January News

Dear Families,

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope that everyone enjoyed their time together over the break. We are getting right back into the swing of things this week. Here are some things we’re working on this week:

Reading - all reading groups will continue to meet this week. My goal is that all groups will be finished with their books by the 3rd week of January. All groups will continue to have word work and reading assignments that go with their reading.

Writing - I hope that everyone read and enjoyed their child’s memoir that was brought home before break. They worked very hard on them and were excited to present them to their families. This week, students will be working on an “On Demand” writing prompt. This is an assessment that is used to guide my instruction in teaching writing.

We will also begin a mini-unit on editing before beginning our next formal writing piece: response to literature.

Math - this week will be learning about open sentences (algebra), parentheses in number sentences, and of course, practicing multiplication.

Social Studies - I am happy to say that we will be starting our Vermont Studies next week. We will start with VT Geography and move into VT history. All students will receive a VT attractions map and will study the state’s geography (and practice their mapping skills) by completing a VT Scavenger hunt using the map. It is great fun! There will also be a VT map project coming up. Look for details to come home in two weeks.

This week will be Map 3, quiz 4 of the map quizzes. Next week we will start Map 4 which focuses on famous landmarks around the US.

Other Notes:

Students have been asked to work on their cursive more regularly. Consequently, I have asked students to at least ATTEMPT to do some of their word study HW in cursive. Please encourage your child to try some cursive in their HW. I am asking them to show some effort- they DO NOT have to do all of their word study HW in cursive if it is too time consuming or difficult. I appreciate that they simply are working at it.

Classroom Goals – this week, all students are making goals for themselves for the remainder of the school year. (A copy of these will come home Friday) Additionally, we have made some classroom goals to work on together. They are:

· Come in and unpack quickly and quietly (3 minute goal). This includes coming in in the morning, and coming in from recess.

· Write in cursive more frequently in classroom and HW assignments.

· Stay FOCUSED

· Stay on TIME

· Work to attain smooth, quiet, and quick transitions.

Important upcoming dates:

1/08/09 (Thursday) School Board Budget Forum SCS Library 7:00 p.m. agenda

1/9/09 1/2 Day of School. Dismissals start at 11:35 a.m

1/13/09 PTO meeting 6:00 p.m. Alpha space

1/13/09 Small Ensemble Concert 7:30 p.m. Cafeteria

1/14/09 CSSU School Board meeting 7:00 p.m. CVU

1/15/09 6:00 p.m. pizza--6:30 p.m. program: Positive Parenting Workshop, “Top Ten Drug and Alcohol Parent Traps” with Margo Austin.