October 18 - 22

Dear Parents,
Sorry for not writing last week.  As the saying goes, "Time Flies When You Are Having a Good Time."

This group of young people are great!  I love them all.  What a joy it is to come to school everyday.

Upcoming events - Thursday, October 21

• Field trip to Great Plains Nature Center/ Wichita Water Center on Thursday, Oct. 21. Don't forget to send a sack lunch.
• Music Program- students are to be in the classroom by 6:30.  Program at 7:00 p.m.

Reading-
This week we are reading a great story, Marven of the Great North Woods, pages216 - 235.   Read at home on Monday night.
Vocabulary words- cord, dismay, grizzly, immense, payroll

Skill lessons:  fact and opinion, main idea and details, strategies to use with unfamiliar words.

Spelling-
This week the lesson deals with consonant pairs: ng, nk, ph, and wh.
Please make sure words are studied every night. Five minutes of practice is more beneficial than no time at all.  I am finding out that the children who have the challenge words are not studying.  Don't forget the challenge words.

Language-)
We continue to review the four types of sentences: declarative(statement), interrogative(question), imperative(command) and exclamatory(shows excitement).  Many of the students are getting interrogative and imperative sentences mixed up.  It would be great if you can review the different types of sentences at home.  Tests will continue to be given on the 4 types of sentences.

Simple subject of a sentence has been discussed and identified in sentences.  This week the simple predicate will be taught.  Other skills to be covered are combining compound subjects in sentences. Combining compound predicates will be discussed as well.

Another language skill being worked on is using a resource called Write Trait. This is an excellent resource to encourage and develop their writing skills.  Using Write Trait  will be a great asset for their 6 trait writing.

The students are learning about strong leads to begin their writing.  Learning to end an essay is also an important factor in one's writing.

There are 3 organizational patterns the students will learn this week in Write Trait:: step-by-step, comparision-contrast, and most important to least important information in their writings.

Social studies:
This week we continue to work on map skills and learn the names to the different parts of a map.  The parts of the map include:  compass rose, title, locator, inset map, map scale, map key, cardinal directions, and intermediate directions.  A test will be given over the parts of a map.

AR Reading
Many students earned their ar goal for first nine weeks.  Once a student reaches their goal and has 80% comprehension, a reading t-shirt is earned.  Next nine weeks we are hoping for 100% of the class to earn their goals.

Help
Reading every night for 20 minutes helps their comprehension, fluency, and reading level.  It is my goal for each child to improve their reading level and to be on grade level or higher.

Thank you for your support and sharing your child with me.  This is a wonderful group of children.

Susan Burford