News from 9/17

 Sept. 16
Dear Families
HELLO! I thought I would keep the news fairly brief this week since we had curriculum night on Monday.

The students are continuing to settle in nicely here in Endeavor. I have already seen them grow in many ways.

We are continuing to learn and practice classroom routines and procedures. Some things we need extra work on are quiet transitions and walking through the halls. It's hard to do these things but we have discussed that it is because there are so many students that share our school; we must be considerate of others.

Students have been assessed in math, spelling, and reading fluency and comprehension. Many students will continue to be assessed in the core content areas.

Additionally, students have received their response journals and started recording the books they've read this year. Yesterday, they practiced writing a response. We'll focus on our response journals this week and students will begin writing to me next week.

We also started our cursive practice this week! I have asked the students to keep pace with the class while I assess their skills and form. Once I see that they are ready to work independently, I will set them free to practice on their own.

Wow! The students have also taken off on their mapping program. They are loving it. I can hardly get their attention when they have maps in front of them. (Most of the time, that's a good thing:)) I will be supplementing their learning of geography with basic mapping skills and fun, interactive geographical "quizzes" and discussions. What a fun way to learn!

I also wanted to clarify the new system for signing off HOMEWORK. What I will ask students to do is to independently check off that they have done their nightly reading. THEN, on Thursday night, parents will sign off that the students truly did do their reading. If they missed any night of reading that week, parents won't initial.

One thing that I have not yet discussed is weekend reading. I know that many of us read on the weekend. Please, take note of any weekend reading. It will give students "credit" for weeknight reading.
That is enough for now I suppose. Thank you for coming to Curriculum Night last night. If you weren’t able to make it, you should see a small “pile” of stuff come home for you tonight. If there are any additional questions, please, let me know.

Reminder that Alice Brown will be our room parent. She may be contacting you to coordinate special activities or classroom help.

Thank you for your support. Have a great week.
Cara 

(So much for brief huh?:))