May 31st - June 2nd

Important Dates . . .
May 31 -- Memorial Day -- No School
June 1 -- All-school picnic
June 2 -- Report Cards issued
Last day of school

PTO Picnic:
On Tuesday, the PTO will be providing lunch for the students. Each student will get one hot dog, a bag of chips, a bottle of water, and an ice cream treat. If your child does not eat hot dogs or needs more food than what is being provided, please send in a small sack lunch.

Yearbooks:
Will be handed out to students on June 2nd. Any students who did not purchase a yearbook may do so on a first-come-first-serve basis on June 2nd; they will go on sale after morning announcements. The cost will be $10.00 and children wishing to purchase should have exact amount. Checks can be made out to Prairieview. There is a limited supply. Prairieview yearbook orders were not paid for at registration. A flyer was sent out on November 12, 2009 and orders were due by Tuesday, December 9, 2009.

I sincerely want to thank you for a wonderful year! I have been so blessed to work with your children and family. I so appreciate all of you that have shown your gratitude for the education your child has received this year. I thank you for being such supportive, involved partners with us this year. It truly has been a joy and a privilege to know and work with all of you! I wish all of you a safe, fun summer filled with lasting memories of special times spent with your children, families, and friends.


OVER THE SUMMER:
Your child should continue to read this summer! Check out one of the great library programs in your area! In addition, if you are looking for some help in a certain subject area for your child, go on to the district website, look at the left hand side margin under “Students”, click on “Educational Websites.” Here you will find a long list of websites under each subject heading that you can check out. I hope you find this useful!

May 24th - 28th

Important Dates . . .
May 25 -- 3rd Grade Bowling Field Trip in a.m. (* bring a sack lunch )
May 28 -- 3rd Grade Chicago Boat Trip (* bring a sack lunch or $10 )
-- 4th Grade Bowling Field Trip in p.m.
May 31 -- Memorial Day -- No School
June 1 -- All-school picnic
June 2 -- Report Cards issued
Last day of school

Language Arts
The students are wrapping up writing good sentences this week. They will also work on creating a special poem this week using Co-Writer.

Reading
Your child will be coming home with 7 words from lesson 15 of the Elements of Reading Vocabulary program that will be studied during the week in class and should be reviewed at home. On the page I will be sending home each Monday there will be suggestions on how you can work with your child & have them get extra practice.

Each 20 minute increment read counts for a point up to 20 points – yes, that means an additional reading grade each month for learning to love to read. Your help is greatly appreciated! 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 this week (no later than Wednesday, May 26th) to ensure they can attend the lunch reading party on Thursday, May 27th. Keep reading!


Spelling
This week we will be working on a different list, where reading and spelling skills will be built at the same time through this list.

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 utilizing this website: http://www.kidsspell.com/ Students can learn spelling words, practice spelling tests, and play fun spelling games.

Math (Mrs. K's Math class only)
This week we will wrap up adding coins for the year. The children will be encouraged to use Touch Math to solve the values of the coins presented. They have done well with coins in isolation, but it is more difficult for them when adding mixed coins. One way to continue their practice of adding up coins and money would be having your child help make purchases. This would greatly help in their understanding and retention of money concepts.

Daily Homework
Reading- 20 minutes and fill in Independent Reading Folder Log due Thursday,May 27th
- students should practice reading poem nightly to parents to work on fluency
Spelling- Practice Page nightly & study words with parents nightly

*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

May 17th - 21st

Important Dates . . .
May 18 -- Beginning Band Concert
May 25 -- 3rd Grade Bowling Field Trip in a.m. (* bring a sack lunch )
May 28 -- 3rd Grade Chicago Boat Trip (* bring a sack lunch or $10 )
-- 4th Grade Bowling Field Trip in p.m.
May 31 -- Memorial Day -- No School
June 1 -- All-school picnic
June 2 -- Report Cards issued
Last day of school

Students from Project Challenge have started a fundraiser for the ASPCA, a foundation to stop animal cruelty. The kids will be selling "Smencils", (scented pencils), for $1.00 each. The pencils will be sold each morning in the grade level areas. The sales will go through May 28th. We will track our sales on the bulletin board by the multi-purpose room. For every twenty dollars we raise, one food bowl will go up on the bulletin board. So please save our animals. Buy Smencils.

Language Arts
The students are continuing to work on handwriting and good main idea sentences this week. They will continue building on writing grammatically correct sentences that relate to the topic given.

Reading
Your child will be coming home with 7 words from lesson 14 of the Elements of Reading Vocabulary program that will be studied during the week in class and should be reviewed at home. On the page I will be sending home each Monday there will be suggestions on how you can work with your child & have them get extra practice.

Each 20 minute increment read counts for a point up to 20 points – yes, that means an additional reading grade each month for learning to love to read. Your help is greatly appreciated! 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.

Spelling
This week we will continue to be divided into different spelling groups. Some will be working on Unit 35 this week. Others will be working on a sports list, where reading and spelling skills will be built at the same time through this list.

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 utilizing this website: http://www.spellingcity.com/ Students can learn spelling words, practice spelling tests, and play fun spelling games.

Science
We will dive right into Chapter 3, Plants. The children will be learning about the parts of a plant, how plants differ, and what are some plant life cycles. This information will build on our knowledge from Chapter 1. Through investigations and insta labs, the children should be ready for a brief test at the end of the week. Please review vocabulary and lesson notes nightly beginning Tuesday.

Math (Mrs. K's Math class only)
This week we will begin with just adding quarters then we will continue working on adding the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter all together. The children will be encouraged to use Touch Math to solve the values of the coins presented. They have done well with coins in isolation, but it is more difficult for them when adding mixed coins.

Daily Homework
Reading- 20 minutes and fill in Independent Reading Folder Log due every Monday
- students should practice reading poem nightly to parents to work on fluency
Spelling- Practice Page nightly & study words with parents nightly
Science - test Friday, May 21st- Reread Ch. 3 p.114-141, Study vocabulary words & lesson reviews for test

*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

May 10th - 14th

Important Dates . . .

May 10 -- 4th grade trip to Robert Crown
May 14 -- Early Dismissal @ 11:00
May 18 -- Beginning Band Concert
May 25 -- 3rd Grade Bowling Field Trip in a.m. (* bring a sack lunch )
May 28 -- 3rd Grade Chicago Boat Trip (* bring a sack lunch or $10 )
-- 4th Grade Bowling Field Trip in p.m.
May 31 -- Memorial Day -- No School
June 1 -- All-school picnic
June 2 -- Report Cards issued
Last day of school

Weekly Reminders:
*All 4th grade students need to bring a sack lunch and drink on Monday. They will be eating in the classroom before we go to the Robert Crown Center. Students may want to bring a second snack for when we return in the afternoon.
*Chapter 2 Science test on Friday.


Language Arts
The students are continuing to work on handwriting and good main idea sentences this week. They will continue building on writing grammatically correct sentences that relate to the topic given.

Reading
Your child will be not be coming home with 7 words from Elements of Reading Vocabulary program this week. Due to schedule changes because of field trips and early dismissal we will take a break from vocabulary for the week and utilize all of our reading time on decoding and sight word reading this week.

It's still important to keep reading 20 minutes nightly for the Independent Reading Program. Did you know that showing your child that you enjoy reading makes a lasting impression on the importance of the life long skill of reading? 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.

Spelling
This week we will continue to be divided into different spelling groups. Some will be working on Unit 34 this week. Others will be working on a farm animal list, where science, reading and spelling skills will be built at the same time through this list.

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 utilizing this website: http://www.spellingcity.com/ Students can learn spelling words, practice spelling tests, and play fun spelling games.

Science
There is a lot of information to know in Chapter 2, Animals. The "Big Idea" of this chapter is there are many kinds of animals. Animals can be grouped by their traits. The children have finished the second lesson, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fish. Each child has a lot to share of their knowledge about animals. I would like them to be able to not only be interested in the animals discussed, but to know the characteristics of each animal group and how they differ by specific traits. This week we will be moving on to the Lesson 3, Life Cycles of animals. Finally, we will end the week with a Chapter 2 test
on Friday morning. Please review vocabulary in folder and Lesson 1 & 2 notes this weekend in preparation for the test.

Math (Mrs. K's Math class only)
This week we will begin with just adding quarters then we will continue working on adding the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter all together. The children will be encouraged to use Touch Math to solve the values of the coins presented.


Daily Homework
Reading- 20 minutes and fill in Independent Reading Folder Log due every Monday
- students should practice reading poem nightly to parents to work on fluency
Spelling- Practice Page nightly & study words with parents nightly
Science - test Friday, May 14th
- Reread Ch. 2 p.78-113 - Study vocabulary words & lesson reviews for test

*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