To volunteer to pick up pizza or donate some juice boxes: Click here Thank you so much!

On Friday, November 22, we will be reading a Thanksgiving book called “Turkey Trouble” and enjoying a slice of pizza from Little Caesars Pizza (which goes along with the storyline of the book). For students to have permission and to choose between pepperoni or cheese pizza, please fill out the following: Pizza Permission Form

Thank you so much!

We had such a fun ice cream party on Friday! I’m so proud of our class for how far they’ve come in learning their letter names and sounds! They’ve worked hard at school and I can’t thank you enough for the hard work you’ve put in at home to help them!

Beginning of the Year Class Statistics:
Uppercase: 61%
Lowercase: 50%
Sounds:37%

Current Class Statistics:
Uppercase: 96%
Lowercase: 96%
Sounds: 96%
95% of the class passed all three with 100% accuracy! That’s an amazing feat in 2 months! Also, there were a few students who were working on fluency of the letter names and sounds and all of them reached their goal as well!

Moving forward, the focus for the whole class will now be fluency of the letters. The middle of year goal is a whopping 55 letters named in 1 minute (fascinatingly, it drops to 51/min. by the end of the year). The assessment looks a lot like this worksheet and we will include a page like this each week in their “Practice at Home” packet. Even though the formal assessment is letter names only, please continue to practice the sounds with them! Short increments of practice, with daily consistency, will help keep the progress they made. Thank you again for your amazing support at home!

Upcoming Events:

• Friday, November 15: Special Fundraiser Dress Down Day benefitting a Quest Family dealing with cancer. (This one isn’t included if you prepaid for dress down days)
• Friday, November 22: $1 Dress Down Day
• Friday, November 22: Yearbook Cover Design contest submission due date
• Monday-Friday, November 25-29: Thanksgiving Break- NO SCHOOL

*Elementary Yearbooks on sale now click HERE. (Elementary – Yearbook ID: 15110625)

*Scholastic Book Order: Books make great gifts! Order by Monday, December 2 for delivery before winter break. Feel free to share this link and our class code with grandparents, family and friends. Click here for easy online ordering: Scholastic Reading Club (our class code is Y8WGR). Online ordering is fast and easy and allows you to shop all the books, not just the select books in the current flyer.  You can also try Scholastic’s “Book Finder” for ideas on books for your child.

Here’s a quick overview of new things we learned this week:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Visualize” and “Characters” . We read a fantasy and a fable to go along with our theme “What rules do we follow in different places?”

New High Frequency Word: “to”

Phonics: blending words with the letters: Mm, Aa, Ss, Pp, Tt, Ii. New sound/spelling: Ii

Vocabulary: rules, cooperate, guard, responsible, prank

Math: Lesson 10 “Add and Subtract within 5”

Science: This week, your child learned that before we had machines, we had to do lots of work by hand. We talked about how machines are not magical; rather they just seem that way because there are often moving parts hidden inside.

You can encourage your child’s curiosity by asking them to go on a “machine walk” around the house: invite your child to identify machines around your home. Anything which has a motor inside of it is a good candidate (examples include things like a washing machine or dryer, a dishwasher, a hair dryer, an electric toothbrush, a car). You can raise questions like “Interesting! What kind of work by hand would we have to do, if we didn’t have this machine?” and “Hmm… how do you think the parts of this machine work?”

(You may either print this flier or pick one up in the office)

We are now beginning Unit 3 in Language Arts. Below are the power words, oral vocabulary words, letters, and sounds we will be mastering during the next 3 weeks. We will continue working on syllables, rhyming, identifying the beginning and ending sounds of words, and blending sounds to read words. We have learned most of our sound wall sounds and use our sound wall to help us spell and read words.

Books make great gifts! Order by Monday, December 2 for delivery before winter break. Feel free to share this link and our class code with grandparents, family and friends. Click here for easy online ordering: Scholastic Reading Club (our class code is Y8WGR)

Online ordering is fast and easy and allows you to shop all the books, not just the select books in the current flyer.  You can also try Scholastic’s “Book Finder” for ideas on books for your child.

• Friday, November 8: Ice Cream Party! (If anyone is willing to be extra hands for our party, please email me. Thank you!)
• Friday, November 15: $1 Dress Down Day benefitting a Quest Family dealing with cancer. (This one isn’t included if you prepaid for dress down days, so everyone needs to bring $1 if they want to dress down)
• Monday-Friday, November 25-29: Thanksgiving Break- NO SCHOOL

THANK YOU to the many family and friends who came and cheered us on during our Halloween Parade. And a special shout out to all our fabulous parent volunteers! Thank you for sharing your time with us and helping us have fun! And we really appreciate all the contributions for class parties and treasure chest donations!

Pictures have been uploaded to our class photo album and individual student albums. Enjoy 😉

*Quick note: Due to it being a short week and Halloween, several students were unable to reach their Lexia Unit goals (varies with each student) or pass off enough lessons in iReady Math (2-3 lessons/week). It would be beneficial if they’re able to spend a few minutes this weekend working on them. Please email me if you have any questions. Thank you!

**Watch for Wonders Unit 2 to come home today in your child’s backpack. This workbook contains stories we have practiced reading in class. We invite you to have your child read these stories to you at home. In addition, talk with your child about the work they have completed throughout this unit.**

Happy Halloween! We are having our annual Halloween parade on Thursday, October 31. Because the parade will start at 9:00am, we ask that students come to school already dressed in their costumes.

For those who would like to watch the parade, please plan on bringing camping chairs or blankets. You are welcome to set them up along the outside of either building (see map below—the yellow dots indicate where families can sit).

Costume guidelines:

Costumes should be modest and without blood or gore. Students are welcome to paint their faces and wear Halloween masks, but masks will only be worn when directed to do so by the classroom teacher (e.g. during the parade, when a class picture is taken, etc). No one should enter the school wearing a mask. Weapons and anything that depicts violence are not allowed on school property (knives, guns, swords, spears, scythes, etc.). If you have questions about costume accessories, please contact us. Just to reiterate, no blood or gore is allowed, either depicted on the costume or in makeup. Thanks!

Quest Administration

Upcoming Events:

• Saturday, October 26: Quest Academy’s Fun Run: Trick or Treat Trot
• October 28-31: Red Ribbon Week
  *Mon: Hat Day
  *Tues: Wild Socks Day
  *Wed: Pajama Day
  *Thurs: Halloween Costumes
• Wednesday, October 30: Body Safety and Abuse Prevention Presentation (permission form required)
• Thursday, October 31: Halloween Parade (9:00) & Class Party (treat permission)
• Friday, November 1: No School
• Friday, November 8: Ice Cream Party (Keep up the great work practicing letter names and sounds!)

Elementary Yearbooks on sale now click HERE. (Elementary – Yearbook ID: 15110625). Our class will participate on yearbook signing day, generally the day before the last day of school.

Here’s a quick overview of new things we learned this week:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Ask and Answer Questions” and “Rhyming”. We read a fantasy and informational texts to go along with our theme “What kinds of bugs do you know about?”

Review High Frequency Words: “like”, “see”, “we”, “I”, “can”, “the”, “a”

Phonics (Review): Sound, Spelling and blending words with the letters: Mm, Aa, Ss, Pp, Tt.

Vocabulary: observe, curious, process, slender, attached.

Math: Lesson 9 “Subtract Within 5”

Science: This week our class learned to be Weather Watchers. That means we are paying attention to the sky and the clouds. We are noticing the temperature and the wind. We are watching for rain or snow. We drew a picture of the weather to record what it was like.
You can encourage your child’s curiosity about the weather by becoming a weather watcher yourself! Anytime there are interesting clouds, a change in the wind, or a storm on the way, invite your child to spend some time watching the weather with you!