Phases of the Moon with Oreo Cookies! Yum, Yum!

Can you identify the eight phases of the moon?

Moskauski Minutes

Happy Second Quarter!  Wow, the first quarter really flew by!  We ended the first quarter with a bang.  Thank you parents for all of the wonderful donations for our fall celebration.  Our class is truly blessed with such a generous bunch of families!  Thank you all for your support and kindness that you continuously show to our class family.

 

Second Quarter Goals: The children worked today on writing goals that they would like to set for themselves for second quarter.  Ask your child what goals they made and what the steps are that they can do to meet their goals.  To quote one of my daughter's favorite songs from "The Fresh Beat Band", remind your child: "You can do anything you put your mind to"!!

 

Curriculum Notes: We will begin second quarter science on the unit "Objects in the Sky".  In this unit we will be studying the moon, sun and stars.  We will be continuing learning strategies for multiplication and division in math. 

 

In reading we will be beginning book clubs.  We will learn how to conduct book clubs and spend time reviewing the procedures for being active and engaged members in our clubs.  Parents, you can join your child in a book club, too!  Reading and discussing books together will encourage and spark your child's love for reading!  Our comprehension focus for this upcoming week is character development.  We will be looking at how characters evolve over the course of a book.

 

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, November 6th: School closed for a teacher workday

Wednesday, November 7th: Report cards going home

Monday, November 12th: School closed for holiday

Tuesday, December 18th: Our class Coffee House.  Save the date!

 

At-Home Reading Strategies: Below you will find excerpts from an awesome article that Ms. Pyburn passed along to the third grade teachers titled "The Alphabetical Principle and Phonics".  There are some wonderful strategies that you can use with your child for your daily reading together time to help build fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills.  Check it out!

 

The Alphabetic Principle and Phonics 

What is it?
The alphabetic principle is the understanding that words are made up of letters and letters represent sounds. If a child understands these letter-sound associations, he is on the way to reading and writing words. Phonics is the instructional method that focuses on these letter-sound associations.
Why is it important?
The English language is based on an alphabet, so being able to associate printed letters with sounds in order to sound out (decode) is necessary.
What can we do at home?
Building words - Using magnetic letters, make a three letter word on the refrigerator (cat). Have your child read the word and use it in a sentence. Every day, change one letter to make a new word. Start by changing only the beginning letter (cat, bat, hat, sat, mat, rat, pat). Then change only the ending letter (pat, pal, pad, pan). Finally, change only the middle letter (pan, pen, pin, pun). 
Making words - For this game, you will need magnetic letters and three bags. Put half of the consonants into the first bag. Put the vowels into the middle bag, and put the remaining consonants into the last bag. Have your child pull one letter from the first bag. That will be the first letter of their word. Then have him pull from the vowel bag for the second letter of the word and from the other consonant bag for the third letter of the word. Next, the child will read the word and decide if it is a real word or a nonsense word. Take turns, replacing the vowels as needed until there are no more consonants left. 
Writing words - Many children love to send and receive notes, and writing is a great way to reinforce phonics skills. Send your child notes in his backpack or place notes on the pillow. Have a relative or friend send a letter or email to your child. Whenever your child receives a note, have him write back. Don't be concerned about spelling. Instead, have your child sound out the words to the best of his ability. 
Labeling words - When reading with your child, keep Post-it notes handy. Every so often, have your child choose one object in the picture and write the word on a Post-it. Put the note in the book to read each time you come to that page.
Practicing words with pictures - Choose pictures from a magazine or catalog. Say the name of the picture, have your child say the sound that the picture begins with and the name of that letter.
Hunting for words - Choose a letter and have your child hunt for five items beginning with that letter sound. As each object is found, help your child write the word on a list. For example, if the target sound is "m", the child might find and write mop, mat, Mom, money, and microwave. 
Hints for helping your child sound out words 
1. High Frequency Words - If the word is a high frequency word (such as, is, of, or could), say the word and explain that it doesn't follow the rules. It just needs to be memorized. 
2. First Sound - Have your child say the first sound in the word and make a guess based on the picture or surrounding words. Double-check the printed word to see if it matches the child's guess. 
3. Sound and Blend - Have your child say each sound separately (sss  aaa  t). This is called "sounding it out", and then say the sounds together (sat). This is "blending".
4. Familiar Parts - When your child starts reading longer words, have him notice the parts of the word that he already knows. For example, in a word such as presenting, your child may already know the prefix pre, the word sent, and the word ending ing.

Fluency

What is it?

Fluency is the ability to read text accurately and effortlessly, using appropriate expression and phrasing.

Why is it important?

If a child is not fluent, it means that he is spending most of his attention on figuring out (decoding) the words, and that makes comprehension difficult. 

What can we do at home?

Repeated reading - Choose a passage that will note be very difficult for your child. Read the passage aloud to your child, and then read it together, helping your child figure out any tricky words. Next, have your child read the passage to you with a focus on accuracy. Finally, have your child read the passage to you again, paying attention to fluency and expression. The goal is to sound smooth and natural. 

Use different voices - When reading a familiar story or passage, try having your child use different voices. Read the story in a mouse voice or a cowboy voice or a monster voice or a princess voice. This is another way to do repeated reading, but it adds some fun to reading practice. 

Read to different audiences - Reading aloud is a way to communicate to an audience. When a reader keeps the audience in mind, he knows that his reading must be fluent and expressive. Provide a variety of opportunities for your child to read to an audience. Your child can read to stuffed animals, pets, siblings, neighbors, grandparents - anyone who is willing to listen. This is a good way to show off what was practiced with repeated reading.

Record the reading - After your child has practiced a passage, have him record it with a tape player or MP3 device. Once recorded, your child can listen to his reading and follow along in the book. Often, he will want to record it again and make it even better!

Vocabulary

What is it?

With a solid vocabulary, a child understands and uses spoken and written words to communicate effectively.

Why is it important?

A broad vocabulary helps a child in all subject areas. The more words a child has been exposed to, the easier it is for him to figure them out when he sees them for the first time in print, and the easier it is for him to understand new concepts in class. 

What can we do at home?

Read aloud - Continue to read aloud to your child even after he is able to read independently. Choose books above your child's level because they are likely to contain broader vocabulary. This way, you are actually teaching him new words and how they are used in context.

Preview words - Before reading to or with your child, scan through the book, choose two words that you think might be interesting or unfamiliar to your child. Tell your child what the words are and what they mean. As you read the book, have your child listen for those words.

Hot potato (version 1) - Play hot potato with synonyms. Choose a word, and then your child has to think of another word that means the same thing. Take turns until someone is stumped. For example, you may say, "Cold," and your child might say, "Freezing." Then you could say, "Chilly," and so on. Try the game again with antonyms.

Hot potato (version 2) - Play hot potato with prefixes or suffixes. The prefixes dis-, ex-, mis-, non-, pre-, re-, and un- are common ones. Common suffixes include -able/-ible, -ed, -er, -est, -ful, -ish, -less, -ly, -ment, and -ness.

Hot potato (version 3) - Play hot potato with categories. For younger children, the categories can be simple: pets, clothes, family members. For older children, the categories can be quite complex: The Revolutionary War, astronomy, math terms. 

Word Collecting - Have each family member be on the look out for interesting words that they heard that day. At dinner or bedtime, have everyone share the word they collected and tell what they think it means. If the child shares an incorrect meaning, guide him to the correct meaning. Try to use some of the words in conversation. 

Comprehension

What is it?
Simply put, comprehension is the reader's ability to understand what he is reading.
Why is it important?
Comprehension is the main goal of reading. The written word is an author's way of communicating with a reader. A reader needs to be able to understand what the author is saying and think about how the author's words affect him. Good comprehension leads to reading enjoyment. Reading enjoyment leads to more time spent reading. More time spent reading leads to better comprehension, and so on...
What can we do at home?
Think aloud - Even though your child is now an independent reader, don't stop reading aloud! When you read aloud to your child, talk about your reactions to what you are reading. This gives your child a deeper understanding of comprehension. For example, describe how you feel about what's going on in the book, what you think will happen next, or what you thought about a character's choice.
Know the Strategies that Your Child is Learning - 
1. Predicting - Predicting means using clues from the text and from your own knowledge to figure out what might happen next.
2. Inferring - Inferring means using clues from the text and from your own knowledge to figure out something that the author does not say directly, such as how a character is feeling or why the character chose to act a certain way. 
3. Questioning - Question means that, as a thoughtful reader, you are always asking questions about what you read as you are reading. For example, "Why did the author spend so much time describing the red umbrella? I wonder if that will be important later in the story."
4. Monitoring and Clarifying - Monitoring means making sure that you are understanding what you are reading. For example, we've all had the experience of reading to the end of the page and not remembering what we've read. When we realize that, we are monitoring our reading. Clarifying means clearing up any misunderstanding or lack of understanding. For example, if you didn't remember what you had read, you might choose to reread that page.
5. Retelling and Summarizing - Retelling means telling what happened in your own words. With fiction, a good retell usually includes characters, setting, problem, events in order, and solution. Summarizing is like giving a very short retell. In a summary, the reader includes only the most important details.
6. Visualizing - Visualizing means imagining the text in your head, like a picture or movie in your mind. Some readers do this automatically, but others need coaching. For example, if the story is about children having a lemonade stand, you might picture the weather, how busy the street was, what type of neighborhood it is in, what the children are wearing, or how many people are gathered around. These are details that the author may not include, but they help the reader better understand the story and get that feeling of "being there." 
Reading fiction
1. Here are two strategies to use before beginning a fiction book. 
Predicting - Have your child look at the cover and the first page and make a prediction about what will happen in the story. Emphasize using clues from the story and from personal knowledge.
Questioning - Encourage your child to create a couple of questions that he would like the author to answer in the book. This gives your child a purpose or a goal for reading.
2. While reading, try these strategies.
Predicting - Stop at various points, particularly at the end or chapters or at very exciting points, and ask your child, "What do you think will happen next? Why?"
Questioning - Encourage questioning. "Do you have new questions about what's going on in the story? What do you wonder?"
Inferring - Help your child think about the character's actions, words, and feelings. "Does the author give any clues about why the character is acting certain way or how the character is feeling or why the character would say what he did? Have you ever had an experience like the character's?"
Monitoring and Clarifying with a Retell/Summary - Stop every few pages or at the end of the chapter and ask your child to tell you what has happened so far in the story. If he can do this, continue on with the story. If he cannot, try rereading the section together to figure out where the misunderstanding took place.
Visualizing - Every now and then, stop and ask your child to describe the picture in his mind at this part in the story. If necessary, ask questions to help your child make this picture more vivid and detailed.
3. After reading, emphasize the strategy of retelling/summarizing. You may have had your child retell pieces of the story as he read; now it's time to retell the story as a whole.
PS - There's no need to work on every strategy every time. In fact, that would really interfere with the flow and enjoyment of the story. Choose one or two strategies at a time.
Reading Nonfiction
1. Here are two strategies to use before beginning a nonfiction book.
Predicting – Preview the cover and the table of contents. Ask your child to think about what he would like to find out by reading this book. Ask him if he thinks this book will give him the information that he is looking for.
Questioning – After looking at the cover and the table of contents, ask your child what questions he would like this book to answer. This helps set a purpose for reading. 
2. While reading, try these strategies.
Questioning - Have your child continue asking questions as he reads and to notice when the text answers his questions. 
Monitoring and Clarifying - Help your child make sure he monitors his reading by stopping at the end of a section or chapter to ask, "Did I understand what I just read? If not, what can I do about it?"
Retelling/Summarizing – Reinforce the idea of main idea and supporting details. Ask your child, “What was this section mostly about?” This is the main idea. Then ask, “What details tell more about the main idea?” 
3. After reading, wrap up the discussion.
Questioning - Ask your child, "Did the book answer your questions? What do you still want to know?"
Inferring - Help your child use his background knowledge and clues from the text to figure out how the author feels about the topic and what the author's message is. For example, "I think that the author admires Wilma Rudolph's perseverance, and the author's message is to believe in yourself and never give up just like Wilma Rudolph."
Retelling/Summarizing – As before, reinforce main idea and supporting details. Ask your child, “What was this book mostly about?” This is the main idea. Then ask, “What details tell me more about the main idea?” Another approach is to ask, "What do you think the author would like you to remember after reading this book?"
PS - As with fiction, focusing on one or two strategies at a time is much more effective than trying to do everything at once

Pictures...

 The new playground is here!  The children were so excited to play and explore on it.  A big thank you goes out to our wonderful PTA!!  Check out how adorable the children look in their jammies!

The next few pictures are from our plant dance collaboration lesson with Ms. Ridings and  the third grade classes.  The children showed through movement the life cycle of a plant. 

Moskauski Minutes

PJ Party Tomorrow: Our class met our schoolwide goal of earning over 35 Dragon Dollars!  The classrooms that have met the goal will be celebrating tomorrow with pajama and movie day.  The children can wear school appropriate pajamas and bring a stuffed animal from home.  We will be having the schoolwide movie playing for our class tomorrow afternoon.  Because all of the third grade classes have met the goal, we will not be switching for math tomorrow. 

Classroom Fall Celebration: We are ALMOST at our second classroom Dragon Dollar goal of earning 55 total Dragon Dollars.  Way to go students!!  Just a few more to go, which I am confident that we can get by next Tuesday.  The students have asked about having a Fall Celebration for their Dragon Dollar celebration.  This would be a great way to celebrate meeting our goal, plus ending the first quarter with a bang!  Next Tuesday, October 30th we will have a small classroom celebration.  We will do a fall craft and the children can bring in treats for their classmates.  If you are sending in a snack, please remember it needs to be store bought and in it's original packaging.  Also, please check the ingredients and make sure the snack is nut-free.  Thanks so much in advance for any class donations.

Curriculum Notes: After last weeks assessment on parts of speech, I noticed that we need to spend more time working on this during word work.  We will continue this week working with verbs, adverbs, adjectives, common and proper nouns and also learn about abstract nouns.  We will also be learning about simple, compound and complex sentences. 

In reading we will be learning how to identify the main idea and supporting details in a story.  In writing, we are continuing to conference and publish.  We will also begin writing a new piece.

In science we will be doing a fun colllaboration activity tomorrow with the third grade classes and Ms. Ridings.  We will do a plant dance to show the life cyle of a plant.

Mr. Otto will be wrapping up his Social Studies unit over the next week with the children doing a five-fold art project as a culminating activity.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, October 24th: Pajama Day!
Tuesday, October 30th: Fall Celebration and last day of the quarter
Wednesday, October 31st: School closed for a teacher workday

Word Hunt!

During word work today, we took a walk around the room going on a word hunt.   In our response journals we wrote down words on a chart that were either common or proper nouns, verbs, adverbs or adjectives.  The children loved going on a word walk!  You can make it a game at home, too by having your child find words from different parts of speech.  Words are everywhere!! 

Science Night Tonight!

Science Night is tonight from 6 to 7:30 p.m.  There are a lot of exciting things in store!  Because of this fun-filled family event, the third grade team decided to not give homework tonight.  Your child can read if he or she would like to, but does not need to log on the reading log. 

Tomorrow the children will be taking two short assessments.  In math they will be taking a quick quiz on patterns and multiplication.  In literacy, the children will be assessed on identifying the lesson in a story and also parts of speech.  Tomorrow is an Early Release day.

Hope you have a great time tonight! 

Moskauski Minutes

Book Fair Wish List: Today we visited the book fair and the children created their wish list.  Please look for their wish lists and also information papers from the book fair to be going home today.

Behavior Folder for Next Week: Because of Cog-At Testing this week, we did not have any additional assessments in class.  On Monday when I send home the behavior folder, I will not have anything filled out on the top section of the folder.  You do not need to sign the box, you can just leave it blank.  I also did not check homework in the mornings because we were getting ready for testing during homeroom.  I am leaving the completing homework section blank for this week, too.  Thanks for your understanding.  :)

Curriculum Notes: In math next week, we will be starting a new unit on multiplication and division.  At this point in the year, we do not expect the children to start memorizing their facts.  We want the children to understand the idea and concept of what multiplication and division means.  We will start memorizing facts later on in the year. 

In reading we will be focusing on learning about the lesson or moral in a story.  We will be looking at fables, folktales and myths.  In word work, we will be studying different parts of speech (nouns, abstract nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and pronouns).  In writing, we will finish conferencing and publishing our narratives (we didn't get to writing this week because of testing). 

In Social Studies, the children will continue learning about the first settlers.  They will be looking at pilgrims, The Mayflower, Native Americans, Thanksgiving and The Lost Colony.

Spirit Week Next Week: Following along with the theme of the book fair, Douglas will be having Spirit Week next week.  The children can participate each day by dressing as follows:

MONDAY: Wear your favorite team colors
TUESDAY: Wear your favorite team hat
WEDNESDAY: Wear red, white and blue
THURSDAY: Wear your stars
FRIDAY: Wear your favorite team t-shirt

School Notes: Be sure to read the Dragoneer and look for helpful handouts in Monday's folder about Science Night, Reflections, and more!  Remember, next Friday is an Early Release Day. 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Moskauski Minutes...

Cog-At Testing: Tuesday through Thursday of this week the children will be taking the Cog-At testing.  This is the first round of testing to determine eligibility for the Academically Gifted (AG) program.  There is no way for the children to study or prepare for these tests.  Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest, eats a healthy breakfast and arrives to school on time each day.  These are timed tests.  All other tests we have taken so far this year have not been timed, so this will be the children's first exposure to a timed test.  The children are encouraged to pace themselves and to not get stuck on a problem that they do not know but to skip it and move on to the next problem.  If there is still time left, they can go back to the problems they skipped over. 
New Reading Log: We are starting a new reading log today.  We reviewed this in class.  Please make sure that your child is practicing with a reading skill each evening.  If you have any questions about the new log, please let me know!

Maternity Leave Information: There has been a lot of questions from the children and also the parents during conferences, so I wanted to pass along some information about my upcoming maternity leave.  I wanted to let you know that I plan to work up until the baby comes.  The baby is not due until November 16th, but may come early in October like her big sister did! 

I wanted to reassure you that the children will be in great hands during my absence!  I have been in contact with Ms. Hart, who is the substitute teacher who will be with the class for my maternity.  She is a retired teacher with experience in many grade levels, especially in the early elementary grades.  Her and I have been in contact through email and she is very excited to get started!  She has checked out our class blog and loves all of the great things we are doing and loves the pictures of our wonderful class.  She will be coming in next week to meet the children and to spend time with me. 

Also, I am very blessed to work with a wonderful team of teachers.  Ms. Hart will continue in my absence to work, plan and meet with the third grade team.  This will be as a smooth transition for the children we can possibly make it.  Plus, my husband will be right down the hall to check in on the class and to pass along messages from me.  With my maternity falling right around Thanksgiving and Winter Break, it will seem like I am back before you know it anyway!  If there is anything else I can do to help your child with the transition, please let me know.  :)

Curriculum Notes: Because of Cog-At testing this week, the third grade teachers decided to continue with our literacy objectives from last week into this week.  Our literacy block will be cut short due to testing.  We will spend time this week continuing our word work study of prefixes and suffixes.  In reading we will look at character's point of view and making inferences (drawing conclusions) about our reading.  If time allows, we will be publishing our narratives.  Friday we will be meeting with Ms. Caldwell's class for our first book buddies session.

In math this week we will be studying another unit of geometry.  We will not have a test on this unit, but it is still important for your child to review the notes each evening.  We will be learning about line of symmetry, congruence, triangles and polygons.  In Social Studies, Mr. Otto will continue to work with the class on the English Settlers and the early 1600's.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
1.  Scholastic Book orders are due Thursday of this week.
2.  October 15th through 19th is the book fair.  (Information went home in today's Monday folder.)
3.  Thursday, October 18th is Science Night from 6 to 7:30
4.  Friday, October 19th is an Early Release Day
5.  Wednesday, October 31st is a Teacher Workday.  No school for students.

Moskauski Minutes

Progress Reports:

In tomorrow’s Monday folder, you will be receiving your child’s progress report.  The report will serve as a brief update on how your child has been doing over the first few weeks of school.  Please understand that I am still getting to know your child and we have just begun to have assessments.  If your child has a 2 or 3 in any particular subject on their interim, it does not mean that this is what will be given on the report card.  We still have several weeks until the end of the quarter, and plenty of opportunities to improve or maintain grades.  Please review and discuss the progress report with your child and help your child to set goals for the rest of the quarter. 

Parent-Teacher Conferences:

Parent-teacher conference time is here!   I am sending home a conference sign-up sheet tomorrow that lists some available times for conferences.  Please fill out this form and return it to school as soon as possible.  I will send you a confirmation note back to let you know your conference date and time.  If the times listed are not convenient for you, please let me know by indicating an alternate date and time, and I will do my best to accommodate you.  If you would prefer a phone conference, please list the best time of day to reach you, some possible dates and the number to call.

            Conference times will be selected on a first come, first serve basis.  Please return this form in a timely manner.  I will confirm your scheduled time immediately.

            It has been a pleasure working with you and your child.  I look forward to talking with you soon!

Cog-At Testing:

Next week, from October 9th through 11th, the children will be taking Cog-At Testing.  These are the first round of tests to determine eligibility for the Academically Gifted (AG) Program.  There is an information letter from Dr. Spivey in tomorrow's Monday folder.

Picture Day:

Picture Day is this Wednesday.   Payment must be turned in by the time pictures are taken.  Have your child dress their best.  This picture will be the one used in the school yearbook.

Scholastic Book Orders:

I am going to send home the October Scholastic catalogs in tomorrow's Monday folder.  Orders for this month will be due by Thursday, October 11th.  If you would like to order books from “Scholastic Book Clubs”, go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the "Register" button in the "First Time Here?" section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code H8846. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.  SELECT the books you'd like to order -- choose from thousands of titles -- many more than in our monthly flyers.   I have also added catalogs for any older or younger children you may have, too.  There are some great Halloween and fall fun books, too.  Last year I ordered for my daughter Jordanna "The Spooky Wheels On the Bus", which she absolutely loves.  Such a cute take on the old story!  You may also send in checks to school with your order made out to "Scholastic Book Clubs".

Snacks:

Please be sure to send in a snack with your child each day.  Thank you to everyone who has donated snacks to our classroom.  We are in need of replenishing our community snack supply.  If you are able to donate a box of granola bars, crackers, dry cereal, etc., we would greatly appreciate it.  It is important that those who forget their snacks and those who are unable to bring one, have something to get them through the day until we have lunch. Thanks in advance!

Weekly Notes about the Curriculum:
In reading this week we will continue to look at character's point of view.  We will also learn how to make inferences and draw conclusions about our reading.  To do this, we will use clues from the text plus prior knowledge that we have to make inferences.  In word work we will continue our study of root words and prefixes. We will also learn about suffixes.  In writing we will write the endings to our narratives.  We will learn how to conduct peer conferences with our classmates and how to best support and encourage one another during the conferences.
In math, we our continuing our unit on geometry.    We will continue working this week on identifying and drawing different quadrialterals and finding the perimeter of each.  Make sure your child is studying the notes and handouts provided by your child's math teacher.  We will conclude with an end-of-unit assessment on Friday.
We are going to begin Social Studies with Mr. Otto on Monday.  The first unit in Social Studies is "History and Colonial America". 

Community Service:
In second quarter Social Studies we will be studying citizenship.  Since citizenship is such an important objective in the curriculum, as well as within our daily lives, I have my class participate in a yearlong community service project.  We will be learning about the different communities we belong to and ways we can help serve these communities.   

We will be begin by helping within our school community.  We will start this week with volunteering in Ms. Levine's Special Education preschool class.  These are students who need extra support to help them get ready for kindergarten.  We will be helping them by modeling social skills such as teaching them how to play correctly and how to build their communication skills.  The students will volunteer at least once per week in Ms. Levine's class.  We met with Ms. Levine on Friday to discuss the program.  The children are super excited to get started!!

We are also paired up with Ms. Caldwell's first grade and will meet with them as book buddies.  As book buddies, we will help the first graders with their reading and writing. Each of the third graders will be paired up with a first grade buddy.  Ms. Caldwell and I hope to get the program up and running within the next week. 

In second quarter, we will be learning about how to volunteer and help out within a local level.  We will be assigned at least thirty minutes of service to do within our neighborhood communities per quarter.  Some popular service projects my students have done in the past are: donating old toys or clothing to those in need, helping with our school Backpack Buddies program, doing a walkathon or fundraiser for a special organization that is dear to the student's heart, doing a park clean-up, making holiday cards for people in a nursing home or hospital, helping an elderly neighbor with things like raking leaves, pulling weeds, etc.  More information will come about this during second quarter.  My hopes is that be making service to others a part of their regular routine, it will inspire a lifelong love for helping others!

Classroom Wish List:

• Treasure Chest items
• Snacks for community snacks
• Books for our class library.  Picture books are great!

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Moskauski Minutes

Tests Going Home This Week: In today's work habits folder, I am sending home the math and reading tests from last week.  Please review the tests with your child.  Then sign and return the tests for tomorrow, so I can keep them on file.  Thank you!

Drama Club: We have an amazing nine students in our class who signed up for Drama Club!  Tomorrow morning is the first session of Drama Club.  If your child is participating, Drama Club starts promptly at 8:00 a.m. in The Drama Room. 

Notes about Curriculum: In Math this week we will be studying geometry.  We began today with learning about parallel and perpendicular lines and line segments.  This week we will also be learning about parallelograms, squares, rectangles and rhombuses.  There are a lot of new vocabulary terms this week.  Please help your child to study and review the notes in his or her binder to help with learning the vocabulary. 

In Science we will be finishing our unit on soil this week.  We will begin Social Studies with Mr. Otto next week.  We will be switching classes on Mondays through Thursdays.

In writing we will be finishing drafting our personal narratives this week.  We have been learning about the different parts of a story.  Today we learned about how to write a stretched out middle to our stories.  Ask your child what he or she is writing about!

In reading, we will be focusing this week on fiction.  We will be learning how to recognize literary elements (plot, character, setting, problem/solution and theme).  Our focus this week will be analyzing a character's point of view and a character's intentions and feelings.  

Book Orders: Scholastic Book Orders are due tomorrow.

School Closed Wednesday for a Holiday!  Have a great day off!

Peace Day!!

Here is a class photo of the children decked out in their Peace Wear gear.  The other photo is of the class taking a picture with our "Pinwheels for Peace" in our school Peace Garden.

Soil Collaboration Lesson With Ms. Rohwedder

We began our soil unit today with a collaboration lesson with Ms. Rohwedder.  We used our senses and recorded our observations of the three types of soil (humus, clay and sand). 

Our First Class Dragon Dollar Celebration!!

I just had to get pictures!!!  Love the children's wacky hair today!  Their dolls and stuffed animals are also having fun hanging out together!  :) 

Our Magic Beans!

We read the book "Jack and the Beanstalk", and are now trying out an experiment to see if we can grow our own magic beans!  The children each received two magic beans, wrapped them in a moist paper towel, and placed them in a baggie in the window.  Our "Extra Hands" helper Matthew is in charge of watering them each morning.  They have sunlight, room to grow and water.  Will they grow without soil?