Hi All,

We had an excellent and exciting 5 day week. Although it was foggy, many kids were able to make the pinhole projectors work with terrific support from wonderful parent volunteers. We also watched a livestream throughout Monday morning.

This week, kids will be taking a district-mandated assessment (MAP). After completing Fact or Fiction poems, we'll begin Writing Workshop. In reading, I am doing minilessons on comprehension strategies and then kids are reading self-selected books. After several lessons using Stanford's youcubed Week of Inspirational math, we've begun the Bridges math curriculum. Our first unit is on multiplication and division. The kids will be learning a variety of strategies to approach number and story problems, with the goal being a deep understanding of number relationships and fluency building.

On Monday, kids will bring home classwork from the past week, as well as any handouts from the office, etc. I try to keep all important papers until the Monday folder, and encourage you to check folders/backpacks on that day. This week I'm  sending the first of 4-5 Scholastic book orders ( for the year). Your book orders are one of the primary ways I fill our classroom library; donations is the other big way. If you wish to purchase books, you may order digitally --or the "classic" way, by filling out the form I'm sending home. Please make any checks out to Scholastic, so that I can just send them on directly. Our class code, for digital orders, is noted on the blog.

This week we will be meeting with our Buddy classroom for the first time. Our class will be working with Mrs. Hegerle's 2nd Graders. Along with reading, our big focus will be reviving the school gàrden, located behind the 3rd Grade portables. The first several weeks will be spent weeding, so kids should wear appropriate clothes, and bring gardening gloves if you feel they're necessary. We will be in the garden on Tuesday afternoons, at 12:45.

I will not be sending home any homework until after our Back-to-School Night, on Thursday, September 7th. At that time I will be explaining the 4th Grade team's expectations, as well as scheduling parent volunteers, and sharing my plans for the coming year. During these weeks, your child should be reading every day after school, at home or in their after school program.

Have a great week,

Carroll Mayer