Our goal this year at Forest Ridge is to improve students’ writing. I can really tell the great improvement in students’ writing with the students whose parents have helped their child with this assignment this year. It’s not too late to start!!! This week we’ll be learning about summary writing. Family writing assignment for this week: Write a short summary (about one half notebook page) of a favorite book, television program, or movie. Give a person who is unfamiliar with the show an idea of what it is about. Include a beginning, middle, and ending.
Writing together encourages your child to see you having fun with writing, and allows you an opportunity to spend time with your child while he/she learns. Please have your child bring the writing in by Friday, January 30
Students are reviewing 2-digit (second graders) and 3-digit (third graders) subtraction in math. We are also working on multiplication by studying groups of things and multiples.
I hope you have had some opportunities to play “Cover 50”, a game I sent home last Tuesday. On Thursday, last week, I sent home a stapled set of arrays (rectangles with squares). Students were to write the dimensions of the arrays (ex. 3x4) on the side with squares, and the product (ex. 12) on the backside, along with one of the dimensions (ex. 3) written lightly along one of the sides on the backside. These are to be returned (all cut up into rectangles and in a plastic bag) by Tuesday. I’ll send them back home to stay along with the array games we’ve been working on in class. Please keep all the games to play at home during the rest of the year.
“Words to Learn” will be coming home this week. These words will be recycled throughout the year. They’ll probably even show up on another word check that I give later. Almost everyday we work for about 15 minutes on learning spelling patterns, so your child will become a lifetime speller. We don’t just memorize words!
As I write this, I’m hoping the third graders were able to take the reading state assessment on Friday. Our attempt on Thursday failed, as the state site was down again. I know we’ll have students finishing up their assessments this week.
This years’ “No Child Left Behind Conference” for parents will be held on February 28, 2009 from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm, at McKay High School. This is a gathering for parents to get ideas on supporting their child in school. There will be a free lunch and free childcare (for ages 2-12). Cindy Ross will be at the PTC meeting on Monday to talk to you about it.
Don’t forget to have your child doing chores earn money to help purchase animals to show caring for impoverished countries.
