Monday, September 10, 2012

Moskauski Minutes

MOSKAUSKI MINUTES:

HOMEWORK: Last week we visited The Media Center and the children had the opportunity to check out two books each.  We discussed the importance of reading both fiction and non-fiction books.  Please make sure that your child is alternating between fiction and non-fiction each night for the nightly reading homework. 
VOLUNTEERING: In today’s homework folder, I am sending home a “Classroom Volunteer Information” sheet.  If you are interested in volunteering in our classroom—we would love to have you!  Please fill out the volunteer form and send it back to school with your child.  Please be sure to register for a background clearance as soon as possible in The Media Center. 
ROOM PARENTS: I wanted to give a big thank you to the three lovely ladies who signed up to be our Room Parents.  Ms. Rodillas (Raven's mom), Ms. Pearson (Matthew's mom) and Ms. Campbell (Emily's mom) will all be sharing in this responsibility together.  Thank you ladies for donating your time and your hearts to our class! 
OPEN HOUSE: Parents, I hope to see you at Open House tomorrow night.  The schedule is as follows: Open House will begin at 6:00p.m. with a general PTA meeting until 6:30p.m. Class information sessions will be from 6:40p.m. -7:10p.m. and 7:15p.m. -7:45p.m.  The third grade team will be presenting together.  This will give you the opportunity to meet your child’s math teacher.  We will be discussing our math program, Daily 5 literacy program, field trips, our PBIS school-wide behavior program, and more!  If you attend Open House, your child will be excused from homework for the night (except must complete the math homework).  Hope to see you there!

Ordering Books from Scholastic Book Clubs:

Now it's easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child -- shop Scholastic's online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay. Best of all, we earn extra bonus points for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online. It's so simple! Here's how it works:
SIGN UP at 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.  SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child's books will be delivered directly to my classroom. Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure.  You may also choose to send in your payment directly to me.  Please make any checks out to “Scholastic Book Clubs”.  Book orders for the month of September are due by Tuesday, September 25th.

CURRICULUM NOTES ABOUT THIS WEEK: Our reading focus for the week will be on non-fiction text.  We will learn how to use text features (headings, subheadings, captions, pictures, diagrams, bold words, etc.) to help us with our reading.  We will continue practicing with asking and answering questions about our reading to demonstrate our understanding of key details in the text.
In math we will be learning about rounding numbers and estimation.  In science we are continuing our unit on plants and will be learning more about parts of a plant and seed.  We will also be conducting a fun experiment on growing a “magic seed”!  In writing we will be learning about the writing process, and beginning a new personal narrative story.  Lots of fun things in store this week!
REMINDERS:
  1.  Please make sure that your child is bringing a healthy snack to school day.  About five children each day do not have snack.  Donations of community snacks for those in need would be greatly appreciated.
  2. We are very fortunate that we get to have control over our thermostat in the classrooms in the modular.  It is difficult to get the temperature running just right.  It seems to be either too cold with the air running, and when we turn the thermostat down it gets too warm.  Your child may want to bring a jacket or sweater to keep in his or her cubby.