Room 6 NewsIssue 3 September 15, 2014 Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Sanchez

Important Announcements:It is LCM Book Fair Week! We will visit the book fair on Friday. If your child wishes to shop at the book fair, please send money in a sealed envelope, baggie, etc. with his/her name. The book fair will be open all week, before and after school, for students/families to shop.

Monday Evening: Ice Cream Social/Book Fair. Please join us for some evening book fair shopping on Monday from 5:00-7:00 PM. Mrs. Frosty will be selling ice cream and we will have guest readers.

Grandparents Day!All grandparents are welcome to a special Friday Flag Salute, Coffee Cart, Classroom Visit, and Book Fair Shopping this coming Friday, September 19th. Please let all Room 6 Grandparents know that we hope they will join us for this celebration!

LCM Watch D.O.G.S.We would love for some of our Room 6 Dads/Grandpas/Uncles to visit us at school for the day! If you are interested in being one of our LCM Watch D.O.G.S., please see details on our school web page!

LEARNING GOALS

Language Arts(Reading Information):The Regions of California: We will continue to focus on identifying the main idea and supporting details from informational text. Our students will identify unique characteristics of California’s four regions (The Coastal Region, The Mountain Region, The Central Plains, and The Desert Region).

(Reading Literature): We will continue our study of Greek Mythology this week. We will focus on identifying allusions within the text. For example, in the story,“King Midas”, the Midas Touch alludes to good luck or having a “golden touch”. We will read the stories, “Achilles,” “The Trojan War,” and “Pandora’s Box,” this week while identifying the allusion from each story.

Read Aloud: We began reading the novel, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. This is an exciting children’s novel.

Language Works Program:We will complete Volume 1 (each volume takes two weeks to complete). As a reminder, students will take a spelling pre-test at the beginning of each week. Students who pass their pre-test with a 90% or higher will not be taking a spelling post-test on Fridays. All students will work on spelling extension work that is due each Friday. An end of the volume test that will assess the

skills listed below will be given on the second Friday of the volume (September 19th).

Language Works Volume 1:Spelling Pattern: high frequency words and short and long /a/ words

Spelling Rule: when a word ends in a consonant followed by the letter y, change the y to i before adding –er/-ed/-es/-est/-ness

Homophones: right/write, blue/blew, no/know, break/brake

Punctuation: complete and simple subjects/predicates

Grammar/Composition: er- means “more” and est- means “most”

Parts of Speech: nouns

Prefixes: pre-/post-

Math: Unit 1, Place Value/Addition and Subtraction.Our students will complete a math test to assess their place value and rounding skills. We will share your child’s test with you later this week. We will review branching, decomposing, bridging, and the partial sums addition strategies using large numbers. Once students show proficiency in using a few of these strategies, we will focus on using the U.S. standard algorithm for addition. We will solve many problems that are embedded in word problems. Students are encouraged to always include the units of measurement with their answers.

Math Games: We taught our fourth graders to play a place value game, “Put You in Your

Place”. This is a fun and easy game to play at home that reinforces the value of place. Ask your fourth grader to teach your family how to play!

Writing: Students will complete an informational paragraph about the different ways to describe where they live (planet, continent, hemispheres, country, state, and city).

We will also begin Writer’s Workshop mini lessons. Students will read/discuss examples of text to help them develop great ideas, description using the five senses, and topic sentences for their writing. I will meet with students to provide individual feedback.

P.E.: We have P.E. this year with Coach Chindlund on Mondays, some Wednesdays, and every Thursday. Please remind your child to wear athletic shoes/clothes on these days.

PE Schedule this week: Monday, , and Thursday.

Library: Mrs. Schneider has our AR (Accelerated Reader Program) up and running. We will meet with her for our library time on Fridays .Students will NOT be returning their library books this week. On Friday, we will use our regularly scheduled library time to shop at the book fair.

AR News: We will help your child set individual AR Reading Goals this week. We are using data from their recent STAR (Enterprise) Assessment and end of the year 3rd grade AR levels to determine their Point Goal for the first trimester. In

order to attend the 4th Grade AR Reading Party at the end of the trimester, your child will need to earn his/her points by Friday, November 14th. Please, please, please encourage your son/daughter to complete their nightly 15 or more pages of reading each night. If this is done, they will not have any problem finishing their books and reaching their AR Goal!

Science Garden: We will meet in the Science Garden with our new Science Garden Teacher, Mrs. White, every other Tuesday. (Beginning the week of September 15th).

Music: We will have music this year with Mr. Ball every other Tuesday (Beginning the week of September 22nd).

*Thanks to the families of LCM and our PTO for supporting our music and science garden programs!One Hundred Good DeedsRoom 6 has already earned many beads for deeds! It is amazing how my students are naturally looking for opportunities to help each other. This is helping create a positive classroom environment!

STUDENTS OF THE MONTHWill be announced at specific Friday Flag Salutes. Stay tuned…

STUDENT COUNCILCongratulations to Brianne Zevely, our LCM Treasurer! Our Student Council will be meeting soon to determine our upcoming LCM Spirit Days.

IMPORTANT REMINDERSAt LCM we make, “Every Minute Count”. Please make sure to

have your child at school, each morning, and on time. If you need to take your child out of school for an appointment, please make every effort to do so at the end of the day. Thanks for your help!

VOLUNTEER CORNERThank you Amber Cassen for volunteering your time to be our classroom room mom!

CLASSROOM SUPPLIES:Please purchase a pair of small ear buds for your child to keep in his/her desk this school year. We will use them with our iPads.

ROOM PARENT NEWS:It is that time of the year….LCM Halloween Carnival! There are many ways our Room 6 families can get involved with this annual event! Please consider joining the Carnival Planning Committee, donating to our classroom basket, baking for the carnival, and/or signing up to volunteer at our assigned booth. Amber will be keeping you up to date as far as what is needed. Thanks for supporting our largest fund raising event of the year!

SEPTEMBER DATES: 

Week of September 15th, LCM Scholastic Book Fair  

 September 15th, LCM Scholastic Book FairIce Cream Social and Book Fair Shopping, 5:00-7:00 PM

 September 18th, PTO Meeting, 3:30 PM  

September 19th, Friday Flag Salute, Grades 1-5, 8:45 AM  Student of the Month, Grandparents' Day with Classroom Visits, 9:30 AM  

 *Every Friday is "Popsicle Friday" after school...startyour weekend with a cool treat!