March 1, 2014

Dear Parents,

     I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It was wonderful to see so many families at the BCCF Wacky Olympics and basketball game on Friday night. It really was a lot of fun in addition to supporting a great cause.
  
We will celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday on Monday with several activities.  The children will also have a visit from a special Dr. Seuss character! In reading we have finished our book groups and will begin working on new book groups, responding to passages using evidence from the reading, and using the strategy of inferring to determine unfamiliar words in context.
 
 In writing we are finishing our informational writing unit. The children have done a great job with their nonfiction pieces, and the writing pieces are including many of the features we have studied in class.  We will begin our persuasive writing unit. The children will also practice writing to a prompt in preparation for the ELA tests. For homework each week the children will be given a writing assignment to be completed and returned to school. Although the assignment is not graded, the expectations at this point in the school year are: the children should indent a new paragraph, use complete sentences, write at least 5 sentences on the topic,  and the writing should be neat.
  
 In writing, the children will finish the short unit on time on Monday, and a test will be given on Tuesday. At home, please encourage your child to determine elapsed time whenever possible (ie how many more minutes until we need to leave for practice, etc) We will begin our fraction unit this week. The children should continue to practice their math facts on X-tra math each night. Congratulations to Leah, Alicia, Jacob, and Lulu for completing and receiving the multiplication certificate for X-tra Math.
 
We are almost finished with our electricity unit and will begin studying the planets. We will also work on map skills for our SS unit.  

Please remember to:
Send a snack each day
Check with your child about his/her school supplies-my pencil supply is empty!
Homework is assigned and due the following day
Check over spelling words on Monday night
Contact me with any concerns

Thank you again,
Sue Fitzpatrick