February 27th, 2012

Hi Parents,

Sorry for not writing last week! I ended up getting pretty sick with a cold that seems to be circulating in our classroom.

We start our CRT testing this week. Your students will not have spelling words for the next two weeks. It is very important that if your child is well enough to come to school that they be in school for these tests. Please make sure they get a good night's sleep and have a healthy breakfast. We will be testing this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then again next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Our schedule is a little different due to testing. Let me know if you have any questions.

Monday, February 13th

Hi Parents,

Tomorrow is our Valentine's Party. It is from 2:15-3:05. We are going to be opening our Valentine's and watching Alvin and the Chipmunks Valentines while enjoying some snacks.

Spelling words this week:
Double Letter Words

1. better
2. happy
3. really
4. berry
5. messy
6. unless
7. carrot
8. lettuce
9. spilled
10. grilling
11. dribble
12. litter
13. rubber
14. happen
15. puzzle
16. running
17. dripping

Bonus
1. embarrass
2. success
3. misspelled
4. generally


Early Release on Wednesday at 1:45pm.

Monday, February 6th

Hi Parents,

Here are the spelling words for this week:
Frequent Spelling Patterns for soft-syllable endings for / l/ and / r/

1. camel
2. nickel
3. jewel
4. tunnel
5. level
6. local
7. loyal
8. normal
9. eagle
10. needle
11. jungle
12. doctor
13. author
14. sailor
15. cellar
16. grammar
17. collar
18. dollar
19. father
20. mother
21. teacher
22. painter

Bonus
bundle
cruel
several
scholar

Our Valentine's day Party is on February 14th in the afternoon from 2:15-3:10. You should have received two letters on Thursday concerning the party. One had a list of the students' names in our class, the other was from our room Mom, Mrs. Payne telling you to contact her if you would like to help supply things for the party.

Our snow shoe day was canceled for this week due to lack of snow (never thought that would be a problem in Montana!). They hope to reschedule it for sometime in March.

Please continue to work with your students on multiplication. It is very important for them to have quick recall of the facts. There are wonderful multiplication games on the computer (www.multiplication.com), but good-old fashioned flash cards work wonders as well!

In reading this week, we are focusing on comparing and contrasting characters to understand characteristics.

Wednesday, February 1st

Hi Parents,

Sorry for not writing yet this week!

First, thank you to all the parents for sending in snacks over the last month! We always need them and they are greatly, greatly appreciated!!!!!

Second, a letter will be coming home tomorrow about the Valentine's Day party. It has a list of all the students' names. Students do not have to do Valentines, but if they do choose to do them, they have to do one for everyone in the class.

We are working a lot on multiplication. Please be practicing the facts at home with your kids. Start with the 2s facts, and move up till they get to the 12s. Learning their multiplication facts is so important for 4th and 5th grade.

Spelling words
Suffix –less
1. harmless
2. helpless
3. endless
4. homeless
5. mindless

Suffix –ness
6. shyness
7. dampness
8. sadness
9. kindness
10. goodness
11. forgetfulness
12. forgiveness
13. thoughtlessness
14. hopelessness
15. laziness

Bonus Words
16. potential
17. kinetic
18. atoms
19. machines
20. motion