April Showers Bring Great Results....

Hello Parents:
Odds and Ends: 
Testing has begun this week. 

In order to help prepare your child for success, the following tips are encouraged:
​1. Have your child get a good night’s sleep each evening starting on Sunday night.
2. Have your child eat a healthy, protein-rich breakfast each morning to wake up the brain.
3. Make sure your child is up early each morning, relaxed, and arrives to school on time.
4. Avoid scheduling doctor’s appointments or other activities that may pull your child out of testing time. Rescheduling is difficult and may not afford your child the best test-taking environment.
5. Be positive and encouraging toward your child. Encourage your child with words that help him or her to understand that testing allows him or her to “show off” knowledge.
Thank you to the parents who have provided water and snacks each day! 

​Language Arts Confessions:
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary Unit Practice sheets are assigned each week there is a new unit. They are due on Friday. Quizzes are on Fridays, as well. Hopefully, we will return to Vocabulary next week since it is a scheduled full week of school.

Reading:
We continue to read our latest novel Walking Two Moons. Children will continue to  work on various Literature skills such as figurative language, character traits, point of view, theme, making inferences, and much more. We continue to log signposts. These will help them to figure out the parts of the novel to close read and then understand the importance of that through our anchor questions. Feel free to check out what we will be working on.

A monthly reading skills packet is assigned at the beginning of every month. Children have a month to complete this packet. It is a project grade, so please encourage them to do a little bit each night. It is due on the last school day of the month. April's went out before break.

Writing:
Students completed their research/argument paper on Friday. I am truly impressed with the end result. This marking period, students will be learning various presentation (speaking and listening skills) by researching a topic in Social Studies or Science that interests them and presenting it to the class. They will learn how to not read the powerpoint but simply use it as a guide/check in, speak to their audience, project their voice, not use words like "like" or "um."

Our fourth book report has been assigned. Please make sure your child is reading their book and logging signposts every night. They will be writing up 6 different signposts for this report. Book reports are due on June 8th. Students that participated in Reading Olympics are exempt from this book report, however, they are welcome to do it if they want.

Grammar:
We are concluding our unit on verbs. The assessment will probably be next week. It will be open book. Adverbs are up next.

Social Studies Confessions:
We have begun focusing on the Colonization of America. We will soon be entering Revolutionary War times. Again, we are moving from dependent learning to independent learning. Students are reading the text and extrapolating important information into their own notes. We then discuss as a class and in partnerships to make sure we have included everything. Students are enjoying the process. 

Dates to Remember:
April 16th-20th – IOWAs 
April 19th – Parent-Teacher Conferences – Early Release at 12:15p.m. (Conferences in 1-3 P.M. in upstairs hallway.)
April 20th – Parent-Teacher Conferences – Early Release at 12:15p.m. (Conferences in 1-5P.M in upstairs hallway.)
April 20th – Father-Daughter Dance – 7:00p.m. – ICS Multi-Purpose Room
April 26th-28th – Children’s Consignment Sale
April 27th – Grandparents Luncheon
April 28th – GALA – The Farmhouse at The Colonial
April 30th - April Packet due
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​Sincerely, 
Jennifer Staples
"Strive for progress not perfection..."