Such a busy week and this post contains a LOT of information….. please let me know if you have any questions after it! We are officially half way through the school year which means we are switching gears to get prepared for third grade. Everyone says their is a big jump between first and second grade… well.. their is another big jump between second and third grade. So I am adding some things in to better prepare them.

Occasionally things that we do not finish in group or during the day will be sent home as homework and I have told the students I expect them to finish it and bring it back in completed. Some have done great this week and others have not done it and had excuses. Usually this task would take less than 10 minutes and can be independently done by them. We had conversations about third grade and the responsibility falling on them. We are also going to be putting these things in planners to help them remember. Most of it will be reading things but occasionally it could be finishing up math papers. On nights they do not have anything like this they should be reading a book from their book bag. Homework should be done nightly!

In the upper elementary grades they have behavior consequences with think sheets and the responsibility room. These things are used when not so great choices are made and the student needs to reflect on the choice made. We really have had no instances yet that would warrant it, but being the second semester it is being introduced. We talked about it as a class and what would earn them a think sheet or responsibility room visit. An action could include swearing in the classroom, throwing materials or toys on purpose, screaming at others or an adult in the school, and destroying school supplies or school property were the main ones we discussed. These have not happened nor do I imagine they would but we have talked about why we do not want them to happen also. We are using the month of January to have warnings if we see something but I wanted to make parents aware of this procedure change.

Report cards come home TODAY! Please sign the envelope and return on Monday.

(*** Just an added note about report cards- the standards I grade each marking period can be different so it is possible to go up or down grade wise in an area based on what I assessed. For example- Marking Period 1– “Numbers and Operations/Base 10” was graded on number lines and place value adding and subtracting where Marking Period 2 — was using the eureka math strategies we used like making a ten, compensation, and adding like units. Your child could have earned a 2 in marking period 1 but dropped to a 3 in marking period 2 because different standards were assessed. This goes for the ELA standards as well. I choose different standards during the marking periods based on what Benchmark is focusing on in those units.)

Our handwriting books have now arrived!!!! We are starting with printing review but move on to beginning cursive strokes in a few weeks! The students are VERY exciting to start learning… as am I!

Reminder to keep all snow gear here in lockers and make sure it is labeled! Although this week it did not get above feels like 20 we will start going outside for recess once it does! If they have everything in lockers it makes it WAY easier and then they don’t freeze!

Last, we have had A LOT of tardies the last few weeks (this week and all of December). I have almost 1/4 of the class coming in more then 15 minutes late DAILY! This is SO HARD! We have morning work and get going as soon as we can each morning. It is hard enough to fit everything in during the day but having so many come in late adds an added distraction. Please try your best to be on time. I understand it happens occasionally but we need to be consistently starting our day at 8:25 am each day to not lose any more instructional minutes.

Heads up– An all school field trip will be happening on Friday, April 4th. Please plan ahead to chaperone. More information and paperwork will be coming home the beginning of February.. we just wanted you to be able to save the date. 🙂

Have a great weekend! <3

Hi All! I hope you had a great vacation! Just wanted to give you a few updates….

This week we begin all of our new units! For math we will write in our planners each day what lesson we did. It will say M3L1. That means Module 3 Lesson 1. If you would like to do the apply lesson to match you may. This will help us stay on the same page.

For reading we have 5 books in bags weekly and I asked the students to read 1 book each night. I have moved on to the book room books and have access to new ones so hopefully I have enough of a selection to get us through to Spring break. They will continue to do spelling words and spelling choice boards each week through Unit 10 of benchmark.

In Science we begin our new unit next week- properties of materials which includes an experiment at the end! 🙂

For Social Studies we will be learning about Maps!

Over the next three weeks we will need to complete the IReady reading and math test and the formal DRA reading level assessment. These will be scheduled and spaced out and you will know ahead of time before we take them. I will have the students write about it in their planner the day before.

It was so nice to gets all the hugs and see so many smiles this morning… They were excited to come back to school and I promised them we will slowly get back in to worktimes 🙂

Have a great Monday!

I hope you all had a restful and great winter break!!

Reminder tomorrow is a HALF DAY and school gets out at 11:30 am!

What a busy week! We had so much fun with holiday projects this week it seemed to fly by!

Thank you all so much for spoiling me as well. You did not need to send in things but thank you again. <3

I hope you all have a restful winter break and great holiday!

We are going to do the spelling test tomorrow to just get it over with! They know these words and will do great. You can either turn in spelling choice board tomorrow or Friday. Either way is fine with me. 🙂

I have collected all book bags and will keep them until after winter break. Your child can read books from home and the library to get their 20 minutes of reading each night.

On Friday we will have an all school sing along! We unfortunately do not have enough room to invite parents to this so we will be live streaming some parts of it on our schools Instagram page! You must be a follower of @howemontessoriandsped to see us go live and watch the video! We will stream a couple parts throughout the hour sing along. Reminder that this is not a concert …. this is simply a fun sing along to end our week and get us excited for holiday break. Special thanks to Mrs. Reed for planning and preparing the students.

Remember to send your child in holiday pjs on Friday so we can all match at the sing along.

VERY IMPORTANT—- The first day back in January- Monday the 6th is a HALF DAY with 11:30 am dismissal! Please make note of this!

All FINISHED candy cane grams are due back tomorrow morning! 🙂 We start spirit week tomorrow…. Remember to wear holiday hats/socks!

Hello all! Unfortunately I will be absent on Monday & Tuesday. I have a family funeral to attend. Ms D will be subbing for me and has everything she needs to keep the class running. I will be periodically checking email so let me know if you need anything.

Hello parents! We have had a busy and productive week! I let them know… 3 weeks until another break and report card grades are due. We are going to be working on Benchmark Unit 4 during these weeks and strengthening our fiction writing and reading. The fiction story coming home this week we did together as a class to learn the writing maps and process. Next week they will start creating their own fiction stories. For Eureka math we worked on lessons 20-24. All of the lessons were subtraction with either drawing or using the stamp game in class. And slowly but surely we are finishing up the amplify life science lessons with the Bengal Tigers and chalta trees. Our days seem to fly by so fast we run out of minutes to get everything done!

Reminder that your child should be reading nightly! Everyday at pack up time I remind them to take home book bags. They should be reading nightly for 20 minutes. We want to keep pushing forward with our awesome reading growth and this is done by continuing to read and practice. I purposely give them easy, medium and a hard leveled book for their book bag each week.

Candy cane gram order forms coming home in folders today! Discuss with your child how many they would like to send and then send in the order form next week with EXACT CASH! Your child will bring the candy cane grams home to fill out. Send back completed grams to school by Monday, December 16th. Before winter break each child will get their bag of candy cane grams.

Reminder of Grinch movie night on Tuesday, December 10th at 5 pm in the gym. Parents must stay with children for the movie. Pillows, blankets, and pjs are encouraged. Food and drinks will be for sale by PTA.

Have a great weekend!