Dear Parents, March 21, 2011
I hope that everyone enjoyed the three-day weekend!
Congratulations to Anthony Gose – the winner of the Primary Grades Palmisano Writing Contest! The children wrote wonderful essays on why Sacred Heart School is an A+ school. They all did a fantastic job and I was very proud of each and every one! I will be sending home the originals. Please sit down and read them with your child – it will warm your heart to know that the sacrifices you make to send your child to SHS are worth it – They love being here!
We are starting theme 8 in our reading series – Our Earth. Our reading strategy this week is “summarizing”. The comprehension skill that will help with summarizing is categorizing or classifying. Paying attention to what is the same or different in the stories we read can help us better understand the stories. Our grammar focus this week is action words (verbs) and our phonics focus this week is the action word endings, -s, -ed, and -ing. Our spelling words this week are from unit 33 and have the ending –ed. The words are posted to spellingcity.com. Don’t forget to play the games and take practice tests!
Math finds us working on differences from 12 or less. We continue to practice our math facts and word problems. The children love the game Math Lines in the lab and we are continuing to play, however, the children will be trying a new game on the same site – http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/ When on this site go to math games. Choose the last choice – Randomath. Scroll down and pick math facts practice. It is a timed basic fact game. You choose addition or subtraction (we are working on subtraction). We are setting the difficulty at 10, and the time for 4 minutes. Encourage your child to show you the game at home and let them practice. You can keep track of how many they get correct and the average time it takes to complete a problem. Encourage them to better their own time each day!
In religion, we are continuing to prepare for Our Good Shepherd. We are learning how to say, “I am Sorry” and are starting our study of the Stations of the Cross.
Our afternoons are quite busy this week, with Stations, different P.E. times, and the Talent Show Dress Rehearsal, so we will focus on science this week and continue with our study of matter. We will be making a step book for our chapter vocabulary.
Stations of the Cross last Wednesday were quite beautiful! After our reflection on each station, an eighth grader stood under the station with a candle, so that the end of our reflection illuminated all 14 stations. In the dim light of our beautiful church, it really was very moving! Please try to join us Wednesday afternoons if your schedule permits.
Wednesday is a free dress day. The cost is $1.00 and all proceeds will benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Please be as generous as you can for this very worthy cause.
Friday is a noon dismissal day and Grandparents’ Day! We welcome all Grandparents to join us for 8:30 mass, some refreshments in the hall, and then into our classrooms for a peek into our daily activities.
It is All About…Jacqueline this week. Congratulations!
Have a wonderful week. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know.
Mrs. Manning
