Teacher's note October 31, 2011

The kids looked super cute for the Literacy Parade on Friday!  It was very fun to march around the school to see other people's costumes and books. 

The Book Fair is opened this week in our library.  Our class will preview the books on Monday morning and then students can return later in the week if they have the money to make a purchase.  Thank you to the parents that volunteer their time to work at the Book Fair.

I was very pleased with the animal reports that were due on Friday.  The students seemed proud of their final copy.  I will not write on the final copy unless the student agrees they want me to edit one more time with them.  Students will receive a piece of paper with the animal report grade and teacher's comments.  I plan on displaying the reports in our class. 

Thinking about displaying, you should see our New Guinea masks that are hanging in our hall.  We had a great time learning about and then producing a New Guinea mask with an expert from the Tucson Museum of Art.

Now we are going to start working on persuasive writing.  The topic sentence should be a very clear statement about what the writer believes.  Next, should be three or four reasons why you believe that statement.  The conclusion is a call to action or restating in other words what you believe.  Our first topic is whether or not chocolate milk should be served in school cafeterias. 

This coming Friday our fiction book reports are due.  The students may select what type of book report they want to produce and then everyone will present their book to the class.  I am sure the presentations will be very interesting. 

Thursday we will complete our multiplication and division unit with the end of the unit assessment.  Please review the homework with your son or daughter this week and make sure they are understanding the concepts.  In the Spring we will have one more multiplication and division unit.  Our next math strand to cover is geometry and measurement. 

I hope we all have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,
Mrs.  Figueroa