Easter Baskets

PLEASE SEND EASTER AN EASTER BASKET WITH YOUR CHILD TOMORROW!!! THANKS :)

Play Parts

I have the play parts assigned and will be letting the children know today which character they will be playing. However, I do not have all the parts typed and ready to send home today. I was short on a few characters and had to add another play last night. I will get the parts out to them tomorrow!

Easter Party

For the party tomorrow we will be taking the bus! The children are really excited about riding on the bus:) Parents you are still welcome to come, you can just meet us there. We are leaving at 9:05am and if you would like you can follow behind us. If you want to just meet us there but need directions just message me :) Thanks!

Questions on Study Guide

The questions on the study guide are set up to "guide' the discussion about the story. The answers are not always clearly stated and the children may need to discuss out loud the information from the text to arrive at the answer. Some of the questions will have several answers. Having them identify all possible answers to the question helps them prepare for questions like Which of the following is NOT.....? . I did realize that number 5 may be a little confusing....It is asking how seeds are transported?

Study Guides

On tonight's homework I am having the children complete questions 1-5 on their study guides and look up then write the definitions for 2 of the vocabulary words (these directions are listed on the actual homework sheet). I feel like this is a great way to prepare for the test and teaches the children good study habits. The study guide should be turned in with the homework sheet and I will return the study guide tomorrow so more questions can be completed for Tuesday's homework. :)

Newsletter March 30th-April 3rd

Spelling Words: No Spelling!!! :)

High Frequency Words: brown, know, right, round  Review all words previously learned (refer to the HF word sheet I sent home)

Sounds/Spellings: Review Long and Short o sounds, spellings, and rules. For extra practice at home have the students write words using the spellings for each sound (Long o: o  _ow  o_e   oa_) For short i: Focus on words ending in _dge, _ck, x, _ng (these spellings only come after short vowel sounds)

Vocabulary: shrub, stems, vine, energy

Stories: Green and Growing

Comprehension Skills and Strategies: Asking Questions, Visualizing, Making Inferences, Cause and Effect, Identifying Sound Words ex. swoosh, Making Connections, Compare and Contrast, Drawing Conclusions  Focus: Classify and Categorize

Study Skill: Using the Library

Language Arts: Possessive Nouns and Pronouns Intro: Synonyms

Writing: Easter Story

Math: New Concepts; Five-digit addition and Addition and subtraction with four numbers Math Concepts to be tested on: Addition/Subtraction Families 1-11, subtracting two-digit numbers, story problems, temperature, counting by fives, numbers that are ten more than, identifying numbers up to 1,000

Math Test: Wednesday, April 1st
Pre-Spelling Test: None
Spelling and Sentence Test: None
Reading Test: Thursday, April 2nd (may change until next week, depending on how the children are doing with the story)

FYI

Both first grades will be presenting plays on May 8th, at 9:00am in the cafetorium.  I will be sending home assigned parts for my plays Wednesday. The children will need your help in memorizing their parts. Each child will be a character in one of the plays, and each child will have a speaking part, such as narrator for another play.  They will not read their parts.  They must memorize each part. As you help them learn their parts, please feel free to model how that character might say the words...model expression with your voice.  I will also work on that with them at school.  Please keep these parts at home for right now.  Later, I may ask the children to keep their parts in their homework folder.  I want to thank you ahead of time for helping with this.  We can't do it without you!  (:  Please begin working on this now.  We will begin practicing in the classroom in a couple of weeks.  It would be nice if the children were well on their way to knowing their parts.

Mrs. Blackwell is giving me the costumes she has used in the past. I should have most of the ones I need but will not know for sure until I receive the costumes from her. If any parents would like to offer to help either make or repair the costumes please let me know :)

On May 14th, we have a field trip planned to Landmark Park's Digitarium Planetarium.  Cost is $6 per student.  I'm not sure if we will need drivers. There is a possibility we will go by bus.  I will give you more information on this trip later.  Payment is due by the 17th of April.

NO SPELLING TEST THIS WEEK.  

Flat Stanley

I hear our Flat Stanleys are making it around!! When you receive any letters, pictures, videos, etc. from Flat Stanley's adventures please be sure to send it to school, email, or text me the information so we can share it with the class and add everything to our Flat Stanley Wall! The children are very excited to see all of his adventures!

Easter Eggs Due

DON'T FORGET.......10 plastic candy filled eggs are due tomorrow along with $5 to cover the cost of our Easter Party which is on Wednesday.  :)

Fourth Nine Weeks AR

We have begun our fourth nine weeks of AR reading and testing.  The children were not STAR tested this nine weeks, so you will see that their ZPD remains the same.  HOWEVER, as the children reach the top of their ZPD, I am allowing them to continue past it if they are doing well on their tests.  If they begin missing questions, they go back to a lower level.  Their goals are not as high this nine weeks because they are based on an eight week testing period.  Please encourage your child to take two tests a week. No one needs to get to the last week and have several tests to take to reach his or her goal. Thank you so much for your help this year with AR!

I apologize for not getting this information out to you earlier in the week. During our library time yesterday I found out that we would be keeping the ZPDs from last nine weeks. I sent home the new AR Log yesterday. Me being new I am also learning how the PLAS AR program runs; thank you for your patience!

Art Show

It seems that we have several artist in class :) Congratulations to the following students for placing in the Art Show; the ones that received a first or second place award will go to district:

Waterbase

1st Place- Weston Garrett

2nd Place- Carly Henderson

3rd Place- Carter Nelson

Printmaking

1st Place- Anna Kate Hardin

2nd Place- Carter Nelson

3rd Place- Isabella Helms

Color Drawing

2nd Place- Jaylyn Luker

3rd Place- Anna Kate Hardin

Non-Color Drawing

3rd Place- Lexie Terry

The students were competing with K4-1st!

Easter Egg Hunt and Party

Our Easter Egg Hunt and party will be on Wednesday, April 1st, from 9:30 until 12:30, at Carmen Sanders' house. The children are to bring 10 plastic eggs filled with candy by March 30th. Please send $5.00 in a envelope with your child's name on it by the same date to cover refreshments and lunch. Please put these dates on your calendar. The plastic eggs and $5.00 are due the Monday we come back from spring break! I need drivers to transport children to the party and back to school. I am giving the parents that have not had an opportunity to drive first choice. The parents that have driven for us before I will let you know if there are any open spots. If you will be able to help, please let me know this week. Thanks!!!

We have a field trip to Landmark Park in May. I will post more information on this soon.

Weekly Reminders

• Be sure to check the Parent Newsletter to review concepts we are learning and test dates.

• Friday is the 3rd Nine Weeks Honors Program it begins at 9am. This is a normal school day! 

• Wednesday, March 18 is the David M. Sargent Assembly. David has wrote several character education stories and will be here with his dogs. Parents are invited to join the assembly and will have an opportunity to purchase his books. 

• Next week is SPRING BREAK!!!!! :) :) :) 

Parent Newsletter March 16th-20th

Spelling Words: found, ground, our, ounce, pound, how, cow, brown, flower, towel, thought, too, to, March

High Frequency Words: would, fire  Review all words previously learned (refer to the HF word sheet I sent home)

Sounds/Spellings: Review Long and Short I sounds, spellings, and rules. For extra practice at home have the students write words using the spellings for each sound (Long a: i  _igh  i_e   _y  _ie) For short i: Focus on words ending in _dge, _ck (these spellings only come after short vowel sounds)

Vocabulary: flower, quite, shouted, tight, afraid

Stories: The Garden    and   "Saguaro"

Comprehension Skills and Strategies: Asking Questions, Visualizing, Making Inferences, Cause and Effect, Identifying Sound Words ex. swoosh, Making Connections, Compare and Contrast Focus: Drawing Conclusions 

Study Skill: Completing a Web

Language Arts: Possessive Nouns and Pronouns Intro: Plural Possessive Pronouns

Writing: Squiggle Line Story #5

Math: New Concepts; two-digit subtraction, eleven subtraction family,  Math Concepts to be tested on: Addition/Subtraction Families 1-11, telling time, adding two-digit numbers, adding 4 numbers, story problems, temperature, fractions

Math Test: Wednesday, March 18th
Pre-Spelling Test: Thursday, March 19th
Spelling and Sentence Test: Friday, March 20th
Reading Test: Friday, March 20th

Wednesday Reminders

*Friday is a half day!!!  Early Birds will let out at 11:40 and then the Late Birds at 11:50. Please have your child picked up by 12.

*Friday, March 13th, is the last day to send money for the 2014-2015 yearbook.

*5th Grade Bake Sale is tomorrow Thursday, March 12th. All items will be $1.00. Let's help support this Bake Sale. The proceeds go toward honoring local people in our community as a part of the Liberty's Legacy program. 

*The Art Show is next Wednesday, March 18th.

*Reading and Spelling Pre-test tomorrow. Everything that will be on the reading test can be found on the study guide. Please be sure to review 

Reading Test Tomorrow

Please, review question 10 on the "How a Seed Grows" study guide with your child; this will be the personal response question on the test. The students tend to get a little lazy when it comes to answering this question. I have not been counting points off for this question but I am going to start with this test. Be sure they answer it in complete sentences. They must write at least 2 sentences to get credit; these questions are considered "essay" style questions. This week it is asking the students to write about a garden. I will not accept " I do not know of any gardens" as an answer. With me giving the study guides out there is no excuse for the children not to be prepared to answer the personal response questions. They can practice their answer verbally or for better practice they can write them on the study guide. Be sure they check their spellings, punctuation marks, and to see if their sentences make sense.
Thanks!

Yearbooks

The last day to purchase a yearbook is this Friday (March 13th). They are $50. You can either go to the office or send the money with your child.

Also, Friday is a half day!!!!

Newsletter March 9th-13th

Spelling Words: spoon, tooth, food, pool, loose, threw, grew, chew, blew, flew, some, sum, they, St. Patrick's Day

High Frequency Words: Review all words previously learned (refer to the HF word sheet I sent home)

Sounds/Spellings: Review Long and Short A sounds, spellings, and rules. For extra practice at home have the students write words using the spellings for each sound (Long a: a  ai_  a_e   _ay) For short a: Focus on words ending in _dge, _ck (these spellings only come after short vowel sounds)

Vocabulary: aside, root

Story: How a Seed Grows

Comprehension Skills and Strategies: Asking Questions, Visualizing, Making Inferences, Cause and Effect, Identifying Sound Words ex. swoosh, Making Connections, Compare and Contrast

Language Arts: Adjectives and Comparative Adjectives, Sentence expansion with describing words; identifying telling and asking sentences

Writing: Squiggle Line Story #4, Creative Writing (continued from last week)

Math: New Concepts; Subtracting Two-Digit numbers, Eleven addition family, addition and subtraction with three numbers Math Concepts to be tested on: Addition/Subtraction Families 1-10, telling time, measurements, counting money

Math Test: Wednesday, March 11th
Pre-Spelling Test: Thursday, March 12th
Spelling and Sentence Test: Friday, March 13th
Reading Test: Thursday, March 12th

Study Guide

How a Seeds Grow
1. What grows from seeds?
2. Why can’t you see the seeds begin to grow?
3. What are the steps of planting?
4. What do you do after you make the hole?
5. What are the kinds or types of beans?
6. How many seeds were planted in the story?
7. Why 12 seeds?
8. What is alike about all seeds? (What do all seeds need to grow)
9. What is different in how an oak seed and a bean grow?
10. Write about a garden you know?
Vocabulary
aside-
root-
Phonics
Long and short vowel A
Grammar
Identify which sentences are asking and telling. Write a T by the telling sentences and a A by the asking sentences.
1. What day is today?
2. Her shirt is green.
3. Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day.
4. Is that your dog?
5. School is over at 2:40.

Graded Paper and Study Guides

I was not able to get much done over the weekend due to my grandmother being ill and in the hospital. Thank you for all the kind messages and prayers, it helped and she is out and doing so much better. Study guides will be sent home tomorrow; I should have them posted on my blog later in the day along with the newsletter. Graded papers will also come home tomorrow. I apologize for not having these things ready today but it just couldn't be helped. Any questions or concerns please feel free to message or email me. Remember to check out the "Dates to Remember" found on the right side of my blog; there are several things happening this week! :) Have a wonderful and blessed week!

AR Star!

Congratulations to Carly Henderson for reaching her goal in AR on Friday!!! Way to read, keep it up!!!

FYI

My grandmother is in the hospital so I will be out tomorrow. Kim Garrett will be my sub. Just wanted to let you in case anyone tried contacting me through my email. Have a wonderful weekend.

Graded papers will go home next week :)

Bake Sale

            The 5^th grade classes are having a bake sale to raise money to honor local people in our community.  We are participating in a program called Liberty’s Legacy that promotes being a good American citizen and honoring heroes. We will have cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, cake and other sweet treats. All items will be $1.00.  Students can eat the treats at break or lunch.  We are trying to raise a total of $245 to honor these heroes through this program.    The bake sale will be Thursday, March 12^th starting around 8:20.  We are really excited about this and we hope that you will allow your child to enjoy a delicious, sweet treat to help this great cause.  

Art Show

Art Show is scheduled for Wednesday, March 18th. This is not on the calendars in the children's binders but I have added it to the "Dates to Remember" :) Mrs. Goff has been collecting things the children have done throughout the year for the show. If your child would like to make another entry they are more than welcome to, just be sure that their name is written on the back.

Dr. Seuss Poster

Don't forget that the Dr. Seuss posters for the contest are due by Thursday!!! Check out the Read Across America blog post for the details. We have had only one turned in so far and I really hope to have more for the contest :) It would be awesome for our class to win a party!

Graded Papers

Graded papers went home today. If your child did not have them it is because they needed to redo a part on the reading test due to them skipping a page. I allowed the ones that skipped a page to finish it today...I will send them home tomorrow.

AR Stars!!

Congratulations to Jaylyn Luker and Lexie Terry for reaching their goals in AR!!! Way to read, ladies!! Keep it up :)

AR Reminder

Just a reminder that you can keep track of your child's AR progress through AR Home Connect. There is a link to this page under the "Check Out These Sites" tab found on the right side of my blog. The log-in information is the same one your child uses to take test and can be found on their AR bookmark.

March 13th is the last day for AR test this nine weeks.

Understanding the Oral Fluency Assessments

I sent home graded papers today and part of that is the Oral Fluency Assessment. Notice on the right side of the page the two boxes Reading Rate and Accuracy and Reading Fluency. In the Reading Rate and Accuracy box you will see a place for the number of correct words read per minute; this is found by counting the numbers of words they read and then subtracting the number of errors they made (see details below on what counts as an error). The children at this time should be reading at least 23 correct words per minute. In the Spring, which is almost here, the children should be reading at least 53 correct words per minute. The Reading Fluency box does not factor into the final grade, however, this is still an important part in the children's reading ability and should be looked over (see details below about each category). The rubric for this is Low (needs improvement), Average (on-level), High (above average skill).

Errors in reading

• Words that are misread
• Words that the student omits
• Inserting extra words
• Words that have been reversed

] This bracket symbol shows where the student read to in one minute.

Reading Fluency Box

Decoding Ability- how well a student blends, recognize, or decodes a word. 

Pace- the speed of which they are reading. I explain that they do not need to read too slow or too fast. That it is not about how fast you read or reading all the words but reading at a steady pace and reading the words Correctly. 

Syntax- being aware of the ideas the author was trying to express. (Reading it like the author intended it be; reading with expression)

Self-correction- are they aware of their mistakes, do they catch them and then fix them

Intonation- being aware of punctuation....pausing at commas, periods, etc. 

Spelling Test

Please encourage your child to be neat and to listen well to the sentences. I don't just say a sentence once and expect them to write it. I say it several times, then when the test is completed, I ask the children to touch each word as I go back and read the sentences to them one more time. If they have left out a word, they ought to catch that mistake. I ask them to listen to my voice and how I read the sentences to help them know the correct punctuation. Don't forget that Spelling City is a good tool to help your child get ready for the test and can be found on the right side of my blog listed under "Check Out These Sites". Also, be sure to review all High-Frequency words with your child. They not only need to be able to identify them, they also need to be able to spell them. I sent home a master list of all High Frequency Words we have and will learn this year. If you need another copy just send me an email :)

Dr. Seuss Thursday

In addition to our dress-up days, Thursday we are going to spend the day doing fun Dr. Seuss activities. The children should choose a favorite Dr. Seuss book to bring to school and share with the class. They may bring a small pillow and wear their pajamas (NO stuffed animals are allowed). If any of you would like to make some special treats for us that day, please do. We plan to have a party at snack time!

******We will still have the spelling pre-test. 

Study Guide

Study Guides went home today. I found one on my floor :)  so I am posting it here! Remember this is not considered Homework and I do not check for it. However, I do encourage the students to review it so that they will be well-prepared for the reading test. This test will not have a grammar part on it but we are reviewing and using adjectives and comparative adjectives this week.

Winners Never Quit Study Guide
1. What sports do Mia love?
2. What sport is her favorite?
3. Why does Mia’s team cheer?
4. Why couldn't Mia score goals on that one day?
5. Mia didn't want luck next time, she wanted it now, so what did she do?
6. Why does Mia quit?
7. When does Mia always quit?
8. What happens the next day right when Mia runs outside?
9. Why didn't they wait for Mia to start the game?
10. What was Mia doing as the game was going on?
11. The next day, who did Garrett pick first?
12. What did Mia feel when she missed the goal?
13. What does Mia hate?
14. Why didn't she quit?
15. Why is playing more important than winning or losing?
16. What does Mia learn?
17. What does it mean to dribble a soccer ball?
18. What is a game you like to play very much?
Vocabulary Use your glossary to find the definition. Write it beside the word.
Stomped-
Rather-
Phonics
/er/ Sound; Spelling ear

Parent Newsletter Week March 2nd-6th

Spelling Words: boat, float, soap, doe, goes, tiptoe, yellow, window, slow, show, here, hear, would, Monday

High Frequency Words: any, from, water, come

Sounds/Spellings: New: sound /er/ spelling ear          Review Long/Short Vowel Sounds and Spellings (see study guide for specifics)

Vocabulary: stomped, rather

Story: Winners Never Lose

Comprehension Skills and Strategies: Asking Questions, Visualizing, Making Inferences, Cause and Effect, Sequence of Events, Identifying Sound Words ex. swoosh, Making Connections

Language Arts: Adjectives and Comparative Adjectives, Sentence expansion with describing words

Writing: Squiggle Line Story #4, Creative Writing

Math: New Concepts; Subtracting Two-Digit numbers Math Concepts to be tested on: Addition/Subtraction Families 1-10, using a ruler to measure, Measurements: how many feet in a yard, how many inches in a foot, and how many inches in a yard, taking one half of a group, distinguishing between thirds, halves, and fourths, counting by 2s, story problems

Math Test: Wednesday, March 4th
Pre-Spelling Test: Thursday, March 5th
Spelling and Sentence Test: Friday, March 5th
Reading Test: Friday, March 5th (may change)

Dates to Remember

Don't forget to look at the Dates to Remember found on the right side of my blog. These dates will also be listed on your child's Calendar in his/her binder :)

Flat Stanley!

Please send to school the two 6"x9" envelopes, two stamps, and the address form I sent home last week by tomorrow!!! They were due today. We cannot start our Flat Stanley project until every student has returned these things. Thank you. Be sure that the envelopes are 6"x9"