Hi All,
I look forward to seeing you this week at conferences.  Please be on time, as I only have 20 minutes for each kid, and many conferences scheduled back to back.  The book fair will be held in the library for the entire week, and many parents enjoy visiting it before or after their conferences. 

This week, the Homework Packets do not contain spelling.  Instead, there is a practice sheet on maps, with kids also assigned to review the landforms on the picture vocabulary cards we made in class.  There will be a geography test on Friday instead of a spelling test.  We will also be having a multiplication "timed" test on 2s, 5s, and 10s.  The kids will be encouraged to work as swiftly as possible, and will write the time they take to complete the test on their paper.  The purpose of timing the kids is not to create anxiety, but to encourage the students to commit these facts to memory.

The days will be fast, but full.  In RTI, we will finish up the story The Ballad of Mulan, and then begin a new story entitled The Waterfall.  The strategy for this story is Predict/Infer.  We will also be teaching kids to identify Cause/Effect. In math, we will continue with more complex subtraction problems. We will finish up our personal narratives about the fair, and will begin another narrative. The first AR goal period ends on Friday.  Most of the class has already achieved their goal, but if your still needs to take some tests, please remind them to be assertive about getting that time.  Usually, the testing time is in the afternoon!

Have a great week,
Carroll Mayer