Weekly Newsletter for 9/13/13

Dear Room 4 Families,

In English Language Arts, we read “Their Native Tongue” in our reading anthologies and discussed the features of non-fiction text. If you notice that your child is struggling with the test, please go over the answers with your child when the tests are returned. All of the stories in the reading anthology are stand alone stories that you can borrow from the library. 

We have been improving on our reading fluency and confidence with our Room 2 kindergarten buddies on Fridays. We will have a Mandarin buddy class to help reinforce our basic vocabulary while learning to role model during community service. 

Many of you have been requesting an early homework packet on Friday. I am unable to guarantee an early homework packet on Friday as I generally make them after school that day so that the following week’s content is appropriate to our pacing. If you would like to start your homework early, you can read 20 minutes a day, practice your Chinese dictation words, and/or work on your spelling for the next week on our Spellingcity.com webpage or start writing the words down on paper.

The link to next week’s spelling words and games is here: https://graceyou.com/2nd-1-4-meet-rosina/

Here is the link to next week’s dictation words: https://graceyou.com/shuang-shuang-2-4/

For math, we started Topic 2 – Addition Strategies. We took our math placement test this week and practiced filling out our first bubble test.  Please make sure to review addition and subtraction math facts with your child.  The goal should be to figure out the answer without counting on their fingers. We started our math placement test (an assessment to understand each student’s strengths and areas of improvement) while learning how to carefully bubble in our answer sheets.

Please check your child’s backpack for returned papers. There should be a star (everything is correct and completed), a check mark (some things are missing or incorrect), or a note of some sort (incomplete, check again, etc.) which indicates to look over the areas where your child is struggling with at home. This is important since we do not always have the time to go over all of the mistakes, which make for good learning opportunities.

In Chinese, we are handing over responsibility to the students for calendar. We will start Star of the Week in two weeks. We have been reviewing basic school words, requests/commands, fruits, and colors. We are continuing our school booklet and learning how to read and write the characters for school supplies by adding the vocabulary to our Chinese dictionaries and using them to answer questions about what is in our backpacks. Next week we will start the routines for dictation, which is like a Chinese “spelling test”. 

We will be celebrating MONTHLY birthday celebrations this year. In the interest of saving instructional time, please DO NOT bring treats on other days, they will be sent home. I will post our monthly birthday celebration dates soon. The monthly celebration for all September birthdays will be on Friday, September 27th at the end of the day. If you are interested in bringing something into the class to celebrate, please e-mail me so that I can coordinate with other parents and set aside an appropriate amount of time.

As a reminder, the timeline project is due on Monday, September 16th. If you need an extension, please let me know via e-mail. 

Next Thursday (9/19) is a minimum day due to open house.There will be a Mandarin parents meeting from 6:00-6:30pm in the MPR. Friday (9/20) is also a minimum day. Please plan your after school pick up accordingly! 

If you did not receive an e-mail with a link to this newsletter post, please e-mail me (graceyou at gmail dot com) with your child’s name – I do not have your e-mail address.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

-Ms. You