Mrs. Herman

September 6, 2009

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend! This week I will be sending home a letter in the students' weekly folders about my new webpage. This will be the last post on this BLOG. The letter I am sending home will explain everything. Please make sure to read it and check my webpage each weekend just like you have done with this BLOG. I hope you like the changes!

An important letter was sent home last Friday in your child's weekly folder regarding the President speaking on Tuesday. Please make sure to read it, and if you don't want your child viewing the speech please make sure to sign and return the form on Tuesday. Thank you!

This week starts CoGAT and ITBS Testing. The CoGAT testing is on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. ITBS will be every day the following week. Please make sure the children get a good night sleep and have a healthy breakfast. Also, please send in a healthy snack each day for your child. Thanks!

There will be NO homework during testing days. I know the children will be so upset about this! :)

Upcoming Week:

We will not have a library time as a class this week, but the children will be allowed to go and check out books through out the week. We will visit the Science Lab on Tuesday. Also, please remember the children have their Three Levels of Government quiz on Tuesday!

Math: We will learn about subtraction with regrouping this week, as well as counting back change using the least amount of coins.

Reading: We will continue working on main idea and details this week. The children will get their first book report assignment this week. We did not get a chance to go through this last week. They will have almost 4 weeks to complete this.

English: We will learn about compound predicates, as well as review compound subjects.

Spelling: We will work on our Sort 4 words this week.

Writing: We have just finished revising our descriptive paragraphs and will learn the editing process this week. We will edit our descriptive paragraphs and then write our final drafts. We will also continue learning our cursive letters.

Science: We will begin learning about the three types of rocks; sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. We will then make rocks out of sand, gravel and glue.

Social Studies:We have our quiz on Tuesday for the Three Levels of Government. We will also finish comparing and contrasting the United States Democracy and Greece's Democracy. We will also continue to learn about the three branches of government. The children will get a study guide for our Government Test the week of September 14th. The test will be the following week.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Jennifer

August 31, 2009

Dear Parents,

I forgot to mention in my BLOG over the weekend that I will be giving the children their spelling words for the week to take home every Monday. I will choose 12 of those words for a quiz on Friday. Please have them study all of the words through out the week. Thank you!

Jennifer

August 29, 2009

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful seeing everyone at Open House on Thursday. I hope you felt it was informative, and I hope I was able to answer all of your questions. Please remember you can always email me or call me if you have any questions about anything!

We had a great week last week! The children were so busy preparing for Open House. They did a great job on their people. I hope everyone liked the surprise!

Please remember to sign the last page of the Student Handbook once you have read it and return the form back to school. Thanks!

Upcoming Week:

We have another busy week ahead of us. We have a lesson at the Media Center on Monday. Please remind the children to bring their library books if they want to check out new ones! We will also be going to the computer lab on Wednesday.

Reading: We will continue with our guided reading groups. We will be focusing on learning about the main idea and supporting details in reading. We will read books about Rocks and Minerals to integrate our new Science unit. We will also continue with our shared reading this week as well. The children will get their first AR goal for the month of September. They will also get their first book report towards the end of the week.

Math: We will continue with our Guided Math groups and centers. Our skills for this week are addition with regrouping and money. We will also continue to review the value and place value of numbers.

Spelling: We will start our third word sort and will review words witht the CVC (consonant vowel consonant) pattern.

English: This week we will learn about compound subjects, as well as continue to review complete and simple subjects and predicates.

Writing Workshop: We are currently writing descriptive paragraphs about our favorite places. We will finish writing our first drafts, and then work through the revising process and editing process before we rewrite our final drafts on Friday. We will also have a mini lesson on organization, so we can learn how to organize all of our sentences in our paragraphs.

Handwriting: We have started cursive! The children are doing an excellent job so far. We will continue learning new letters this week.

Social Studies: We are continuing to learn about our democracy. We have also been learning about the three levels of government (local, state and national),  and who makes up each level. This week we will learn about our national government and will learn the three branches of government. The children will be creating trees with each branch on the tree being a different branch of government.

It is sure to be another busy week!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Jennifer

August 24, 2009

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and this beautiful weather! We had a great second week of school. The children are all adjusting nicely to third grade.

Please make sure to send in your child's hanger and tee-shirt for our Open House surprise if you have not already done so. Thank you for your help! :)

Last week I had mentioned on my BLOG to check your child's weekly journal for more information about these journals. I apologize I did not have a chance to get the information sheet into them. They will be taped in them on Monday, so please read the front inside cover of their journal next weekend. Thank you!

Upcoming Week:

We will have our first guidance lesson with Mrs. Edwards on Monday. We will also be going to the Media Center on Monday. On Tuesday we will have our first Science experiment in the Science Lab. We will go to the Computer Lab on Wednesday.

Reading: We will begin our guided reading groups this week. We will also continue with our shared reading lessons as well. THe children all have their AR levels and can now start checking out their AR books!

Math: We will continue learning about place value in our guided math groups. We will focus on numbers to the ten thousands place.

English: We will learn about simple and complete predicates this week, as well as review simple and complete subjects. These are two hard concepts!

Writing: We will type our color poems on the laptops this week. The children have done an excellent job in creating their color poems. We will also begin learning how to write descriptive paragraphs. The children will begin to write their own descriptive paragraph at the end of the week.

Spelling: We will continue to work out of our Words Their Way book, as well as completing other various spelling activities.

Science: We will continue to learn about the Scientific Method and will do an experiment using this process in the lab on Tuesday.  The children will have a Scientific Method Quiz on Friday. We will begin our Rocks and Minerals unit on Monday of the following week.

Social Studies: We will continue to learn about our democracy. We will also begin learning about the three branches of government towards the end of the week.

Handwriting: We will begin our first cursive letter on Tuesday! The children are very excited to start learning cursive.

We will have another busy, but fun week ahead of us!

I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday evening for Open House!

Have a great week!

Jennifer

August 16, 2009

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

We had a great first week! I have really been enjoying getting to know all of the children this week. We have a great class!

Please remember to return the green "My Child as a Learner" forms if you have not already done so. Thank you! Also, please remember to return the form from the Cobb County folder that was sent home on Monday.

The blue weekly folders were also sent home on Friday. In my letter that was sent home in the Meet and Greet packet I had mentioned that weekly folders would be sent home on Mondays. I have decided to send them home on Fridays. Sorry for the change. I just think that will work best this year. So, the folders will come home on Fridays from now on. Please look over and take out your child's work from the week. Then sign the pink sheet inside the folder and have your child return the folder every Monday. Thank you!

The children also brought home their first Weekly journal on Friday. I ask that you write back to your child each weekend. The children really look forward to reading your entries each week. Thanks for your help with this! Check the inside front cover of your child's writing journal next Friday when he/she brings it home. There will be more information in explaining the journals!

Upcoming Week:

We will visit the Media Center on Monday to have our orientation. Once we have that the children will be able to start checking out books. On Wednesday we will go to the Computer Lab to take the STAR test. The children will get their new AR (Accelerated Reading) levels after taking STAR.

Reading: We have been learning about different reading strategies during our Shared Reading time and will continue to do so this week. I will also be meeting with the children individually through out the week to do a reading assessment. We will start Guided Reading Groups the following week.

Math: We will start our Guided Math groups this week. Our first unit will be Place Value.

Writing: We will be learning how to write descriptive paragraphs this week and will focus on prewriting and drafting. We will also discuss our Six Traits of writing. We will continue with our handwriting lessons. We have a review of all of the letters in print and then will start cursive! :)

English: We will be learning about simple and complete subjects this week.

Spelling: We will complete our first word sort in our new Words Their Way Spelling program.

Science: We will begin learning about the Scientific Method this week.

Social Studies: We will begin our unit on Modern Democracy in the United States.

Wow! What a busy and fun week we have ahead of us!

Have a wonderful week!

Jennifer

August 10, 2009

Dear Parents,

It was wonderful seeing all of you at Meet and Greet last week!

I hope everyone had a great first day today! I thought the day went very well. I really enjoyed getting to know all of the children. I am very excited for our year together! Thank you for sharing your children with me this year!

Please remember to check the supply list in the green folder I sent home at Meet and Greet. Also, please send back the green "My Child as a Learner" sheet as soon as you can. Thanks so much!

Please remember to check this BLOG once a week as I will post weekly updates of what we will be learning! Entries will usually be posted on Sundays for the upcoming week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Jennifer