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

Mr. Oldroyd wants everyone to know that there will be no costumes worn to school on Friday.

If your child is participating in the Reflections contest, entries are due tomorrow.

Have a great night.

Just a heads up --- Today the students' progress reports will be in their backpacks. Several got "needs improvement" on their work habits. I'll keep working with them at school to help then get those habits in place. With your working on those skills at home, we should be able to make an impression!!

Also, Mrs. Davis, our art teacher, has been teaching the children about space through 3-D art. Each student has made moon phases and stars, etc. out of clay. Today at art she will help the kids put them in a mobile to display at Arts Night. There is a white paper - entry form- in their backpacks. Please fill out the kids' information and return the papers. Mrs. Davis said she has to have them so they can be entered in the Arts Night.

Thanks.

It is now time to begin making our "shrunken head" witches. Each child will need to bring in an apple. A bruise is great for "scariness."  It can be any color or size except a huge one. Apple heads that are too big tend to bobble too much and make the witch tip over. If the apple is old and already shriveling, so much the advantage on the shrinking end. Just whenever your child bings in the apple, we will start on its carving.

Mr. Oldroyd wants this invitation to be relayed to all our parents. Click on the blue attachment below.

--
Carolyn Olenslager

Dear families,
I've finally found time to write. Yeah! Thank you all for coming to parent teacher conference. It's always nice to meet the families of the children.

FYI:

1. The kids will be out of school from October 16th through the 22nd. They will return on the 23rd. When you see all the teacher's cars here before then, don't panic! We have training on the 21st and 22nd.

2. Red ribbon week is October 27th through the 31st. Watch for daily events through the PTA blog.

CURRICULUM:

• reading: This month we are working on "fix-up" strategies to help with comprehension.

• math: We are on chapter 2 - working with numbers to 1000.

• Spanish: Counting to 100 is our ultimate goal. Right now the kids are trying to memorize numbers to 20. Then we will learn the skip count by 10 numbers. Finally we will color in a "color by number" picture...all in Spanish.

• language: We are still working on sentence expansion. We are almost ready to start extending our sentences at the spelling center.

• writing: Our first BIG writing is coming up - our Cinderella stories. These take almost three weeks to complete. First background, then planning, followed by a rough draft. The kids will get their first taste at self-editing and rewritiing. Finally comes the final copy and cover. It is quite extensive, but well worth it on the growth end of things.

• science: Today we began our moon unit. It is just fun. We try our hand at research and sharing new ideas we find.

Have a great holiday / family time.

--
Carolyn Olenslager