Scholastic Book Order

I believe that one of the best ways to get get better and more interested in reading is to... you guessed it- READ!  Once a month, I send home Scholastic book orders.  There are a wide range of levels and interests to choose from.  They usually have awesome deals on some of the books.  This would be a great way to get books into the hands of your child.  Choosing books you like to read can be very motivating and increase the variety of books you will read later.  

I sent a book order out last Friday.  If there is something within these fliers you would like to order please mark the item appropriately, fill out the order form, and send a check or cash to school with your child for payment.  If you choose to write a check please make it payable to “Scholastic Book Clubs”.  The order is due the following Friday after it is received home.  This week, it is due on Thursday since we don't have school on Friday.

And by the way... I also earn points that help me purchase various materials for the classroom that your child will benefit from. :) 

Tricky Words

Did you know how these words are spelled?  I have a "100 Tricky Words" poster in my room.  These are some of those words:
a lot
absence
achieve
actually
all right
ancient
annually
apparently
appearance
appropriate
approximately
attendance
beautiful
beginning
believe
breathe
built
bury
business
certainly
character
committed
conscience

Conferences are coming up!

Conferences will be held the week of October 12-15.  Parents have received a note with their scheduled time.  Please try to be on time and call ahead of time if you can't make it.  We will work to reschedule.  If at all possible, please bring your child with you to the conference.  We will be setting some academic and behavior goals for the Spring.  If you have questions you'd like to ask, it might help to make a list of those beforehand.  Please note that the computer lab will be open to parents and students to review the math enVisions website during conferences.  Usernames and passwords will be provided if you do not remember them.  Things you can expect to hear at conferences:

• Reading and Math scores for the school year, thus far
• Behaviors
• Planners
• Our website and wikis :)
• I have some handouts to give you.
• Other questoins/ concerns
• If your child sees any other teachers, they might be there as well

See you there!

Guided Reading

I am really trying to "push" students to go beyond what they're used to when it comes to reading.  During Guided Reading, we are reading chapter books, but are spending quite a bit of time on each page.  We are really "dissecting" the material for understanding.  Ask your child to summarize what they have read so far.  Ask them who the characters are and what the problem(s) are.  Hopefully you will be amazed by what they can remember and tell you! :)

Punch Cards

Each students has received a "Pawsitively Punchable" punch card.  During the month of October, every time students gets "caught" doing something positive, they will receive a punch.  When a student fill up a whole card, Mrs. Vopava will be notified and will send a postcard home to you, the parents!  Filled cards will also be displayed in our hallway.  At Fisher, we want to focus on the positive things kids are doing to encourage them to continue on with positive behavior!  You can talk to your child about how receiving a punch makes them feel and what their plan is to keep doing positive things! :) 

Math Test

The next math test will be this coming Friday, October 8.  Many students realized on the first test that they made silly mistakes.  Most of our math tests are around 12 questions.  Every question missed is a large percentage off of their final test grade.  Our math tests are not timed so students have as much time as they need to work out the problems and look over their work.  Please talk with your child about taking their time and doing a good job.  We will have 13 math units this year so we will be moving pretty quickly through each unit. 

Framing Your Thoughts

In Framing Your Thoughts (Writing Curriculum) we have learned/reviewed:
-A sentence is framed with a capital letter and ends with a stop sign (period, question mark, exclamation point).
-A subject names the person, place, thing, or idea that the whole sentence is focusing in on. 
-A compound subject is two subjects joined with a connector ("and"); A series subject has 3 or more subjects and is joined with commas and a connector.
-An action predicate tells the action of the subject.
-A compound predicate is two predicates joined with a connector; A series predicate has 3 or more predicates and is joined with commas and a connector.
-Examples of substitute namers are I, he, she, we, they, who you, and it.
-There are 4 predicate expanders: where, how, when, and why.  They tell more information about the predicate.

Ask your child to write you a sentence (and frame it) using some of these components.