Week of 1/7

Welcome back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

The second half of the year will bring with it a few changes.

Spelling
First, you will no longer receive spelling lists for students to practice at home.  Students will practice all spelling in class.  The focus will be on rules and spelling patterns.  Students will be working on specific spelling patterns that are appropriate for them.  If a student doesn't pass their test, they will have another week to practice and pass the following week.  Students will be able to move through the spelling patterns at their own pace.  You are welcome to talk about the patterns they are learning at home and practice finding them in texts, but memorizing a list of words will not help.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Homework
Second, students will be receiving a different kind of reading homework.  I will send the first one on Monday, the 14th.  The homework may change slightly from week to week.  I will always send instructions.  The reading homework will be better aligned to how students are tested on the state test and what we are learning in class.  Students need to keep reading for their reading log.  The reading logs will continue to come home each week. 

Science
In science we are going to be learning about matter and the different properties of matter.  Students are very good at thinking like scientists.

Social Studies and Reading
Students have been reading different articles about influential people in history.  This week the articles are about Sybil Ludington, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman.  Ask them what they have learned about them. 

Math Test
There is no weekly math test today.  We will resume those next week.