Week of 9/14/09

Hello Families,

Most of the children have been in class this week, which has given us time to catch up on missed work and activities. I will send home this weekend any work that has not yet been completed due to your child's absence. I thank you in advance for helping them with directions, and for providing any support needed.

Here is information about regular weekly homework. It will come home in your child's homework folder ( bright orange) on Monday or Tuesday of each week. At this point, the work is focused on spelling. There will always be a list of words for your child to practice and study for the week. This list stays at home as a study guide for the week. Please help your child practice these words each week. Other worksheets need to be completed and returned by Friday of each week. Of course, these can be turned in earlier. I only ask that you check over the work with your child to insure it is completed and correct. In this manner, I can be assured that the time spent on the homework was of value. Again, I thank you for your involvement and support.

Here are some highlights from this week. In literacy, we are reading all about Henry, the boy and his dog Mudge. Some of us are reading about another dog named Danny. We have almost completed our first read aloud chapter book called, " The Next-Door Dogs. Our writing has been linked to both of these readings. Many of the children are earning marbles in the jar each day for completing their writing assignments. In math, we are learning how to write subtraction sentences, and how to show our thinking using drawings and real objects. We are also finding some time to work on automatic recall of facts with the rocket math program. In science, we have begun planting six kinds of seeds: kidney bean, corn, sunflower, lima bean, garbanzo, and white bean. Our experiment is too see if a seed that was soaked in water will sprout and grow faster than one that was not soaked. We are also curious to see which ones will grow at all. Thus far, the garbanzo bean has sprouted first.
On Tuesday, we went on a scavenger hunt on the edge of the soccer field to look for wild seeds. This event was led by a teacher from the Harris Center of Hancock. We collected an amazing array of seeds, which we will be sorting next week.

NEWS FOR NEXT WEEK: OPEN HOUSE: WEDNESDAY NIGHT : 6:00 - 7:00 PM

I HOPE TO SEE ALL OF YOU THERE!!!