January News!

Homework

Reading—Please continue to provide at least 20 minutes of quiet time for afternoon or nighttime reading. This is a very important piece of the homework puzzle. The more we read, the better we read! Reading can be done anywhere in the home but many children find it relaxing to read before bedtime. Reading does not have to be restricted to fiction but can and should also include non-fiction (biographies, books about history, animals, etc.), newspapers and kid-friendly magazines. National Geographic for Kids and Sports Illustrated for Kids are well-written and popular choices. Remember, families do not need to spend any money to participate in this homework assignment. Trips to the local library, school library, and (shortest of all!) the classroom library will yield a wide variety of genre and should more than adequately provide for this nightly assignment. The new home reading log is a quick way for me to see what the children are reading when they are not in school.

DOL—I am finding that the children are making many mistakes with this quick homework assignment. (Perhaps working too quickly?) Simple misspellings, capitalization, and punctuation errors are showing up far too often. I would appreciate your help as grammar is such an invaluable aid to good writing. To that end, please take a minute to review the DOL assignment each Thursday evening. We will be continuing with DOL through the end of February and the sentences do continue to gain in complexity. Thank you!

MATH FACTS—Just a few minutes each week helps aid and increase math fact retention. The fifth graders are discovering that quick recall of math facts makes all the difference in two and three digit multiplication plus long division (our next topic of study). 3^rd and 4^th graders are finding out how math fact recall can assist when adding and subtracting fractions (Especially when the 4^th graders have to find a common denominator!) Knowing our math facts also helps us when reducing fractions!

AND THE REST OF THE HOMEWORK…I am exciting about working with the children to create fun book reports! We are covering several reading strategies this week (most are review) and will continue to review these next week, too. The children will receive more information next week about creating their first report. Math worksheets that come home (usually twice per week) continue to be mostly review of past work to aid in long-term retention of the concept.

Other information

The children updated their WO Zone calendars with all the school and class activities coming up this January. Items of interest may include the Winter Festival—which is scheduled to take place the week of January 26^th. More information should be given to the teachers within the next 7-10 days about activities scheduled for this fun week!

Everyone continues to be excited about the class book, 101 Ways to Bug Your Children! We continue to hear tidbits about parent's reactions, when a tip was used, and other family impressions. We have been honored at this blog with a visit from Lee Wardlaw, the author of 101 to Bug Your Parents! Not only is she a talented writer, she is also a fan of the Montessori teaching method. We recently decided to send Ms. Wardlaw an autographed copy of 101 Ways to Bug Your Children. It should be ready to go out in a few days!

The children will be writing Haiku poetry this month. Look for these to begin appearing on lockers by the end of next week.

Finally…ask your son or daughter about their matter investigation; what will they be studying? How will they go about preparing their investigation? What materials will they be using? We are currently in the brainstorming stage but will soon be writing a hypothesis (next week) and begin a science investigation into…matter!