We're off and running...

Wow! Hard to believe school just began three weeks ago! We have accomplished many things in our short time together. This week will be just as busy! In math we will finish Place Value and take our first math chapter test at the end of the week. During reading workshop we will continue book talks with a partner and learn how to write about our "reader's voice". We will also set up guidelines for our reading workshop so we can do our best reading and writing without being distracted by others. In writing workshop we will begin a unit on "Personal Narrative." We will begin collecting significant memories from our lives to write and share with each other. Our noun study continues with singular and plural nouns and how there are different rules associated when changing a singular noun to its plural form. A quiz will be given later in the week on the rules adding an s, when to add an es, and when the noun is both singular and plural (for example: sheep, deer, etc.).

A note about spelling: This past Friday, your child came home with their first spelling list for this week. Their homework Monday night will be to write each spelling word in a sentence. We will begin this assignment together in class and they will have to finish it. A list of spelling guidelines will be glued to the inside front cover of their spelling notebook. Please review these guidelines with your child! Their spelling test will be this Thursday.

Reading Log and Current Events:
Your child's first reading log is due tomorrow. They should fill out the title, author, minutes read, and have you initial for each day on the reading log. They are required to read 5 out of the 7 nights and can write "OFF" on the two nights they take off. Please note: Last week we had Monday off from school so we didn't start the log until Tuesday. I told them all that Monday was a "free night off" and so the calendar they're handing in tomorrow could have 3 nights off.

Our first Current Events Calendar for the month of October came home last week. The requirements for the assignment is written at the top of the calendar. We did a sample current event together as a class on an article titled Wild Thing, which was about a Dutch artist who makes beach animals in hopes to preserve the sand from the rising ocean water. We also viewed a video. Click on the link if you'd like to see the video I shared with the class: Strandbeest
I have included links to current events resources that are kid friendly on the sidebar of the blog. Please let me know if you have any questions.

And lastly, a thank you to Mrs. Kate Kloss, our first MYSTERY READER! Mrs. Kloss read Smile a Lot by Nancy Carlson. It was a fun book with the lesson to always remember to smile a lot, even if things don't always go your way! We also learned about one of Mrs. Kloss' hobbies which is letter boxing! I'm sure many of you already heard all about it! I know we all were intrigued.