Reminder  *No school on Friday - Staff Development Day.  ***Haiti money collection all week!!!  (see  social studies)

End of the quarter is this Thursday.

Language Arts:  Hope everyone has helped their child in deciding who they are going to do their Black History Month report on.  We will discuss this morning.
Homework:  Your child should be working on their Biography each night for at least 30 minutes.  Please follow the rubric and checklist.  The completed report is due next Monday, February 1, 2010.  I  would encourage a paragraph a night to be written.  The Biography should be in your child's words.  If your child wants to bring in some of their work this week to show me, that would be great.  As always, your child should be reading each night for at least 30 minutes.  I will give cursive sheets  (three sheets) that will be due Thursday.  Your children seem to love practicing their cursive!  I, at least, get lots of positive feedback from them.

Last week we got through a lot of our Extended Response work - I did not expect to get through so much.  So, this week we  (and next) will focus again on Expository Writing.  This week our only focus will be the first paragraph of our writing-the introduction.  The intro will consist of three parts.  The first is the "grabber" or the sentence that gets the reader's attention.  This can be a question, an exclamation,  onomatopoeia -some kind of interesting sentence.  The next sentence should answer the question being asked.  The last sentence or two should be the "preview" for the paper-at least two details that the writer is going to tell us about.  We are going to spend all week - during writing - on developing our introduction of our paper.

We will also be reading our AR books, reading our own and other's introductions, reading in our Map Essentials Books and reading from our Time Magazine.

I will print out your child's AR report today and your child will have it with them tonight.  Please ask your child where they are in AR.  They should know.  Thanks for your help.

Math:  We will be reviewing today for our Math Unit 5 Test tomorrow.  Your child should have their Math Journal 1 with them today for review and study.  I will do a math project on Wednesday and we will start Math Unit 6 on Thursday-please look for Unit 6 Parent Letter on Thursday.  Our math project will be a fun one!!!  Illusions-this lesson will allow your child to "experience geometric and other seasonal designs through the phenomenon known as persistence of vision."  Look for your child's work on Wednesday.

We are also working the the ISAT math practice book.  There will be no homework in either ISAT book this week.

Homework:  Monday study for the Unit 5 test.  Tuesday -no math homework.  Wednesday your child must articulate the math project "Illusions" to you.  Extra credit:  Your child can write a paragraph describing the project and what they did.  Thursday:  Look for Parent Letter Unit 6 and 6l1 homework.

Social Studies:  We will be reading about influential African Americans and their contributions and discussing our Biographies that everyone should be working on each night.  We will also read an article from our Time Magazine.

****Most importantly, we will be collecting money for Haiti all week!!!!  This money will go to Red Cross!!!  Please give change or send in a check-the check can just be made out to Red Cross or Ray School.

Science:  Science!  With writing, reading and math ISAT practice, Science is often difficult to get to.  I am going to focus this next month on the above topics.  In March through June, I am going to do a HUGE push on Science (which I love)  I will do at least two units during these months-incorporating much of our reading with science.  Your children are not tested in Science and they will be in fourth grade, so having a big push in science at the end of third grade, I think, will be a good thing.  (especially coming from a 4th grade teacher perspective!)

Art:  Well, one so-so art lesson this year is not bad.  The Monogram lesson-I will either not do it next year or change it greatly-was, well, not great.  It was, in general, too many steps - I would simplify if taught again!  This week - Monogram Prints - we'll see....