Tuesday, November 24, 2009

November 30th - December 4th

November 30th – December 4th
Important Dates . . .
November 30 -- December 4 -- P/T Conferences
December 1 -- Report Cards
December 1 – Yearbook deadline
December 4 -- P/T Conferences -- No School

Yearbook:
Now's the time to place your orders. Yearbooks are $10.00 and the deadline for your orders is Tuesday, December 1, 2009. Please make checks payable to Lifetouch. Please make sure your student's name, teacher's name and grade level are marked on the order form. If you have multiple students, please fill out one for each child. Yearbook order forms went home with your child on November 12th and there are a few extra envelopes available; please try not to lose them. If your child loses it, you can send an envelope with the following information on it: student's name, teacher's name and grade level along with a check made payable to Lifetouch for $10.00. It is very important that you put the information on the envelope; Lifetouch does not know who your child's teacher is. Prairieview Yearbook orders are not paid for at registration.
Language ArtsWe are continuing to build our skills from recognizing phrases and sentences to identifying attributes of sentences. They should be able to identify that a sentence has two parts: a who or what part that tells who or what the sentence is about and a does what part that tells what the who or what does. Students have been able to work in partners and generate sentences including those parts accurately.

Reading
We will begin the study of Charles Dickens story, "A Christmas Carol". We will continue focusing on story elements (character) and summarizing throughout this study. This will better prepare us for our field trip next Wednesday. We will explore new vocabulary and compare and contrast the story with the play.

Please keep reading 20 minutes a night for the Independent Reading Program! You may just note the time read in increments of 20 minutes in the pages read section. Please sign on the date the reading was accomplished. This orange folder should be turned in every Monday to make sure they are staying on track. The Independent Reading Folder should be turned in at the end of the month to ensure they can attend the lunch reading party. Keep reading!

Spelling
Practice pages will be assigned for the upcoming week's list on Friday to give additional study time. Over the weekend would be a good time to discuss the meaning of the words. Although we work on meaning typically on Fridays and Mondays, help from home is greatly encouraged! They will be receiving them daily as an assignment. A test over the lesson will be given every Friday. Please try to help your child study if you see they are not performing as well as you'd expect on the weekly test. One strategy you can use to help is: Sound Words - Use a tape recorder and record your words and their spelling. Then listen to your tape, checking to see that you spelled all the words correctly.

Math (Mrs. K's Math class only)
We will continue focusing on place value and applying it to everyday situations. The children will be encouraged to use various manipulatives and strategies to achieve understanding of place value; whether it be understanding through money, unfix cubes, other tangible objects, 100's chart, and various place value charts.

Daily Homework
Reading
- 20 minutes and fill in Independent Reading Folder Log
- practice reading poems given to work on fluency
Spelling - Practice Page nightly & study words

*Please check your child's homework and sign assignment notebook when complete.
**If your child is having difficulties with their homework please send a note and I will help them during free time

Friday, November 20, 2009

November 23rd - November 27th

Important Dates . . .
November 25, 26, 27 -- Thanksgiving Holiday -- No School
November 30 -- December 4 -- P/T Conferences
December 1 -- Report Cards
December 1 -- Deadline for Yearbooks

Yearbook:
Now's the time to place your orders. Yearbooks are $10.00 and the deadline for your orders is Tuesday, December 1, 2009. Please make checks payable to Lifetouch. Please make sure your student's name, teacher's name and grade level are marked on the order form. If you have multiple students, please fill out one for each child. Yearbook order forms went home with your child on November 12th and there are a few extra envelopes available; please try not to lose them. If your child loses it, you can send an envelope with the following information on it: student's name, teacher's name and grade level along with a check made payable to Lifetouch for $10.00. It is very important that you put the information on the envelope; Lifetouch does not know who your child's teacher is. Prairieview Yearbook orders are not paid for at registration.

Independent Reading Program
Please keep reading 20 minutes a night for the Independent Reading Program! You may just note the time read in increments of 20 minutes in the pages read section. Please sign on the date the reading was accomplished. This orange folder should be turned in every Monday to make sure they are staying on track. The Independent Reading Folder should be turned in next Monday, November 30th, to ensure they can attend the lunch reading party. Keep reading!

Thanksgiving Theme Unit
Since there are only two days this week, we will be working on Thanksgiving related activities and lessons in all areas. In reading and social studies we will be completing a Thanksgiving webquest. We will be working with a Thanksgiving spelling list to build vocabulary and practice spelling. There will be no test this week, but students will still complete practice pages nightly.


Daily Homework
Reading - 20 minutes and fill in Independent Reading Folder Log
- practice reading poems given to work on fluency
Spelling - Practice Page nightly & study words

*Please check your child's homework and sign assignment notebook when complete.
**If your child is having difficulties with their homework please send a note and I will help them during free time

Friday, November 13, 2009

November 16th - November 20th

Important Dates . . .

November 19 – Picture Retakes
November 25, 26, 27 -- Thanksgiving Holiday -- No School
December 1 -- Report Cards
November 30 -- December 4 -- P/T Conferences

Yearbook:
Now's the time to place your orders. Yearbooks are $10.00 and the deadline for your orders is Tuesday, December 1, 2009. Please make checks payable to Lifetouch. Please make sure your student's name, teacher's name and grade level are marked on the order form. If you have multiple students, please fill out one for each child. Yearbook order forms went home with your child on November 12th and there are a few extra envelopes available; please try not to lose them. If your child loses it, you can send an envelope with the following information on it: student's name, teacher's name and grade level along with a check made payable to Lifetouch for $10.00. It is very important that you put the information on the envelope; Lifetouch does not know who your child's teacher is. FYI - Prairieview Yearbook orders are not paid for at registration.

Language Arts
We are continuing to build our skills from recognizing phrases and sentences to identifying attributes of sentences. They should be able to identify that a sentence has two parts: a who or what part that tells who or what the sentence is about and a does what part that tells what the who or what does.

Reading
We are working on story elements and decoding skills. The story element being focused on is character. Students need to work on recall of information and details relating to characters. Also, we will be working on paragraph or short story summaries. To do this we will be focusing on key words in sentences to better help us retell that sentence.


Please keep reading 20 minutes a night for the Independent Reading Program! You may just note the time read in increments of 20 minutes in the pages read section. Please sign on the date the reading was accomplished. This orange folder should be turned in every Monday to make sure they are staying on track. The Independent Reading Folder should be turned in at the end of the month to ensure they can attend the lunch reading party. Keep reading!

Spelling
Practice pages will be assigned for the upcoming week's list on Friday to give additional study time. Over the weekend would be a good time to discuss the meaning of the words. Although we work on meaning typically on Fridays and Mondays, help from home is greatly encouraged! They will be receiving them daily as an assignment. A test over the lesson will be given every Friday. Please try to help your child study if you see they are not performing as well as you'd expect on the weekly test. One strategy you can use to help is: Sound Words - Use a tape recorder and record your words and their spelling. Then listen to your tape, checking to see that you spelled all the words correctly.


Science
Last week we wrapped up lesson 3 of our Introduction Unit: Inquiry Skills; therefore, the test will be Wednesday, November 18th. Please re-read the unit (p.1-37) with your child this weekend to help refresh their memory of the information learned prior. The information listed on the study guide is a must to study for understanding what is expected on the test. Many of the questions are taken directly from the vocabulary cards, notes, and quiz in their Science Folder in their binder. There is a lot of information to know. You should have been reviewing the notes and vocabulary cards all along, so this should make it an easier weekend of studying.



Math (Mrs. K's Math class only)
We will continue focusing on place value and applying it to everyday situations. The children will be encouraged to use various manipulatives and strategies to achieve understanding of place value; whether it be understanding through money, unfix cubes, other tangible objects, 100's chart, and various place value charts.



Daily Homework
Reading - 20 minutes and fill in Independent Reading Folder Log
- practice reading poems given to work on fluency
Spelling - Practice Page nightly & study words
Science – Introductory Unit Test Wednesday


*Please check your child's homework and sign assignment notebook when complete.
**If your child is having difficulties with their homework please send a note and I will help them during free time

Thursday, November 5, 2009

November 9th - November 13th

Important Dates . . .
November 11 -- Veteran's Day -- No School
November 19 – Picture Retakes
November 25, 26, 27 -- Thanksgiving Holiday -- No School
December 1 -- Report Cards
November 30 -- December 4 -- P/T Conferences

Language Arts
We are continuing to build our skills from recognizing phrases and sentences to identifying attributes of sentences. They should be able to identify that a sentence has two parts: a who or what part that tells who or what the sentence is about and a does what part that tells what the who or what does.

Reading
We are working on story elements and decoding skills. The story element being focused on is character. Students need to work on recall of information and details relating to characters.

Please keep reading 20 minutes a night for the Independent Reading Program! You may just note the time read in increments of 20 minutes in the pages read section. Please sign on the date the reading was accomplished. This orange folder should be turned in every Monday to make sure they are staying on track. The Independent Reading Folder should be turned in at the end of the month to ensure they can attend the lunch reading party. Keep reading!

Spelling
Practice pages will be assigned for the upcoming week's list on Friday to give additional study time. Over the weekend would be a good time to discuss the meaning of the words. Although we work on meaning typically on Fridays and Mondays, help from home is greatly encouraged! They will be receiving them daily as an assignment. A test over the lesson will be given every Friday. Please try to help your child study if you see they are not performing as well as you'd expect on the weekly test. One strategy you can use to help is: X Words - Write two words having one common letter so they criss-cross.

Science
We will wrap up lesson 2 and move onto lesson 3 in our introductory chapter this week, Inquiry Skills. This is otherwise known as the skills to use when following the steps in the Scientific Method. There is a lot of information to know. Please review notes and vocabulary cards when possible. The information will be found in their Science folder in their binder. This will help when the test arrives.

Science at Home: There are plenty of opportunities to do science experiments at home. Together think of a question to ask, such as what dissolves in water, what floats or sinks, etc. Then come up with a hypothesis and an experiment plan. Have your child write the steps of the experiment and try it (Hint: if you need assistance the science folder is a good place to help you). Remember to record data during the experiment. Help your child come up with a conclusion and share your findings with family members.

Math (Mrs. K's Math class only)
We will continue focusing on place value and applying it to everyday situations. The children will be encouraged to use various manipulatives and strategies to achieve understanding of place value; whether it be understanding through money, unfix cubes, other tangible objects, 100's chart, and various place value charts.

Daily Homework
Reading - 20 minutes and complete Independent Reading Folder Log
- practice reading poems given to work on fluency
Spelling - Practice Page nightly & study words

*Please check your child's homework and sign assignment notebook when complete.
**If your child is having difficulties with their homework please send a note and I will help them during free time