The Week of January 10, 2011

SPELLING

This week we will be focusing on the words from the thirteenth reading story (Unit3-Story4), “The Storm.” We will be learning about words with /j/, /ks/, and /kw/. The spelling words we are studying are:

change, except, expect, equal, fudge, extra, liquid, village, excited, Texas, charge, excellent, queen, quilt, edge, explain, quick, bridge, relax, and quart. The students pretest on Monday. Their list will be in their Home Folder on Tuesday . Spelling homework is always Tuesday night (due Wednesday morning). I would like them to keep the Spelling sheet in their Homework 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 number the sentences and underline the spelling word. The vocabulary words that we are learning this week are accident, coaxed, nuzzled, soothing, tornado, and wail. The extra credit vocabulary words are:

advisory, flashbacks, scythe, and therapists.

The skill we will be focusing on is predicting. To predict means to tell what you think might happen next in a story, based on what has already happened. Your prediction is what you say will happen. As a family, an activity you could do would be to watch a TV show or movie. During commercial breaks, have each family member make a prediction of what will happen next in the show. Check everyone's predictions at the next break.

Book Report
I have handed out the book report form for January. This month’s report is on a nature book. There are books in the classroom that the students can use, but your child can also find many books in our library that would be appropriate for this report. Please review this month’s book report form with your child and discuss with them which book they would like to read.

BOOK REPORT
December’s book report were due today, January 3rd. I have handed out the book report form for January. This month’s report is on a nature book. Please review this month’s book report form with your child and discuss with them which book they would like to read. The January book report is due January 28th.

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.

AAI means “ALL ASSIGNMENTS IN.” If students are focused in class they have time to finish all of their assignments except for Spelling homework. 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 weeks. The students need to complete the work and turn it in to me as soon as possible. If students have work listed on their Missing Assignment sheet, I will ask them to stay in at recess to finish that work, but mostly they should work on it at home. The Life Skill of responsibility is very important to learn at a young age. The following students were responsible about all of their work in class this term. They are on AAI:
Tyler, Jazmin, Anthony, Juan, Grace, Trinity, Sydney W.