Fall is in the air and we are definitely feeling the change of seasons. This month our schedule is full of events (Family Dance, Picture Day, No School Days). Please read the list below to see details and schedules.

It is time for the annual parent survey. We use this data to continue to grow our school to be the best it can be for your child. We will have computers set up in the hallway for you to complete the survey.

Enjoy the fall season!

Mrs. Bentley

Fall Break November 21st-25th

Picture Retakes November 29th

Music Concert December 15th

Wow, the first month and a half of school has flown by! We have just started learning our letter sounds and how to blend sounds together to make words. We are learning new sounds at a rapid pace and ask that you help practice these at home with your student by doing the homework that we send home. In math, we are starting our 3rd unit which involves numbers 6-10, measurement and weight. You can help support your student at home by asking which object is heavier or lighter, shorter or longer. Continue to practice counting 1-30, write and identify numbers 1-10.

Also reminder that parent teacher conference week is coming up Oct 11,12 and 14. And we should be getting a final date set for our class field trip to the pumpkin patch so watch for more information coming home about it!

Reading - We are diving into Unit 2 and starting to learn our long vowels. Keep practicing tricky words and reading at home. We are also wrapping up our unit about the human body, which the students have really enjoyed. Next we are reading and comparing fairy tales from all around the world.

Math - We have reviewed addition and learned how to tell time to the hour. Ask your child to read clocks at home! They did an amazing job! Next, we are digging in to place value (tens and ones) and building our knowledge about numbers. Practice counting by tens and ones all the way to 100.

Science - We are still working on animal and plant defenses. The next step is learning about how animal and plant offspring are similar or different from their parents.

News - We had our field trip last month, and your students had so much fun learning about the farm and what life was like in the past. They were a great group and did a great job at the museum and on the bus ride. Ask them all about it if they haven't already shared their favorite parts.

Second Grade is fully in the swing of things! We will be wrapping up our unit on Ancient Asian Civilizations and moving on to Ancient Greek Civilizations. Students will be learning more vowel sounds and spellings this month. Be on the lookout for new spelling words and practice these at home. In math, we will be working with three-digit numbers and continuing to develop fluency. Our unit on Plants and Animals will wrap up this month with our benchmark assessment taken at the end of the month. We look forward to seeing you at Parent Teacher Conferences!

3rd Grade Reminders

Each night your student will be coming home with flashcards to practice their math facts. They already have their flashcards for multiplying by 5's and 10's. They will also need to practice their spelling words each night and reading each night.

Math:

We just finished up our unit on adding, telling time, elapsed time, and quadrilaterals. Next we will be working on multiplication again and understanding place value. Your student will be bringing home new flashcards to practice as well.

Reading:

We are finishing up learning about animal classification and reading non-fiction text. They have learned about the author's purpose, text features, main idea, and key details. Our spelling words have been focused on learning the rules for adding "-ed" and "-ing" to root words. Our next unit students will be learning about the human body.

Science:

The kids will be finishing up learning about forces in a chain reaction. They are understanding how gravity plays a part in a chain reaction and also the difference between touching and non-touching forces. Ask your student how the moon's gravitational pull affects our oceans on earth. Our next unit the kids will learn about how offspring inherit their traits from their parents.

Reading: Fourth grade continues to study the Middle Ages. We continue to learn what life was like for lords, knights, surfs and craftsmen. Students are also writing opinion essays explaining which social class they would like to belong to and backing it up with text evidence. Students will also start having spelling tests occasionally. Students will write those words in their planners. Encourage your student to read 20 minutes each night.

Math: Students will continue to work on rounding numbers, find area and perimeter of rectangles and squares, and review subtraction and common fractions. Continue to work on multiplication fluency. Our goal for our fourth graders is 80 problems correct out of 100 problems in 3 minutes.

Science: We continue to learn about energy systems and how energy sources help us create energy.

Social Studies: Students will learn about prehistoric Nebraska and the Early Ages.

In CKLA we are wrapping up our Early American Civilizations where we have been learning about the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. We are putting together a Codex of our learning comparing different parts of the civilizations. Thanks for the support on homework that has come home. Spelling tests have begun! Please allow 10-15 minutes per night on spelling practice. We are really focusing on "syllable spelling", where the student doesn't overwhelm themselves with the whole word, but instead spells it using the syllables within the word. This is going well so far.

In Math we have begun our unit on decimal fractions. We will have our first benchmark assessment towards the end of the month on Units 1-3. We are continuing to do bi-weekly multiplication fluency skills. Be sure your child spends 10 minutes practicing their facts to help them continue to grow.

In Science we are wrapping up our Patterns of Earth and Sky unit and will assess in the next couple of weeks. We will then begin our new unit on Modeling Matter.

I'm looking forward to parent teacher conferences and sharing all the awesome things your child is doing and goals I have for them in fifth grade.

One of our house names is Altruismo, which stands for giving. We will be doing the Altruismo Challenge first to start off our year. For this challenge, we are doing a canned food drive. Houses will compete to see which house can donate the most canned food items. All donated food will go to Hope Harbor. Starting October 10th please bring canned or boxed food to the front hallway where each house will have a box to place donated items inside.