I got this this morning and am passing it on to you.

Dear Parents,

The SUU Athletics is providing our students some awesome opportunities for their

classroom reading minutes. The program would like to award each one of our

students with two event tickets (basketball or gymnastics), as well as a hot dog and

a drink for accomplishing their monthly reading minutes.

This program will start Dec. 1st

reading calendars). These minutes are NOT in addition to the goal your student’s

classroom teacher has already set. It is just a great reward for your student for

being a dedicated consistent reader.

 and run through Jan. 30th

(teacher) has set the following reading minute goals:

Dec. 1st

 – Dec. 31st

Jan. 1st

 – Jan. 30th

 (reading minutes)

 (reading minutes)

We officially have had 20 school days that all the kids have been here.
So the kids voted that their special day would be pajama day tomorrow.

I hope they don't freeze to death!

-- 

It seems forever since I had time to share our curriculum plan with you. So here goes:

Curriculum:

reading - We are working on "close" reading where the kids learn to read for information and pick out the important parts in order to gain greater comprehension.

language - similes (as _____ as) used for comparisons, compound words, synonyms and antonyms, vocabulary expansion

math - chapter 3: addition facts, related numbers (fact families), missing numbers

Thanksgiving unit - writing a Rag Rug Diary, history of the pilgrims and Indians, mapping/geography, finger crochet

Spanish - finishing up numbers to 100...then beginning colors

FYI:
•Thanksgiving holiday begins on Wednesday, the 26th. Students return the following Monday.

Note:

This has been a rough year for getting kids to work instead of talk. I have had to tighten the screws, but I'm so glad to report that it is finally working! At first there were only 3 students staying in reading center rotation for completing all 4 reading centers. The rest had to work individually at their desks to remove distractions. Now, with the specialty classes attached, 19 children are in rotation this week because they completed all their work. YEAH! CHEER! HALLELUJAH!

It is much harder on me, but if the kids are internalizing being in charge of themselves and doing what they should, then it is totally worth the effort. I am thrilled with that progress.

Carolyn Olenslager