Halloween Week

Last week's school-wide Leadership Assembly was co-M.C.'d by a student from our classroom!

Here are the notes for this week:

Leadership Assembly
Our school had an amazing Leadership Assembly last Thursday.  Different classes gave presentations on the lessons and projects they were studying in their classrooms.  The school data managers also challenged Silver Spring's boy students to raise the school reading average for boys.  One student from our classroom helped M.C. the entire assembly!  I posted some photos and a short video from the assembly in our classroom photo gallery.  You can access our classroom photo gallery buy clicking on the link to the right.

Home Reading Books
Each student went home today with two or three home reading books.  I put the books in a bright orange bag to help students keep track of it.  These books should be at your child's reading level and are great to use for reading practice.  Students can bring them back next Monday for fresh books.  If you ever feel like the books going home are two easy or too difficult please send me an email and let me know.

Important Upcoming Dates
Tuesday, November 4th - No School - Teacher Professional Day / Election Day
Thursday, November 13th - Half Day Dismissal at 11:55 AM - Conferences
Friday, November 14th - Half Day Dismissal at 11:55 AM - Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conference Sign Ups
Remember, you can sign up for parent teacher conferences by clicking here.

Halloween Parade Repost
This is the same information about Halloween I posted a few weeks ago: Silver Springs will be celebrating Halloween with our annual costume parade on October 31st.  Students will bring their costume to school that day and we will change in the afternoon for our party and the parade.  The parade will begin at 2:45 PM.  We will parade around the hallways of the school building.  Parents and families are welcome to dress in costume and attend the parade.  Parents will have a special viewing location located in our gym.  If you would like, you can see me after the parade to sign out your child.  You must sign students out with me if they are going to leave early with you.  Please follow these guidelines when planning your costume:
-Face make-up, hairspray, etc. must be applied at home.
-No fake weapons of any kind are allowed at school.
-No fake blood and no scary costumes. (If it might scare a kindergartener, please don’t wear it!) We encourage students to dress like a storybook or historical character, superhero, or something else fun and positive!  

Curriculum Overview
Literacy - Non-fiction: understanding the features in non-fiction books.  For example we will study: diagrams, captions, graphs, headers, glossaries, etc.

Math - Addition of three-digit numbers, understanding how and why to regroup

Writing - Writing about our lives, stretching out small moments into fantastic writing pieces.  This week we will begin publishing and perfecting one of our favorite stories.

Science - Earth Science.  We have a quiz this week and then will conduct an experiment on erosion.

Social Studies - In Social Studies we are continuing to learn about maps.  We learned how to find approximate distance using a map scale last week.  This week we will be learning about coordinate graphs.  We will also review maps to prepare for an upcoming quiz.  Please look for a review sheet to come home soon.

Word Study - This week we continue to work with words, discussing the many patterns that students are learning.  ALL students are introduced to all of the various word sorts for each group, each week.  They then focus on their own group's sort to practice with many activities.  We have also begun introducing and working with new vocabulary words.  The first 5 words are: ultimatum, demand, strike, impatient & neutral.  Students have learned how to pronounce the words and have been introduced to the definitions.  This week they will begin their vocabulary journals, writing each word, synonyms & antonyms for each, as well as illustrating each word and writing a "7-Up" sentence for each word (a sentence with at least 7 words.)  See if your child can talk to you about what these words mean!

Leadership – Setting our learning and personal goals for this marking period.  Look for a copy of your student's goals to go home soon.

This is the orange bag I will use to send reading books home with students.  Bring it back every Monday.  If you ever feel like the books going home are two easy or too difficult please send me an email and let me know.