Hello Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed the three-day weekend and this delightful fall weather.

Early Dismissal All Week: Due to parent teacher student conferences, students are dismissed from school at 12:30 M-F this week. 

Report Cards: will be given out at your conference time and gone over with parents and their child.

Conferences: Thank you for signing up for a conference with your child.  My goal with conferences is to keep it positive and shine the light on all the wonderful things about your child, of which there are many! Then, if need be, we will look at areas that need improvement and steps to take to do so.  Every child should be able to leave this conference with their head held high feeling good about themselves and knowing more about their learning style and how to work with their unique gifts and challenges. 

ELA: we beginning reading/analyzing our literature book: Sign of the Beaver. In addition, we continue to honor our VIP each week and listen to presentations by students. 

SC Symphony: daily musical compositions are introduced and enjoyed every morning.

Mindfulness: Best practices in mindfulness are being incorporated into our classroom this year.

Harmony: best practices school-wide curriculum for building a strong social-emotional community within our classrooms.

AR Reading: Accelerated Reader continues to be an important part of our reading program.  Students are reading appropriate AR books found through the AR book find link and then quizzing on them within 24 hours of finishing their book.  It is critical to support your child in book selection (most books are in our school and classroom libraries) and to remind them to read, read, read whenever the opportunity arises--in the car, while waiting for an appt., to and from school, before bed time, on a Sunday in your jammies, etc.  These books should travel to and from the classroom in a daily fashion for classroom DEAR (drop everything and read) sessions as well as nightly reading homework and beyond.  Students have a goal of 14 points for this first trimester.  Each book has a certain amount of points it is worth.  This information is listed with reading level and appropriateness (grade school, middle school, high school, for example).  Points per book range from 3 to 5, generally, with longer books being worth more points.  On an average this is going to mean your child is reading anywhere from 10+ books a Trimester (depending on length and difficulty). That said, help your child select books that are on their reading level, and have high interest for them.  This will allow them to accomplish reading books from start to finish successfully.

4th Math: The four operations--1 digit multiplication, division concepts
    
5th Math: mental math and word problems continue and multi-digit operations.  Please check your child's planner for specific page numbers. We will continue to review these concepts.  We will start our 3rd POM (problem of the month). Tests for 4th and 5th will occur before Thanksgiving break. 

**Keep Practicing: students were expected to have their times tables memorized by the end of last week.  If your child has not recited these to you and returned the checklist, please do so asap.  In order for your child to be successful with the math in the 4th and 5th grade levels, it is important to have these skills down.  Please have some fun with these and have your child rehearse daily so that they can test on these math facts. As your child tests on each one, please check off and sign the checklist sheet and return it to our classroom. Thank you.

Science: electromagnetism.

Social Studies: Deep dive into American Revolution informational texts, writing debates.

Writing, Vocabulary and Grammar: continual.

Upcoming Announcements/Events: 
Nov. 13--report cards due 
Nov. 13-17--Parent Teacher Child Conferences
Nov. 22-24--Thanksgiving break

Thank you for supporting me and the growth of your child in every way.

Warmly,

Mrs. Young