Hi there. I hope that you are having a wonderful frosty weekend. It was quite chilly walking the dogs this morning. Yep...I have two dogs. I shared a picture above. The black one is named Dog (yep dog), and the smaller one is Sally. They are best friends and love to take daily walks.
Miss. Jennifer was our star of the week this week. She loves Monster High Dolls, puzzles, and all sorts of fun things. She has a love for her family and for her mom's earrings. Thanks for sharing such interesting fun stuff Jen. I think I am going to have to do some Christmas shopping in this Happy Days store that she loves so much! :0)
The picture above of the poster deals with this week's Weekly Report that came home on Friday. Together, we discovered that our class needs to focus in on 4 issues. They are listed on the poster and on the weekly report. We talked a lot about these things again, and we brainstormed strategies we could use to help correct them. These are small potatoes, but they are life skills that need to be addressed and corrected before they become a larger problem. Please know, that I told the kids that by me checking that they need to work on these does not mean they are a "bad" kid by any means. ALL kids have come incredible lengths since day one. These are not behavior issues (which is such a positive thing!). This is Ms. Erickson raising the expectation bar just a little bit higher and sharing a life skill with them. They work sooooooooo hard on their work, and they just need to show that they take pride in that. So, please have a simple discussion, allow them to share their strategies with you, and then we will work on it together in class. Thank you so much for your support on this. Please sign the report and send back to school on Monday.
Pictures came home Friday. I put them in the Tuesday folders because it was pouring at dismissal and they are a little tougher than just the picture packet. Please sign the Tuesday folder...even though it is not Tuesday...and return to school on Monday. Each student also got an Arrowhead ID card as well.
Spelling tests were also in the Tuesday folder. I am soooooo impressed how so many are taking the challenge words and running with them. They are doing great! Those are some tough words!!! Due to the short week this week (half day on Wednesday and no school on Thursday or Friday), we will NOT have spelling this week. I did put up the book words already though for the following week. I will add the challenge words soon. So, they can get a jump on studying those ones over their break.
Halloween is in the air. I happen to LOVE this holiday, as I was born on it. :0) I keep telling the kids that my magic powers have arrived and that I get especially spooky this time of year. Hee Hee! Kids may NOT wear their costumes to school on Halloween. However, they are encouraged to wear them on the night of the 25th for the Arrowhead Halloween Bash. I appreciate all of you that agreed to donate cupcakes for the cupcake walk. My kiddos and I will be working it for an hour, so please drop by and say hello. Trevor's family, thank you for also committing to bringing a dozen cupcakes. I passed that on to the appropriate people! Awesome! With Halloween, also comes a fun science buy in with fake money. Mrs. Moore and I will be combining our classes together on Halloween day to do some fun dry ice science dealing with the principle of matter and temperature. I have done this for years, and the kids love it!!! There is no contact with the dry ice by students, and safety instructions will be explained and enforced. There will be a $350 buy in fee. Students that can't buy in will have an alternate setting for that time.
After Halloween, comes other holidays. 4th graders do not do a holiday concert. They will however have a recorder concert later. Gotta love those recorders!!! I am blessed with one at home already. So, now I have a drummer and a recorder player. I suppose they will try to become a band soon. :0)
Conferences are right around the corner. I will share a lot of data with you on those dates. I feel that we are pretty in touch on the day to day stuff, but I would like the opportunity to see all of you face to face and talk directly about your child and their education. Of course, if I had concerns I would have already contacted you by now. I promise that I will always be open and honest with you. Hopefully, I have proven that to you. Watch for conference slips coming home in the next week or two. They are not until the beginning of November, but it is not too early to begin to think about any and all things you would like to discuss as well.
Tuesday we will be loading onto a bus and heading to the Metra for our NILE field trip. Students will need a sack lunch on this day. We will eat on the Metra grounds after the presentations. This will be our first field trip so I will be discussing my expectations before we go during our morning meetings this week. There is a poster in our classroom that says, True Character is how you are acting when no one is watching. Discuss this with your child. They also say it in our morning promise pledge. If they can tell you how that would relate to a field trip situation, write FIELD TRIP in the planner for $50 on Monday. I am still in need of a volunteer. It is for a half day.
It is a short week, but we will be packing in the learning! Academically this week we will be...
Math: Testing and showing mastery of all decimal concepts.
Lead 21: Going green. We will begin Unit 2 in our series. Students will get new leveled readers. Some kids switched groups due to their course work on the last unit. Some moved up, some moved down. Every child however is where I feel they will benefit the most from what we do in small groups. I will again adjust after this unit is complete. Students will focus on inference skills, making connections, antonyms, using text features, and sequencing events in chronological order.
Spelling: None
Language: Irregular Plurals. Some nouns don't change at all when made plural and some form entirely new words. Examples: one moose, many moose and one child and many children.
MT History: State symbols. (The basics). State bird, state tree, state animal, state quarter, state flag, state motto, and so on.
Regional Studies: latitude and longitude wrap up and political maps with keys.
Science: weather and temperature
Well, that about covers it. Have a wonderful weekend with your kiddo! Haylee...have a wonderful trip! We will miss you!
