January 27, 2020

January 27, 2020

Dear Family,

            Honors Day is tomorrow. Lower school will be recognized at 8:15 in the gym. Your child has a slip of paper in his/her binder if he/she is receiving a certificate.

We have new reading books! Please try to cover these books so they’ll look nice for future classes. Many of our students use the stretchy knit covers sold at Wal-Mart. You will need the size for 8.5x11 inch books. Our story this week is The City Mouse and the Country Mouse. We will learn about the suffixes (end of the word… remember supper comes at the end of the day, a suffix comes at the end of a word) -y, -ly, -ment, and -ive. We will review -er and -est.

            In math we will learn about comparing fractions with denominators of 2, 3, and 6; adding and subtracting these same fractions; writing fractions to show part of a whole; subtracting 5 and 6; reading and writing Roman numerals to 31; and adding three-digit numbers. Continue memorizing multiplication facts 1, 2, and 7. Fives are coming soon!

            We are enjoying social studies! We can locate places on the map using latitude and longitude. We will learn about the continents this week.

            We will no longer be able to get seconds at lunch unless we pay for an additional meal. Pizza day is an exception.

            Thank you to those volunteering to drive on our field trip February 18.

            Loving and Teaching Yours,

            Miss Suzann

January 21, 2020

January 21, 2020

Dear Family,

          Brrrrrrrrrr! I hope you enjoyed your long weekend.

          This week we will read Arbor Day Square. With no new grammar skills this week, we will review adverbs and adjectives. Our spelling words are all review as well.

          Speaking of Arbor Day, I am planning a field trip February 18 to the farmers’ market downtown for our city’s 10:00am celebration of trees! Please let me know this week if you would like to drive. Details will come home later.

          In math, we will continue working on multiplying by 2; drawing and reading a line graph; telling and showing time to the minute; rounding to the nearest hundred; and estimating sums and differences of three-digit numbers. Continue to practice facts daily!

          Friday, January 24, is the 100^th day of school. Please let your child count out 100 items… anything that will fit in a Ziplock bag (M&M’s, Q-tips, pennies, raisins, buttons, etc.) and bring to school. If they would like, they may dress as an elderly person!

          We will continue our study of maps and globes. A study guide is coming home today to help you if you’ve forgotten terms associated with both. I don’t have a date for our test yet. I need to make sure those who’ve been sick are caught up.

          Teaching and Loving Yours, Miss Suzann

4 IMPORTANT THINGS

1.  Monday, January 13 we will be taking a school wide photo and possible video.  All students, faculty and staff will participate.  Faculty and staff should wear a blue or white top.  K-9 students should wear either blue, white, or plaid uniform. No black, no gray. Preschool and 10-12 should wear a blue or white top. Please communicate this information with your parents by adding to your newsletter, blog or remind account.  We appreciate your cooperation as we kick off a new marketing campaign and gear up for open enrollment.

2. Third grade will be able to buy Chik-fil-a biscuits Tuesdays and Thursdays before school. The sausage or bacon biscuit is $2.50. The chicken biscuit is $3.00. This is a fundraiser for the junior class. When the announcement is made, they may walk to Kim Beaty’s room to purchase their breakfast. Fourth grade has already been participating so they can guide us. They will eat outside then return to the academic center. This will need to take place before the war chant starts at 7:45am.

3. Fridays are our new Show and Tell day. Apparently, we have tons we want to show! Students may bring anything that will fit in their bookbag to show the class. Please don’t send anything irreplaceable.

4. If you’re having trouble logging on to the new AR site, please email Mrs. Shoemaker at akshoemaker@lakesidechiefs.com.

                                                       Thank you! Miss Suzann

January 13, 2020

Dear Family,                                                                                               January 13, 2020

            Count your blessings if the flu hasn’t hit your household! We’ve had some sick children. Every afternoon I’m wiping desks and chairs with Clorox wipes. I started spraying the room with Lysol last week and will continue as Flu B is airborne. We are coughing and sneezing into the inside of our shirts!!

            This week our story is The Dancing Bird of Paradise. We will learn about words with the same base word or root word.  Some of us didn’t do as well last week on our reading test. I don’t know if we were getting over the holidays or getting sick! I’ve added points to your child’s grade because maybe I didn’t teach the material as well as I should’ve. Your child needs to read the story every night….from the book, not a device. Research shows comprehension is better when pages are turned. It also helps them remember where certain information is in the story. Our tests are open book so reading from the actual text helps.

            I am so pleased with our math successes! Mrs. Teresa Manning from the upper school visited us and taught us “Around the World” to better learn our facts. She reminded us in math we must be accurate, not necessarily fast. I’m adding a bit of time to our timed test to alleviate any anxiety. Continue to push for one minute on 25 facts. This week we will begin subtracting two-digit numbers; writing to 1,000 using words; adding and subtracting multiples of 100; multiplying by 2; and patterns.

            We start social studies today! We will begin with comparing maps and globes, a compass rose, and intermediate directions (southwest, northeast, etc.).

            Only 6^th-12^th grades may have smart watches or cellphones at school (page 23 of our handbook).

                                                Teaching and Loving Yours,

                                                                        Miss Suzann

January 6, 2020

Dear Family,                                                                January 6, 2020

          Happy New Year! I was so glad to see my third graders’ smiling faces this morning! I hope you all enjoyed your break from routine.

          This week our story is The Cherokee: Gold and Tears. Vocabulary and spelling words are in our binders.

          In math we will learn how to square numbers; identify perfect squares; find the area of a square; simplifying with exponents of 2; writing 3 and 4 digit numbers; using base ten blocks; subtracting 3 and 4; following a recipe; setting a dial; and elapsed time. You will notice these were my plans for the week before Christmas. I guess I forgot not much is accomplished before a big holiday! Keep practicing addition facts and multiplication (0’s, 1’s, 2’s, and 7’s).

          We will finish up some science this week (force and motion) then move on to social studies.

          Report cards come home Thursday. Bailyn is providing lunch for us Friday for her birthday!

                                                 Teaching and Loving Yours,

                                                                   Miss Suzann