News From Our Classroom

                                Happy New Year's, 2018!
         I'm trying to get my mind back into "school mode", and it's harder than you might think.  I know that we've only been gone a little over a week, but some much "family stuff" was squeezed into those days that I'm finding it hard to gather my thoughts.  
         Let's see. . .  we will be back to our "usual" school schedule this week, and our "usual" homework  schedule, as well.  There is NO RUGRATS SKIING this Thursday or next Thursday.  We don't ski again until 1/18/18.  We will ski on 1/18, 1/25, 2/01, 2/08, and will have our last ski day on 2/15.  
         As I'm sure you have noticed, we are in a bit of a "cold snap".  If it's above 15 degrees at lunchtime, the office determines whether we go outside for recess.  We do go out in what feels to me like cold weather, so please have your child bring hat, mittens/ gloves, a warm jacket, snow pants, and boots to school each day, in the event that we do go outside.  Our classroom can be cold and dry, too, so you may want to be sure your child remembers to bring shoes /sneakers and perhaps even a sweater to wear over a t-shirt.  I find that I drink a lot of water while I am at school, so you might want to continue to send in a water bottle, even during these winter months.
         The winter NWEA schedule has been released.  Children in my classroom are scheduled to take their Reading NWEA on Tuesday,  January 9th (a week from today) from 9:20 - 10:20, and their Math NWEA on Wednesday, January 17th, also from 9:20 - 10:20.  Remember that the only way you can really help your child prepare for this exam is to talk to him about: taking his time, really thinking about each question, and then trying to do his best; see that he or she gets enough sleep the night before, and has a good breakfast that morning.  The results from these assessments will, of course, be shared with you, and will include both the fall 2017 and winter 2018 results so that you can compare them and see your child's growth.
     In two weeks, we will be starting our spelling program.  Your child will have 5 words a week to learn to spell.  We will, of course, work on them in class, but your child will also need to practice them at home during the week.  His spelling words will come home on the first day of the school week, and will be unique to him.  We will continue to work on CVC word spellings, and CVCe word spellings as part of Reading class.
      I guess that's all for this week.  I will be in touch again next weekend.  Keep warm this week!