I've already told my class that I think Principal Miller must like me the best out of all the other teachers because she always gives me the absolute best class!  We are coming together as a group while learning the routines and procedures.  We know that different people learn in different ways and that we need to do our best to help ourselves learn and those around us. 
 
Ask your child about...our current read aloud, Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech,  our first spelling test, rocket math with multiplication, our multiplication secrets (sssshhhhh), genres, cardinal directions and intermediate directions, our writing tool books with pages about things that are "close to our hearts" and our "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad list".  (That is just a short list of things we have accomplished this week)

Parent Orientation Night is Tuesday, August 28 starting at 6:30 pm.  This will be very informal.  I'll do some talking but I really want this to be a time for you to ask any burning question you have. (If you are wondering it, someone else probably is too.)  We will also discuss our third grade field trip.  This has typically been in the fall for third grade and we travel to the Frontier Theater in Marshfield, MO.  It is an exciting, exhausting, hands-on learning experience for the kiddos but it is a little pricey.  I'll have more details on Tuesday night. 

I've uploaded a few photos into our gallery on this site.  Yet again, I intended to have more pictures to share and they will come, I promise, but for now there are a few with the kiddos making their writing tool books.  Our tool books will be full of lessons, tricks, tips, ideas, special words, all the things needed to be a great writer.  Just like a carpenter uses a tool box, we will use our tool book to help us create great works of writing.  I want to thank Mrs. Basham  for tabbing and labeling our tool books to make them super organized.  THANK YOU!

In the near future we will...  build our reading "stamina", understand place value and greater number, compare and order numbers,  read and understand a variety of maps,  locate and label the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, locate and label the 8 states that touch Missouri, make a list of types of writing we can create during our independent writing time, and  listen to many many more books.

It has been an exciting exhausting first two days of school.  I fully intended to have photos to add to this post but life happened and I ran out of time.  Photos will come soon.  
I want this blog and the entire website to be as beneficial to you as possible.  I welcome your comments and hope that you will let me know of things that would make this be a tool that serves a purpose.  
Something you will see often is a section called; "Ask your child about..."  This is meant to spark a conversation at dinner or on a drive to practice.  So often when I ask my children about their day the response is "it was fine", "no, we didn't do anything". Yeah right, we do so much every day that there is no way to hear about everything.  So good luck with the conversation and I hope this helps.
I will also try to cue you into things that will be happening in the near future.  A lot of the routine things like tiger pride assemblies or school picture day, I will just add to the google calendar on the home page.  But, things like a new reading plan or a writing strategy that we are using I will try to give you a quick little quip.
So here we go; 
Ask Your Child About:  the game "find someone who", the smartboard activity "balloon pop", the teacher dancing and singing (not one of my best moments, but the kids seemed to love it), rocket math folders, our classroom library, and "classity class".

Monday your child will bring home their first spelling list.  The students will copy the list into their agendas and bring the list home for at home practice.  We will test these words on Friday and use several of them in dictation sentences.  "Word Wall" words will be repeated randomly on future tests.  Weekly lists can also be found within this website on the resources "spelling" page.

Snacks:  Please refer to the "parent resource" page for specific information about snacks.  Basically, the kids can have a healthy morning snack if they continue to do their work and don't disturb others.  I have snacks for those who forget but would appreciate help in keeping this stocked.  Plain old water is the only beverage allowed.

Weekly At Home Reading:  This will also start on Monday.  Students will bring home a front/back paper with a passage to read with a family member.  It will feature a comprehension strategy that is commonly used in class and a few comprehension questions to do as a family. The completed paper should be signed by student and parent and returned by Friday.  Students who complete the task early may return it when finished. Completion of this task will result in a free Pizza coupon from the Pizza Hut  Book It program.  Coupons usually are issued October through March.

My goodness, there is always more information but this post is rather lengthy as is, so I better wind it up.  

Please mark your calendars for parent orientation night. (I know you were just at school two days ago, but after a few weeks under our belts parents usually have several questions that we need to discuss.)  
                                        Tuesday, August 28 from at 6:30!!!!
If we can start promptly at 6:30, it should last about 30 minutes.
Thank you for making this first week of school a great one!  Lisa