2nd term...off we go!

Now that all single letters and their sounds have been presented in class, we will begin "word families" study.  This means more sounding out and reading words.  For the next couple of weeks, we will be working with word families containing the letter Aa.

As a class, we will learn the process of our Words Their Way spelling program this week.  next week, students will be taking home spelling lists to work on, with a test on Friday.  Please see the letter that is sent home today for more details, and watch for an email specific to your child later in the week.

Our phonemic awareness lessons on rhyme will now transition to lessons on syllables.  Rhyme is important to keep practicing, so feel free to do rhyming practice and games at home to keep your child's skills sharp.

We start penmanship practice today!  One of our centers will be penmanship, and two letters per week will be introduced and practiced.  Penmanship homework will be sent home on Wednesday and Friday.  If your child does not bring a practice sheet home it means that the sheet was finished in class.  Please have those returned by the following Monday.  Also, please be sure that penmanship is done in pencil to allow for erasing and refining.

Halloween party this Friday!  Here are the guidelines as published in the Weekly Howler:

This year we will celebrate Halloween on Friday, October 26^th.  There will be no parade this year. Students are welcome to wear Halloween costumes that are school appropriate and modest. No masks or weapon related items. Class parties will start at 12:00.  With clean up at 12:45 p.m.  We know this is a day the students look forward to and are hoping that by having this celebration on a short day we will preserve the actual Halloween day for academics. As there are always many parents on campus, if you are volunteering in the classroom and are parked in the fire lane, please plan to take your child at 1:00 p.m. so that we can have all the parked cars off campus by the time afternoon pickup starts at 1:20 p.m.  There is also parking available at Smith Fields Park or the car corral (across the street from the park).  We know this is a day the students look forward to.

 The times listed above are different for us, of course, but the other guidelines are still in effect.

Lastly, thank you very much to all of you who came in to volunteer last week and make it possible to get so much of our assessing done.  You really made the difference!

Report cards will go home this week!  I will send an explanation letter home with the report card.

Thanks for your support and all that you do!