First, let me say how nice it is to look out my classroom windows and see the sun shining!! What a beautiful morning! If only it would stay that way today!

Next, I have got to tell you how impressed I am with your children. They have persevered (our new classroom mantra!) through two days of reading and writing. It is tedious and long, but they really did their best... it's not easy sitting in the same chair for close to two hours with only a drink break.

Today will be the first session of math. Monday will be our last day of math. YEAH!!!! We still have a strange schedule on Tuesday since the other grades will still be testing. If your child was absent for any of it, they will be caught up during this time.

Now, onto things NOT MSA!

Language Arts: Next week we'll beginning our Novel Unit. After each chapter or two students will have a comprehension sheet to complete. We'll be covering setting, characterization, inferring, connections, major and minor characters, plot, climax, and a whole lot more I can't think of right now. The kids will really enjoy the books I've chosen for them - great stuff!

Math: My math class will be ending unit 5 and will be reviewing to take the assessment on Thursday. We'll also be completing multiplication flash cards to practice with at home. I'll also be giving some timed fact tests next week.

Writing: We're in the middle of a persuasive letter to Mrs. Hollenbeck and Mr. Watkins asking for an extra recess. We're also still working on the writing trait, "Voice".

Word Study: Your child will get a list on Tuesday but the test won't be until the next week on Thursday. The focus will be suffixes.

Cursive: We only have two more letters to do until we start capitals. Some are already writing in cursive. We'll start out with their spelling/word study words.

PLEASE remember that Thursday is Electronics Day. Be sure to get the permission slips in. It will not be all day...probably about 45 minutes.

Thanks so much to Loretta Klein for taking on our "Sunny D" wrapper project. We just received 20 new books from Scholastic for our classroom!

Since we've finished (finally) our read aloud - Charlotte's Web - we'll be watching that this afternoon. It'll be a nice break after this rough week!

Thanks to all of you who got your children to bed early and fed them a good breakfast - it really paid off!

Have a great weekend!
Faith Humerick