Half Way Through Marking Period 1!

It's hard to believe that September is coming to a close and we are half way through Marking Period 1.  If I have any academic or behavioral concerns about your child's progress, I will be sending home a progress report next week.  If you would like to meet with me about it, please send me an e-mail or call me.

This week we began our "Words Their Way" spelling program. For the first two weeks, students will all have the same words- they are contractions. Yesterday, we worked together to select 15 of the words for the test next Friday.  On October 8, we will begin spelling groups and students will have different words.  I determined the groups after administering a spelling assessment so I could analyze the types of words they have trouble with and what kinds of errors they are making.  This test will not count towards their spelling grade. Each group will have a large sort of words and then we will work together to select 15 words for their test.  The spelling tests will always be every 2 weeks. Students should be bringing their spelling notebook to and from school each day along with their take home folder and agenda.
Here is an awesome site to help your child practice their words in all kinds of fun ways:
http://www.spellingcity.com/

We continued our study of subtraction this week, especially working on 3 digit subtraction equations where you have to "double re-name"- such as 400-178. On Thursday in small groups, students used the khan academy site to view a mini lesson to review different subtraction strategies. The Khan academy is a fantastic site full of lessons on everything from basic addition to advanced calculus.  Every lesson is followed by different activities to reinforce the concept.  If you sign your child up for an account, it will even monitor their progress and send you updates.  I can not create the accounts myself, because you need to enter an e-mail address, but please consider using this site for homework help and to offer some challenge as well. I added the link to both of these sites to the left. The Khan academy was recently featured on 60 Minutes and you can watch the clip here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7401696n.

Here is the lesson we started in small groups, if you'd like your child to watch it over the weekend:

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/addition-subtraction/v/subtraction-3---introduction-to-borrowing-or-regrouping

A few reminders:
-we will hold our Student Government elections for our class representatives on Friday, October 5.
-Our first spelling test is also 10/5.
-Students will be bringing home our first BIG homework project on Monday, October 1. It is due the 31st.

Have a wonderful weekend!