Dear Parents,                                                     October 3, 2011

Our reading strategy this week is “monitor and clarify”.  If we have difficulty understanding the story as we read, we stop and go back to reread the sections that were confusing.  We also use key words or the pictures to help the story become clear to us.  Our comprehension skill this week focuses on fantasy and realism.  Understanding the story and knowing if what is happening in the story is something that can really happen or something that is pretend can help us better understand the story.  Our phonics focus this week is the short sound of /e/ and the consonants y, k, and v.  Our spelling words this week will focus on the short sound of /e/ – unit 8.  The short sounds of /e/ and /i/ can be confusing to children.  Please focus on the difference between these sounds in your nightly reading.  Our grammar focus is naming words (nouns).  Math finds us practicing subtraction concepts and we should be ready for our chapter test on Thursday. In religion, we will be discussing saints in preparation for the Saints Parade and learning about Baptism.  We will be testing on unit 2 in social studies this week and science finds us learning about our bones.

We had a great time visiting multipurpose room 1 last week to examine our plants under the microscopes.  I think we just might have some future scientist on our hands – I heard someone say that they wanted a microscope for Christmas!  Thank you to Mr. Merkord for his help in the lab!

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!

The Saints Parade is November 4th.  The kindergarteners, first graders and second graders dress up as their favorite saint and process into mass at 8:30.  After mass, we will each say our name, the name of our saint and one sentence about our saint. After mass, we will parade around our field.  It is a wonderful way to celebrate “our communion of saints”.  Please mark the date on your calendars and start thinking about your favorite saint!
It is “Carla Valdiz” this week.  Congratulations!

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

Mrs. Manning