Newsletter

Hi,

We had a great week and a fun Valentine's Day Party!  Thank you to Mrs. Alexander and all the parents who helped or donated for our party. We had a fun time and loved all the treats!

STAAR Ready Reading-We will take the STAAR Ready Reading test on Tuesday. This will help us determine areas of strength and things to work on in reading.  

District Reading Test-We are finishing up our individual reading assessments this week.  This also gives us a window into reading strategies used by individual students and helps us focus instruction so your child will continue to improve in reading.

Monthly Reading Challenge for February: Read 3 Informational Books and write notecards for each one.  Include: Title of book, genre (informational) 3 interesting or surprising facts learned and why you thought they were interesting,  2 questions you still have about this topic, 1 thought or feeling about the topic (These sentence starters may help: 

This makes me realize...., 

I used to think..., but now I think...., 

I agree that.... because....

I disagree that ... because....

This makes me wonder.....

These will be due on Feb. 28

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We learned about drama and ways that a script is written, then read aloud the reader's theater, The Unstoppable Ruby Bridges.  We also read lots of informational books and our book club books and wrote responses. We will continue learning strategies to read nonfiction.

Writing-Expository writing is our focus. We are in the process of drafting, revising, and editing, these opinion pieces.  We are working on exciting leads with a clear central idea, specific reasons with examples, and strong, satisfying conclusions that push the reader to think about the topic.  We will finish our final copies by Friday.

Grammar-We will use apostrophes and compare possessives and contractions. We will use mentor sentences and will sort sentences as well as write sentences using both contractions and possessives.

Spelling-This week we will read the poem Ations by Shel Silverstein and will practice spelling many of those ation words and we will talk about their meanings. We will also have individual words.  Talk to your child about patterns in the words as you are studying spelling.http://www.qu-i-x.com/ations.html

Social Studies-We finished reading and taking notes on the historical fiction book, Remember the Alamo. This gave us an overview of the Texas Revolution.  This week we will begin studying key events and making notecards with drawings and facts to create a timeline.

Dates to remember:

Monday, Feb. 20-No school for students

Tuesday, Feb. 21-STAAR Ready Reading test

Wednesday, Feb. 22-Group and Spring Photos

Thursday, Feb. 23-Student Art and Frame sale

Friday, Feb. 24--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, Feb. 27- Wear college shirts. Wriitng Club 2:50-3:50

Friday, March. 3--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green. Hoe Down for grades K-2.

Monday, March 6-Wear college shirts. Service Club from 2:50-3:50 PTA Family Fun NIght at Hat Creek

Tuesday, March 7-STAAR Ready Math test-PTA Meeting at 3:15

Friday, March 10--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, March 13-Friday, March 17-Spring Break-Spring Break Reading Challenge!

Monday, March 20-Writing Camp-Wear camp clothes more info to come. Service Club from 2:50-3:50-Spring Break Reading Challenge Logs are due!

Tuesday, March 21-Writing Camp

Wednesday, March 22-Writing Camp

Friday, March 24--Reading Response Letters due, Revising and Editing Homework Due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, March 27-Wear college shirts. Writing Club 2:50-3:50.

Tuesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Test

Hope you had a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam

Newsletter

Hi,

We had a great week and I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy the Super Bowl!

Our Valentines Party is coming up.  I will ask the students for some suggestions and will get a sign up genius out this week.  Your child is welcome to decorate a box or bag at home that he/she can use as a valentine mailbox.  I will have bags available in class for anyone who doesn't make a decorated box or bag at home. If your child is passing out valentines in class, he/she needs to  have a valentine for ALL classmates.  Thank you in advance for including everyone.

Here is a list of the students in our class.  

Jacie

Robby

Matthew

Emily

Randall

Ihsan

Lillian

Roy

Jack

Kai

Bella

Aubrie N.

Evan

Hannah

Aubrey P.

Jameson

Max

Bracken

Brianne

Mason

Gage

Joy

Monthly Reading Challenge for February: Read 3 Informational Books and write notecards for each one.  Include: Title of book, genre (informational) 3 interesting or surprising facts learned and why you thought they were interesting,  2 questions you still have about this topic, 1 thought or feeling about the topic (These sentence starters may help: 

This makes me realize...., 

I used to think..., but now I think...., 

I agree that.... because....

I disagree that ... because....

This makes me wonder.....

These will be due on Feb. 28

Let's read about our week:

Reading-We will read informational text as well as some historical fiction.  We will examine literature that deals with civil rights and we started some book club books this week.  We will read independently and discuss our books in our groups. Last week, we read an article about the history of Brown vs. the Board of Education .  We took notes and discussed this case. We watched a Brainpop video on this topic.  We will continue this week with a read aloud of The Story of Ruby Bridges. Talk to your child at home about civil rights and that we need to treat all people with respect and appreciate all of our differences.

Writing-Our students wrote great personal narratives with lots of specific details and great voice.   This week we will gather new entries about our opinions with supporting reasons and examples to support those opinions.  We will work on adding specific details and lots of revising and editing to make our essays clear, concise, and interesting to read. Talk to your child about their opinions.  Have conversations about these opinions and use some of these sentence starters to help keep the conversation going. When they stop talking say: "What does that make you realize?" Then they can respond, "This makes me realize....."  Lots of discussion and supporting ideas with examples in conversation will help them apply these skills to their writing.

Sentence Starters to keep the conversation going:

This makes me realize...., 

I used to think..., but now I think...., 

I agree that.... because....

I disagree that ... because....

This makes me wonder.....

Grammar-We will continue our study of strengthening sentences by combining them and using openers to enhance meaning.  We will also look at flipping the subject to make our sentence beginnings more interesting and make our word choice stronger.

We will also look at correct ways to punctuate these sentences and which ways make our thoughts clear to the reader. Keep encouraging your child to find amazing sentences in his/her reading.  Talk about what makes a sentence effective and clear and different ways to rearrange a sentence and still keep the same complete thought.  Keep talking about sentences and grammar and how fun it is to experiment with language.

Spelling-This week we will work with words ending in ion. We will also have individual words.  Talk to your child about patterns in the words as you are studying spelling.

Social Studies-Last week, your child was an Empresario and read letters from potential colonists.  He/she evaluated the letter to decide whether to invite the person to come live in his/her colony.  It was very fun and interesting to hear the reason given.  We will begin talking about the Texas Revolution and Santa Anna.  We are reading aloud a historical fiction novel called Remember the Alamo to get some background knowledge and spark some discussion before reading facts in the textbook.  Soon we will work on reading biographies of some Texas Heroes and presenting projects about them.

Dates to remember:

Monday, Feb. 6-College Shirt Day- Service Club after school 2:50-3:50-Jump Rope for Heart this week

Tuesday, Feb. 7-PTA General Meeting at 9:00 am

Thursday, Feb. 9- Progress Reports come home

Friday, Feb. 10-Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Saturday, Feb. 11- UIL District Event-Go FCE!

Monday, Feb. 13-College Shirt Day- Writing Club after school 2:50-3:50

Tuesday, Feb. 14-Mentor Visit at 9:15 am, Valentine Party at 1:00

Thursday, Feb. 16-Jump Rope for Heart

Friday, Feb. 17--Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Monday, Feb. 20-No school for students

Wednesday, Feb. 22-Group and Spring Photos

Thursday, Feb. 23-Student Art and Frame sale

Friday, Feb. 24--Reading Response Letters due, Spelling test,  Be sure to turn in completed reading logs. Wear FCE shirts or purple and green.

Hope you had a great weekend!  Thank you for sharing your child with me.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

Sincerely,

Pam