Dear Parents and Students,

First I wanted to thank all the parents who helped out with Westward Ho.  Without your help, it would not be possible.  I know everyone was proud at how well the kids made it across the many streams.  A special thanks goes out to the parents who got right in the water to make sure that all the students crossed safely.  Hopefully all of you received thank you cards today.

**Memories committee sent home information about the end of the year party.  They are asking for a $15 donation to cover the costs of the party and the t-shirts. 

Field day is next Wednesday.  We will also begin family life and I still need a few permission slips.

Every Friday you should be signing the Behavior Sheet. Also please check your child's planner daily for stamps that indicate homework has not been done.

Every day the students will have time to eat a small healthy snack since we do not eat lunch until 1:00. The students might also find that my room is a little cool and they can wear a sweat shirt or sweater during class.

The independent reading log is due this week. Each student is required to read for 20 minutes at least 4 times a week for a total of 8 times in two weeks. Please sign your name on the paper to verify that your child did the required independent reading. They can “count” any reading that they do for school as part of their reading time. The students will be given their independent reading log. After reading a novel they need to complete the assignment in a mini journal they need to get from me.

Math: We will be reviewing for our unit assessment.  I am thinking it will start on Tuesday and then continue either Wednesday or Thursday depending on field day.

Reading:  In whole group we are analyzing Tall Tales.  In small group we will continue working on placing sticky notes as they are reading for discussion points when we meet as a group. We should be finishing the books at the beginning of next week.  Each child has a packet with vocabulary, literary devices, questions and writing activities. They should be writing the assignments to be completed in their reading journal’s table of contents. They are also writing their homework down at the beginning of the day and then I told them to mark a check if they completed the assignment during reading time. You should always be able to find all of the reading work in their notebook which should be taken home nightly.  

Social Studies: We are finishing our S.S. unit on Westward movement.  There will be a quiz on Friday. We will be starting our last science unit on cells this week.

Spelling: This week the spelling will be lesson 17 traditional.  All 4 assignments are due by Thursday. Remember if they choose to type their work, they need to print it out and staple it in their spelling journal. We have been doing spelling from Thursday to Thursday. The tests will typically be on Thursday and the homework is due on Thursday too.

Language arts: We started writing a creative science fiction essay that we will be hopefully finishing this week.  We are continuing to “take apart” the pieces to an essay and focusing on topic sentences and supporting details. We will work on correcting/editing their work to correct punctuation, capitalization. We will have a grammar (DOL) quiz on Thursdays.

Important Dates:

May 17: Advanced Band concert 7:00

May 23: Field day grades 3-5

May 23: Family Life begins

June 12: 9:00 Memories program in the gym

June 12: Longwood party