THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 29TH

READING and SPELLING

This week we will be focusing on the words from the tenth reading story, “Komodo Dragons.” We will be learning about r -Controlled Vowels. The words we are studying are:
storm, morning, forest, Florida, form, pour, fourteen, court, fourth, course, serve, herself, certain, nerve, perfect, dirty, first, girlfriend, thirsty, and skirt. The students pretest on Monday. They will bring the list home in their Home Folder. Spelling homework is always Tuesday night (due Wednesday morning). I would like them to keep the Spelling sheet in their Home Folder so it can be used at home and at school. This week the homework is to write each word in a sentence. They should also write the words three times each. They should number the sentences and underline the spelling word. Please remind your child to review the words each night to be ready for the spelling test on Friday.

The vocabulary works that we are learning this week are armor, fierce, harshest, lizards, prey, reptiles, and roam. The extra credit vocabulary words are:
cold-blooded, monitor, and predator.

The skill we will be focusing on is Context Clues. When you are reading and you see an unfamiliar word, you use context clues, or words around the unfamiliar word, to figure out its meaning. The context may give a definition or an explanation of the unfamiliar word. Often the definition or explanation comes just before or just after the word. Sometimes a synonym, a word with nearly the same meaning as another word, is used as a context clue.

BOOK REPORT
The November book (Historical Fiction) is due tomorrow, Tuesday, November 30th. The December book will be handed out this week after we discuss the types of questions in class. The December book report will be due on January 3, 2011.

READING RESPONSES
Please remind your student that their reading response needs to have their name, the book name, the author, the starting and ending pages for that night’s reading, and either a character description or a summary (paragraph) about what they read that night. It needs to be turned in each morning. Please talk with your child about the best time to complete this assignment and review their work before signing their agenda. If you have any questions, please give me a call or write a note in the agenda.

IXL MATH
I am so excited that our students have access to IXL Math from home as well as school. Many of the students have been advancing their skills by choosing to spend some of their home time practicing math concepts and learning more. Keep up the good work!! During this past week, the following students completed a total of 971 problems:

Dawna, Eddie, Trinity, Jazmin, Tyler, and Grace! Good work!!

AAI means “ALL ASSIGNMENTS IN.” Each Monday I will send home a sheet that will tell you if your child is missing any work in each subject area. Please review it with them Monday night, sign it, and have them return it to class on Tuesday. Anything that shows up missing on that sheet is work that was to be completed in the previous week (or before). The students need to complete the work and turn it in to me as soon as possible. When they complete the work and turn it in, I will sign them off on their missing assignment sheet so you know their work has been turned in. The Life Skill of responsibility is very important to learn at a young age. Several students were only missing one assignment. The following students were responsible about all of their work this term. They are on AAI:
Robert, Tristen, Dawna, Tyler, Jazmin, Anthony, Juan, Andrea, Grace, Trinity, Teeona, Sydney W.