Dear Parents,
Thank you to all who were able to help with Primary Centers.  Even with the change in scheduling, we were able to complete the three rotations because of your help!!
We are starting theme 3 – “Let’s Look Around” this week in our reading series.  The stories in this theme follow a different structure.  They will be stories that inform us.  This week, our reading strategy is “evaluate”.  After we have finished reading a story we should be able to evaluate whether we liked or disliked the story.  The comprehension skill that will help us with this reading strategy is understanding the topic, main idea, and details of the story.  The topic is what the story is about (for example: seasons).  The main idea is general information about the topic (different things happen in each season).  The details are specific information (leaves fall in Autumn, it can snow in winter).  Being able to identify the topic, main idea, and details will not only help us remember the story but also help us evaluate the story as well as, help us become better writers.  Our phonics focus this week is the short sound of /a/ and final consonants, including double final consonants.  Our spelling words this week will focus on double final consonants and will be from unit 16.  (Yes, we are skipping around…to match what we are practicing in our reading).  Our grammar focus is on what makes a sentence a sentence.  We will also concentrate on the months of the year and story vocabulary for the seasons.  Math finds us using our subtraction concepts for problem solving and writing number sentences in vertical form.   In religion, we will be discussing how God speaks to us.  We continue our study of families in social studies, and we are learning about animals in science.

Please remind your child to bring their library book to school tomorrow so that they may check out a new one.

Water bottle sales continue on Tuesday and Thursday.  Thank you for your support!

Our Bat Program was canceled last week.  We are rescheduling with the city.  Remember, your signed progress reports are due today.  Your saint report (including a sentence about your chosen saint) is due Wednesday and the Book-It List is due Friday.

I will be out of the classroom on Wednesday, but your children will be in wonderful hands.
Friday is a full day and the children will enjoy a Halloween-themed “family” activity in the afternoon.

On Friday after mass, the 8th graders are selling Halloween Tattoos.  The cost is $1.00.  Your child may purchase two to wear that day.  If more are to be purchased, they will be placed in an envelope and taken home.  The children may also wear Halloween-themed accessories on Friday.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.  Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Manning