Mrs. Shute
Mrs. Shute
Welcome to our Class Web Page!
I hope you and your families had a wonderful holiday and will enjoy a happy 2009. Thank you for all my beautiful Christmas gifts and cards. They were greatly appreciated!
A special thank you to all the parents who helped make our Christmas party a special celebration for the class.
Thank you also to Mrs. Patterson and Mrs. Harnack who came in to visit and present a fun winter craft.
Finally, thank you for your generous participation in our "Christmas Angel" project. The students happily gift wrapped the presents and learned valuable lessons on the true spirit of Christmas as they spread Christmas cheer and helped brighten another child's holiday.
The following is an overview for the month of January:
In Language Arts our first unit is entitled "Be Creative." The next several weeks students will read stories about how characters express themselves in creative ways.
In Grammar, students will identify and write action verbs, present-tense verbs, past-tense verbs, and sentence combining with verbs. Also, students will practice summarizing stories, making inferences, identifying story elements, and the main idea of a selection.
Students have started a writing portfolio which will used to collect their best writing pieces throughout the second marking period and will be used as a tool to provide on going assessment of students' writing/grammar skills. For the remainder of the year, less time will be spent on workbook pages, which will allow more time to focus on improving students' writing skills so they become more effective and creative communicators. Students are excited to explore writing as they gain more freedom and responsiblity in the classroom.
Get your child hooked on reading:
Students will continue to participate in reader's workshops throughout the year as they develop their reading fluency, their reading comprehension skills, and develop a deeper appreciation for books. Reading comprehension is the most important academic skill your child may develop -- help get your child excited about reading! (Look for the Scholastic Book Order to be sent home each month.)
There will be a weekly Reading, Grammar, and Spelling test given every Friday, unless otherwise notified. The last five pages of students' Grammar workbooks may be reviewed to reinforce the skills that will be on Fridays' tests. Also, it would be helpful if you read the story of the week with your child while asking story comprehension questions to check for understanding.
In Math, we are finishing Chapter 5 -- the study of 0-5 times tables and are about to begin Chapter 6 -- the study of 6-12 times tables. The next several weeks students will continue to memorize multiplication facts 0-12 as they work toward earning an ice cream party for their efforts. It is important that your child memorizes his/her facts and is able to recall them quickly and accurately, as times tables are a skill they will utilize in every other math class in upcoming years, as well as being useful in every day life. You may help your child be successful by reviewing flash cards in the evenings and by playing various multiplication games. Multiplication.com and aplusmath.com are useful and fun web sites to reinforce skills. Please look for math homework to be sent home Monday - Wednesday ... and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!
In Social Studies, students are currently studying communities and the characteristics of a community. They are also studying ways to improve their community.
Handwriting -- students are excited to learn the strokes of lower case cursive letters as we practice cursive handwriting throughout the year.
Teamwork between parent, child, and teacher is a very important component to your child's success. Please check your child's assignment book each night for homework and upcoming tests/assignments. The assignment book is also an excellent and convenient source of parent/teacher communication.
Please look for our class newsletter which is sent home the first week of each month. Congratulations to December's Students of the Month -- Brianna and Allison. Keep up the outstanding work!! Please look out for our class newsletter which goes home the first week of every month -- you may read about the Students of the Month in each newsletter.
As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you!
Mrs. Shute :)
January 5 School reopens January 19 No School Martin Luther King Day
Email: sshute
