Weekly Update for October 31 - November 4, 2011

Dear Families,

Thank you for such a wonderful birthday!  Your thoughts, gifts, and well-wishes were so warm and made my day a truly special one!

A Few Reminders/Important Dates:

Picture Retakes! Tuesday, November 1^st. 

Picnic Lunch Orders Due: Tuesday, November 1^st.

Rivers Unit Test, Thursday, November 3^rd.

Archway/CPA Family Picnic: Saturday November 5^th.

This Week at a Glance

Language Arts: Your students are encouraged to bring home their spelling notebooks each night to better prepare them for Spelling Practice. We have found it is often difficult to fit the words and markings in so little space in the agenda. In Writing, we are continuing to diagram simple sentences with articles. We are also working on writing good expository paragraphs and will now be introducing transitions as well. We will read and discuss chapters 3 and 4 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I still strongly encourage discussion of this novel at home! There is a lot of fun to be had with word play and witty references which might be exciting to explore together! 

History & Geography: We will continue our study of World Rivers. We will be working on Ch. 7 Monday, Reviewing on Tuesday and Wednesday, and will have the Unit Test on Thursday, November 3^rd. Make sure that you keep those chapter review worksheets and talk to your child about the importance of each major river we study.

Science: We are continuing our study of the skeletal system. Students will be learning about the function and overall structure of the skeletal system, as well as learning the scientific names of the bones. We will be constructing and labeling models in class. So, you might want to bone up on some of those names with your student by making flash cards or other study tools at home!  This week we will also be discussing joints! Students will be able to identify and name examples of each type of joint in the human body!

Virtue: Our school will focus once again on the virtue of responsibility.

Thank you, again, for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!

Miss Smith

Riggs Words for 10/24 through 10/27

Weekly Update for October 24-28, 2011

Dear Families,

I want to extend my heart-felt thanks to those of you who came to conferences. I really enjoyed spending a little time with you and hearing more about your students, as well as sharing our classroom experiences with you. I imagine the half-days had their trials for you as well, so I hope you are as glad as I am to jump back into the regular swing of things.

I am thrilled to welcome Mr. Sultana to our Metropolis! Many of your students are excited as they may have worked with him in second grade last year. We will work this week on making any necessary changes to contact information, etc. on the website, which will continue to reference Miss Williams as she so graciously set it up. Please let me know if you start experiencing any problems with our communications, as I am not technologically savvy! :) 

I will be traveling to a dear friend’s wedding on Friday, and leaving our class in the capable hands of Mr. Sultana. If you would like to come in an provide a little additional volunteer support as this will still be a fairly new class for him, please send me an e-mail to let me know (lsmith@archwaychandler.org)! The students will be in Kingdoms from 8:15-9:30, Math from 9:30-10:40, and back in our room from 10:40 through dismissals at 12:25 and 12:40. An extra set of hands and eyes is always appreciated!

A Few Reminders/Important Dates:

We begin Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tomorrow, Monday 10/24! Please send students with their books!

Family Dinner Night is Tuesday, October 25^th  

at Rock Taco Cantina at Chandler Fashion Mall. 

See the weekly update for details!

 The Box Top Contest (With its pizza party prize) 

ends Wednesday, October 26^th.

Student Poetry Recitations for the class will be held on Wednesday 10/26 and Thursday 10/27! Depending on time, I may offer it to any students who are ready earlier, so feel free to send any props or visual elements in when you are ready.

Friday 10/28 is a half-day! Again! Students will be meeting in Kingdoms.

This Week at a Glance

Language Arts: We are starting up our Riggs words again. I will remind students that they can bring their spelling notebooks home if they have trouble copying the words into their planners clearly. The Words of the Week assignments (which are copied on the reverse of the reading logs) have changed slightly. They will only be doing 3 per week now. I will choose which days based on the homework load. In Writing, we are learning to diagram simple sentences with articles. We are also working on writing paragraphs with quality topic sentences and at least 3 supporting sentences. I am thrilled to say that we are beginning Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I strongly encourage discussion of this novel at home! There is a lot of fun to be had with word play and witty references which might be exciting to explore together!

History & Geography: We will continue our study of World Rivers. We will be working on Ch. 4 Monday and Tuesday, Ch. 5 Wednesday and Thursday, and Ch. 6 on Friday. The Unit Test will be Thursday, November 3^rd. Make sure that you keep those chapter review worksheets and talk to your child about the importance of each major river we study.

Science: We now begin our study of the Human Body. We will be starting with the skeletal system. Students will be learning about the function and overall structure of the skeletal system, as well as learning the scientific names of the bones. We will be constructing and labeling models in class. So, you might want to bone up on some of those names with your student by making flash cards or other study tools at home! J

Virtue: Our school will focus once again on the virtue of Wisdom.

Thank you, again, for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!

Miss Smith

Weekly Update: October 3-7, 2011

Hello, wonderful families!
Conferences are coming! Conferences are coming! Sign up for your spot today! Our link is up and running at www.SignUpGenius.com/go/fall2759. I tried to provide a wide variety of conference times. If you are able to meet in the afternoon, please do, as morning and evening conference times are limited.

Please consider signing up for Tuesday reading groups when we return from fall break! We will be reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It can lead to some really phenomenal discussions. If you have questions about reading groups, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail!

Please continue to be mindful of student uniforms including: belts for boys, matching hair accessories for girls, and appropriate shoes for all! :)

This week at a glance:
Language Arts- we will not be learning new Riggs Words this week, but will instead be working on our Riggs Notebook. This will lead to additional discussion and practice with spelling rules and markings. We will still have spelling tests on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to test last weeks' words. We will also continue our focused review of grammar, with a quiz on parts of speech on Friday. In reading, we are finishing up Shiloh on Monday and Tuesday. Then we will be writing interviews with the main characters during the week!

History & Geography- we have a special guest speaker from Australia coming to talk to our class on Monday morning. Then we will begin our unit on World  Rivers. We will be reading the first 2 chapters of the History and Geography text this week and discussing how rivers play an important role in the development of major cities and in daily human life.

Science- We will continue our study of ecology, wrapping up with a test on Thursday. The students are responsible for understanding the following terms and concepts: ecology, environment, the four features of habitat, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, predator/prey relationships, food chains and food webs. We are taking detailed notes together in class, which combined with worksheets and handouts will be sufficient review material for the test. Our final event will be a dissection of Owl Pellets on Friday! You don't want to miss this exciting exploration into ecology! :)