Writing: This week in writing we continued to look at our leads in our personal narratives.  We learned how to come up with a question lead that "hooks our readers."  We also looked at several examples of a 1,2,3, and 4 writing sample.  Next week we will take out writing assessment, and we are aiming for a 3 (proficient). This means we have a good lead, lots of details, transition words, lots of sentences that make our readers have a movie in their head, correct spelling, and punctuation.

Reading: Reading groups have been going well!  We have all been working on fiction stories.  Many groups are working on inferring and predictions, as well as answering specific questions about their reading.  We have also been working on reading strategies.  This week we focused on "chunky monkey."  This means we find parts (chunks) of a word that we know.  We can also use this strategy to help with spelling!  Ask your child if they can remember any of the "funky chunky" word parts we have been working on.

Math: We finished up our unit this week on place value and we took our test today.  Any time we take a unit test and your child scores below an 80%, there will be a packet of review work that comes home to complete at their (your) leisure.  That does not mean that we will not continue to work on these skills at school, but it is just some extra practice to do at home.  This packet will come home on Monday.  Our next unit is on counting money.  Please practice this skill at home!

We also finished up our unit on Geography.  Next week we will be starting our health unit on organs!

Other news:

*ST math code was sent today

*Scholastic book orders were sent today through email!

*Next week someone in our class will be receiving the "citizen of the month" award.  Students vote on who this should be, and it is kept a surprise to that student until the actual assembly.  

*We will also have our Halloween party next week on Friday at 2pm!