Monica Wright

Newsletter October 28th

I have really enjoyed talking to all of you this week at conferences.  I love bragging on your children.  They are all working very hard, and growing and learning! 

In science we’ve had a fun week talking about nocturnal animals.  We also began talking about gravity this week.  Ask your child about it!  Next week’s science theme will be day and night.  We will talk about what the sky looks like during both times of the day.  We will learn about sunrise and sunset. 

Monday will start a two week unit on shapes.  We will learn about plane and solid figures.  We will also learn how to put shapes together to make things.  Shapes are all around us!  We will continue to review writing numbers 0-10, and write up to 20 for those that are ready! 

When you are reading books with your child ask them to point out a letter, word, and sentence.  We are working on this in the classroom.  When your child is practicing their writing be sure to have them write in all lowercase letters except for the first word of a sentence and “important words,” like the names of people or places. 

Just a reminder; children are not allowed to wear costumes on Monday.  Although many children will be excited about Halloween, not all children participate in Halloween activities.  We will not celebrate Halloween in school. 

Winston: Lorelai                       Letter of the week: Cc

Secret Sack: Sydney               Word of the Week: come

Star Student: Titomi

Reminders:

1.   Fri., Oct. 28^th - Spooky Bingo  6:30 pm

2.   Reminder no costumes on Mon., Oct. 31^st.

3.   Mon., Oct. 31^st – October Box Tops and Labels Due

4.   Tues., Nov. 1^st – October Reading Logs Due

5.   Wed., Nov. 2^nd – Coupon books and orders due.  If you do not want to purchase the coupon book it needs to be returned.  The books can be purchased for $20. Thanks.

6.   Nov. 7^th – 11^th – Baker PTSA Annual Food Drive

7.   Tues., Nov. 8th – Student Holiday - No School

8.   Wed., Nov. 9^th – Friends and Family Lunch  Come join our class for a Thanksgiving lunch!  As soon as I receive our class’ lunch time I will let you know!

9.   Nov. 21st – Nov. 25th – Thanksgiving Break  No school

10.  Reminders for Secret Sack – Over the weekend look for things around the house that start with the letter of the week.  On Monday I will send home the sack to be filled and brought back to school on Tuesday.

11. We will keep the children’s towels here for next week.  We did not have rest time this week – no time for it with early release!

Newsletter October 21st

We’ve had a fun week in science learning about how things move.  Thanks for sending in the toys for us to put in motion!  We will finish up learning about motion next week and begin talking about gravity.  We will also talk about nocturnal animals. 

 In math we continue to create, extend, and transfer patterns, as well as find the missing element of a pattern.  Please practice with money (coins) at home.  Identifying money and trading pennies for nickels and dimes is a difficult concept for 5 and 6 year olds.  Sort money.   Count pennies.  To help learn to trade pennies for nickels we play a “bank” game in the classroom.  One child is the “banker,” the other students are the players.  The players and banker take turns rolling the die and collecting the number of pennies that correspond to the amount on the die.  When the player gets to 5 pennies they can “go to the bank” and trade their 5 pennies for a nickel.  Players are trying to win as many nickels as they can.  We also have been earning pennies in the classroom to trade for nickels to go to the vending machine.  Next week we will introduce the bank game trading for dimes, and also trade pennies for dimes to go to the vending machine. 

We are working on writing phonetically spelled sentences.  Please give your child opportunities to write at home.  The more they write the better writers they will become.  Allow them to use their inventive spelling, and help them listen to the letter sounds they hear in words and write down those letters.  We write every day in the classroom, and I am seeing some great progress!

The children are now working towards learning 20 sight words for the next marking period.  If they learn their sight words it will not only improve their reading fluency but their writing, too!  When you read let your child be a “word detective” and pick out the sight words.  Make a memory game out of the sight words.  Play sight word go fish!  

We had a visit from our 5^th grade book buddies this week.  We read to them, they read to us, and we played games to help with letter sounds, rhyming, and blending sounds.  This is a highlight for both classes.   The kids love to spend time together, and I love to watch them enjoy a good book with their buddies! 

Winston: Armani                Letter of the week: Nn

Secret Sack: Devin             Word of the Week: not

Star Student: none

Reminders:

 1.   Mon., Oct 24^th – Fri., Oct. 28th – Conference Week  Students dismissed at 12:20.   Report Cards will be handed out at conferences.

2.   Change in lunch time for next week due to early release.  Our lunch will be from 10:52-11:22 at table 6.

3.   Mon. Oct 24^th – Fri., Oct. 28^th – Red Ribbon Week  (Drug awareness)

Monday – Wear crazy socks

Tuesday – Wear favorite team shirt.

Wednesday – Dress as your dream career.

Thursday – Wear sweats to school.

Friday – Wear sunglasses and/or Baker spirit shirt.

4.   Thurs., Oct 27^th – Picture Retake Day   Please send in the old pictures if you would like the pictures retaken.  If your child was absent on picture day you can download the picture form from our bookkeeper’s link on the Baker website.  Click on “staff,” “support staff” and download the form.  Money is due Oct. 27^th, the day of pictures.

5.   Fri., Oct. 28^th – Spooky Bingo at 6:30 pm.

6.   Remember letter of the week homework every weekend is to cut out pictures that begin with our letter of the week.  If your child does not have a plastic baggie that is coming home please just clip the pictures to the inside of the folder or use your own baggie labeled with your child’s name.  Thanks.

7.   PTSA sent home a fundraiser coupon book last week.  Books can be purchased for $20.  If you do not wish to participate in the fundraiser please just send back the coupon book and small bag. Thanks.

8.   Be sure to read every night with your child.  Log the books you read together on your child’s reading log.  20 books read in a month earns your child a free pizza from Pizza Hut!  October Logs due Nov. 1^st.

9.   PTSA is hosting a Holiday Food Drive.  Flyers went home this week about it.

10. Wed., Nov. 9^th – Friends and Family Lunch  Come join our class for a Thanksgiving lunch!  As soon as I receive our class’ lunch time I will let you know!

11. You may have noticed all the papers with the small pin pricks on them (pumpkins, apples).  These activities are to strengthen fine motor hand muscles, to help with our pencil grip and neat handwriting!  The kids love them!

 I look forward to meeting with all of you during conference week!

Newsletter October 14th

Thank you all so much for the donations for apple tasting day. Thank you to Mrs. Clark, Lorelai’s mom, and Ms. Johnson, Maggie’s mom, for helping out today! We had fun trying applesauce, apples, apple chips and apple juice. We picked our favorite apple thing and made a class graph. We made Johnny Appleseed pattern hats and fall picture frames, too. The kids had a great time!

Next week in science we will begin talking about motion. We will sort objects by how they move (straight, zig zag, fast, slow,etc.). Please have your child bring in a toy (the size that fits in their backpack) on Wednesday. We will use these toys to discuss motion. Also, in science we will be investigating pumpkins!

In language arts we will start learning about syllables. In reading we have been talking about three things that great readers do… Great readers use the letter sounds, popcorn words, and pictures to help them read. Remind the kids about these things when they are reading to you at home. You may have noticed that the phonics homework for the phonics notebook has both words to sound out and sentences to read. Please help your child practice their reading by using the phonics notebook at home - it really makes a difference in your child’s reading development!

In math we will continue to review money, and introduce the dime. We will also be working with patterns again. We will create, extend, and transfer patterns. We will find the missing element in a pattern. Make a pattern with your child, remove one of the elements and see if they can figure out what is missing. Make learning a game and the kids will love it!

Thank you to our last three Mystery Readers Ms. Coryell, Jenna’s Mom, Mr. Coryell, Jenna’s dad, and Mrs. Bell, Jordan’s Mom for reading to the class! Winston: Orrin Secret Sack: Armani Star Student: Trevor Letter of the Week: Dd Word of the Week: down

Reminders:

1. Oct. 13th – Nov. 2nd - Fall PTSA Fundraiser. Coupon books for sale. Baker PTSA receives $10 for every $20 book sold.

2. Fri., Oct. 14th - Davis Elementary is hosting an International Festival. Information on the Baker website

3. Wed., Oct. 19th – Bring in a toy from home, it must fit in your backpack.

4. Fri., Oct. 21st - Square One Art orders due back.

5. Mon., Oct 24th – Fri., Oct. 28th – Conference Week Early Release Students dismissed at 12:20. Students will take their regular transportation home unless I receive a note telling me otherwise.

6. Report Cards will be given out at conference.

7. Tues., Oct. 25th – Chick-fil-A Baker Spirit Night at Acworth Hwy 41 Chick-Fil-A 5:30-7:30 pm Baker receives 15% of sales.

8. Fri., Oct. 28th – Spooky Bingo 6:30 pm

9. Tues., Nov. 8th – Student Holiday No school for students.

10. You may view the cafeteria blog at http://baker.typepad.com/cafe Weekly menus are posted, as well as nutrition facts and items of interest.

Newsletter October 7th

We have been so busy in school.  I am really excited about all the wonderful things your children have learned so far!  They are very proud of themselves as well.  It really is priceless to see how happy they are when they sound out words and read or write a sentence.  We only have one more week left in this marking period.  We will be doing a lot of reviewing and assessing next week. 

In math we will review counting and labeling sets 0-10, ordinal numbers 1^st- 10^th, penny and nickel identification, and trading pennies for nickels.  Please practice identifying nickels and pennies, as well as trading pennies for nickels.  This is difficult.  I am sending home letter and number writing practice. 

In language arts we will continue to work with letter identification and sounds as we blend sounds together to make/read words.  We also will work with our popcorn words.  The children need to know 10 words for our report card.  This does take extra practice at home.  Flashcards work best for learning the words, make sure you mix up the word order. 

Science (animals and their similarities and differences/matching baby animals with their parents) and social studies (Labor Day/the pledge/U.S. and GA flags) will be reviewed and assessed for the report card.

Our theme next week will be apples and Christopher Columbus.  Thank you all for volunteering to donate the items for our Apple Tasting Day.  Please send in all donations by Wed., Oct. 12^th. 

Progress reports are going home today.  Please look them over, sign and return to me.  Review necessary skills for final report card assessments.

 Winston: Trevor              

Secret Sack: Titomi          

Star Student:  Logan        

Letter of the Week; Aa

Word of the Week(s): are, and, at

Color of the Week: black

 

 Reminders:

1.   Mon., Oct. 10^th – Fri., Oct. 14^th – Jump Rope for Heart in P.E.  Please turn in all donations collected.  Info from Mr. Cool:  You can fundraise/donate online at www.heart.org/jump.  The school’s goal is $7,500.  If met Mr. Cool dresses like Hannah Montana!  The class that collects largest donations receives Big Pie in the Sky pizza party.  Class with most students participating gets a popsicle party.  Individuals receive thank you gifts depending on donations raised.

2.   Wed., Oct.12^th – Apple Tasting items due to the classroom.  Thank you so much for donating the items.  I really appreciate your help! 

3.   Thurs., Oct. 7^th – Media Center

4.   Mon., Oct. 24^th – Fri., Oct.28th – Conference Week/Early Release 12:20 Dismissal  Conference dates and times went home this week.  Please be sure to return the form to let me know if you are able to attend.   

5.   Please be sure to label your child’s jacket.