing).  I have almost finished assessing all of the students for their reading level and will begin to work with guided reading groups this week.  The students will learn 2 final activities for reading workshop including <em>Listening</em> and <em>Word Work</em>.

In math this week we will learn all about the penny and play 2 games- Penny Plate and Penny Grab.  We will also learn about nickels and will play Penny Nickel Exchange.  It is helpful to have a set of coins at home for use while completing homework.  In science we will investigate the properties of liquids.  In art we will do leaf rubbings and use watercolors to create a crayon resist piece of art.

 

Have a great week!