January 10, 2009 Update...

Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome to 2010! We had a great week last week, although it was too short! We'll be moving very quickly along this week to try and make up for the time missed last week. Please remember to update your child's reading log every week. You will also find a "Six Flags Reading Log" in the pocket this week. If your child wishes to participate in this program, you must also log their reading on that form. There will be no time extensions for this program. Please keep the log in your child's clear pocket. Check out below to find out what we've been doing in our classroom...

Phonics/Grammar: Last week, we reviewed the short and long i spelling patterns. We read a poem containing these spelling patterns, then we cut out words and categorized them according to the pattern. We also reviewed comparative forms of words (fast, faster, fastest).

Writing: We began our new writing genre; informational writing. I modeled writing this type of paragraph with the students and we wrote about Jackie Robinson together. We updated our writing board with the steps for informational writing as well.

Reading: We began our study of nonfiction text features. We read a nonfiction book and identified nonfiction features such as table of contents, bold words, glossary, index, captions, and labels. Please encourage your child to read nonfiction books this nine weeks.

Math: We started our unit on fractions. We learned how to identify fractions by illustration and fraction. We also began comparisons of fractions and we played a game to help us with this concept. This week, we will complete our unit on fractions and take the assessment on Friday.

Social Studies: We learned about Jackie Robinson and the contributions he made to our country in the area of civil rights and ending segregation. We were visited by a Cobb County Firefighter, who taught us all about important fire safety information. We will visit the fire safety village on Thursday.

Other Class News...

Please sign and return the Parent-Teacher conference sheets tomorrow in your child's red folder. I look forward to meeting with you the last week of January!

If your child will be bringing a lunch from home for our field trip on Thursday, please remember to pack it in a disposable bag.

Parents of girls, please dress your child appropriately for our field trip on Thursday. The children will be expected to "stop, drop, and roll" as well as climb through a window to escape a simulated fire. No dresses or skirts please.

We will have another short week next week in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There will be no school on Monday, January 18th.