November 7, 2008

Upcoming Dates

Monday, November 10th and Tuesday, November 11th: NO SCHOOL
Enjoy your four-day weekend! We will not be coming to school because of Veteran’s Day.

Wednesday, November 12th to Friday, November 14th: No Spelling/Vocabulary
Since it is a short-week, we will not have spelling or vocabulary homework. I will still be sending home a language arts and math packet, which will be due on Friday, but there will be no spelling or vocabulary tests next week. Remember that Monday and Tuesday sharers do not have to share next week (they will be sharing on Monday, the 24th, and Tuesday, the 25th, instead).

Friday, November 14th: Scholastic Book Orders and Family Turkey Due!
Attached to today’s newsletter are the November book order forms. Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you are interested in purchasing books. Also, the family turkey projects will be due on Friday. Please spend time with your child to make this project fun and interactive. Remember, you can use any materials you have at home, but please do not use food!


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Dear Families,

I hope you had a nice week with Halloween festivities, an extra hour of Daylight Savings, and Election craziness! We are nearing the end of the first trimester, so we are doing many wrap-up and review activities in all of our subjects. Plus, November is a busy month since we have so many vacation days and lots of content to cover!

Here are some highlights for the week:

• Language Arts:
Poem of the Week: Our World
Song of the Week: Four Seasons
Kindness is: raising money for my school.
Word Wall Words: do, I, is, me, my, said, you, for
Story of the Week: What Can a Vet Do? And Hot Fox Soup
Word Families: -et, -en
Sounds: y, k, v, and short e
Strategy and Skill Focus: Monitor/Clarify and Fantasy/Realism Grammar: Naming Words

• Writing: We read the story, Goodnight Owl, and adapted the story using us as the main character. We wrote and illustrated our owl stories. Also, we finished our monster stories from last week and also had time to continue our Prince and Princess writings. We are almost done with all our students and will be starting Star of the Week right after Thanksgiving!

• Math: We have been working hard on making and understanding bar and picture graphs. We practiced many word problem questions and talked about “double-checking” our work to avoid making silly mistakes. We started Chapter 5 this week which is on place value and number sense. We have been learning about tens and ones.

• Science: Our final activity for our solids and liquids unit was to see what we have learned in science these past few months. Students were asked to describe different solids and liquids and give examples of each. We also explained what mixtures were and self-assessed our own learning. You will see your child’s science book in this week’s Friday Folder.

• Social Studies: We learned about our feelings this week. We talked about different feelings that we have and thought of three examples of why we felt that way. Then we illustrated our feelings. This was the last rotation in our Me, My Family, and My World circuit. Next we will be starting our Holidays Around the World circuit.

• Computer Lab: We did not have Computer lab this week because we had a full earthquake drill in the afternoon. Teachers received emergency scenarios and we practiced what we would do if there were a real emergency. Specific students at Eaton were chosen to pretend to be injured or missing. These drills help us to be prepared in case of a real emergency.

• Buddies: Thank you for those of you who participated in the UNICEF fundraiser during Halloween. Today we met with our fourth grade buddies again to collect and count how much money we made for UNICEF.

• Art: We saw Mrs. Abada again this week and she made butterflies with us. We talked about reflective symmetry (this is a state standard for art in 1st grade).

Today in the Friday Folder, you will find your Book-It October Reading Log with the Pizza Hut certificate attached to it. I have talked to the students about how important it is to read everyday, and we are keeping a classroom chart of students who return their reading logs each month. Please make sure to use the certificate in the next month (it expires in one month)!

Also, today you will find a Family Turkey Project! This is an activity we’d like for you to complete with your child, using any materials that you may have around the house. Please be creative and have fun making the turkey together, but don’t use any food! The turkeys are due next Friday and we will be hanging them around the classroom for Thanksgiving! Enjoy your four-day weekend!