December 16th Update...

Hi Parents,

Wow!  What a busy week!  Check out below to see what we've been learning about (and showing what we know!) as well as what news you need to catch up on!  I hope to see many of you at our holiday party on Wednesday at 11:30.    Even if you are not specifically designated to help with a center, we'd love to see you come and hang out!  Remember, no siblings are allowed due to space considerations. We will be doing our FUN book exchange on Wednesday as well. I think we've gotten almost all 22 books in. Way to be on the ball, parents!!!

Phonics/Grammar: This week, we learned all about the ng and nk sounds.  We completed a sort using these words, we generated a HUGE list of words on the smartboard, we worked on white boards to practice sounding them out, and we played a fun game of SPARKLE to help us remember the spelling.  We also learned about root words and endings this week.

Writing:  I modeled the important components of a personal narrative one last time in a funny story about Scratch, then it was up the children to independently show me their writing skills on our county writing assessment. Your child's grade in the writing genre standard of the report card will reflect his/her skill in this area.

Reading:  We finished up our chapter book, Ribsy, and wrote about the important events that happened in the book.  We also worked independently on our own chapter books and completing reading contracts.   We worked on oral reading fluency in small groups.  We visited the computer lab and practiced taking the Scholastic Reading Inventory, which is a reading test that focuses on your child's ability to make inferences when reading.  We will take the test again in another month or so and I will send those scores home at that time.  We wanted to do a practice run first!

Math:  We completed our unit on geometry.  We also reviewed the necessary steps to completing word problems and took our end of quarter assessment (came home in blue folders).  If your child had difficulty on this test, some extra practice at home may be necessary.  We also took TWO other assessments, the Cobb County Checkpoint Assessment and our grade level math benchmark.  Whew! The kids worked really hard this week, but I did reward them with some extra recess time on those tough testing days. I was SOOOO impressed with our test results on the checkpoint and the benchmark! 

Class News and Announcements...


Thank you for all the stocking stuffers everyone sent in!  The kids have been so excited every day to see what has been in there!  It's also been a really good motivator for some good behavior!  I know it's tough to keep it under control when the big man in red is visiting soon!


If you haven't yet sent in your container of Clorox or Lysol wipes, please do so.  Thank you to those who already donated!


I will have a check out sheet in the room on Wednesday. If you would like to check your child out of school early after the holiday party, you may do so. Also, please let me know if your child will not be at school on Thursday. I want to make sure we wrap everything important up by early Wednesday if I need to!


I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas together and really get some good family time in!  I'll miss these sweet babies during this long break!