September Newsletter

Dear Parents and Students,

Hooray, we made it through our first full week of school. Everyone is doing great and I am so excited to have such a wonderful class. Thank you for all your willingness to come in and help out in the classroom. It is going to be a great year thanks to you.

Change~Change: I am changing the homework folder to the yellow folder. I have also changed the reading calendar to a yearly calendar. I feel that this will help conserve paper and help our homework volunteers when entering the students reading scores for the Alien Book Club.

I will still send home weekly math homework, fluency reading, and comprehension worksheets. These worksheets will be sent home on Monday and are due on Friday. The students should read the fluency passage daily, and practice their high frequency words daily.

Please send the homework folder to school daily. If the students do not complete their assignments in class, they will need to finish them at home and return them the following day. If the student is unprepared the following day they will miss recess to finish their assignment.

Please record the students reading minutes on the reading calendar. Students need to read aloud 20 min each day. Please listen to your child read and help them learn unfamiliar words.

All late homework will have an automatic 3-point deduction.

Math: Over the next several weeks we will be reviewing addition and subtraction strategies. We will also review money, telling time to the nearest hour, basic geometric figures, and graphing. Please help your child master skip counting by 2, 3, 5, and 10’s.

Reading: We are currently learning the 70 phonograms and spelling rules. In the next few weeks we will be identifying specific purposes for viewing media. We are also in the process of benchmarking the students, learning center procedures and leveling the students for reading groups.

Spelling: During the first couple weeks of September I will be sending home a practice Words their Way sort. This is to help the students understand and begin learning the procedures to sorting. Please practice these sorts with your child daily. They will be tested on the spelling sort on Friday. The students will receive one point for correctly placing the word in the right exemplar and one point for correctly spelling the spelling feature. The first graded spelling test will be September 18th.

Science: Our core concept for this month is life cycles. This week we will finish up our study of the butterfly and move into studying insects. As much as I love nature, I am not fond of insects in the classroom. Please teach your child to respect insects, and remind them that they should be outside, not in the classroom.

This will be my last printed newsletter. Please look at the class blog monthly for monthly newsletters. Any important information that needs immediate attention will be sent home in your child’s homework folders. Please look at your child’s folders daily! Don’t forget to return the folders daily. Thank you again for all your support. I appreciate all that you do for our class and for your children.

Have a great month,


Mrs. Woodland