September 10th-14th

Parents,

I am having such a good time getting to know your children better. I am already so happy with how this year is going!

In writing this week, we are going to begin our spelling lists. We do spelling a little differently at Caraway. We use a program called Words Their Way and it focuses on learning spelling patterns rather than memorizing a list of words. Students will take a pretest each week to determine the pattern they need to work on. Throughout the week, students will work on their spelling pattern and take an assessment on Friday.

We will be also working on telling stories with pictures. This will help students focus on what they are trying to tell their audience and will result in a detailed story.

Reading: We will be starting the second component of Daily 5 called Work on Writing. This component allows students to have time to journal their ideas and return to old stories. We will be continuing to build up our reading stamina and hopefully will be able to read silently for twenty minutes!

Math: We will be working on our graphing skills. To practice, we will make graphs our class favorites. Later in the week, we will be discussing probability and how likely something is to happen.

Social Studies: We will be discussing community and what it means to be a good friend and citizen. We will learn about Texas symbols and how to recognize them. We will also be focusing on mapping. As a class, we will discuss buildings in our community and make a classroom map of all the important buildings around us.

Reminders: Open House is Monday, September 10th. Our class meeting is at 6:30, followed by a PTA meeting at 7. If you have children in grades 3-5, their class time is at 7:30.

We will begin our Life Journals this week. These come home every Monday and are due by Friday. These Life Journals are an opportunity for students think about something special that has happened to them recently and write about it. We will share these every Friday.

Keep recording those reading minutes and remember to initial your child's communication log!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Orientation on Monday!