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| Mrs. Raisor's September Newsletter |
| I would like to thank you for a great start to the school year! You have made my year begin well with helping your child stay organized and focused. I just know this school year will be an excellent one. I will be sending home a newsletter the first school day of the month to help you stay informed. Also, if I've forgotten something or something has changed, I will send home an additional letter. If you have question os any kind please contact me at [email protected] or call 833-8186, preferably between 1:50-2:30 since this is my planning time. Mrs. Williams and I are working together to make sure your child isn't overwhelmed with homework. If your child has a math test to study for I probably won't be sending home additional written work on top of that. I want to make sure your child receives a quality education without having an abundance of work at home. My philosophy is, kids need time to be kids. Social Studies: Since social studies is a tested area this year, we will be stressing it daily. There are many hands-on-activities with the History Alive program which I think the students will enjoy. This month we will be studying the Native Americans which is a popular topic with the kids. So, any research you can do at home on Native Americans would benefit your child. You can also help by going over key vocabulary in the lessons to help them stay on top of it all. I will be sending home a Native American project soon. Students will study a particular tribe and will have the choice of doing a poster, model, or a report. We will share in class on the due date and you are welcome to come in and watch. I'll let you know what day and time. Math: The students go to Mrs. Williams for math this year. She is so excited about math and works very hard to help all the students to understand. With math, they will have homework to work on the skills they were taught in class. Mrs. Williams is very considerate on the amount she sends home. Art/Humanities: We will be doing six week rotations throughout the year that will cover all aspects of art. I am the only teacher who will not be teaching arts/humanities during this time. Instead, I will be giving the students extra practice with on-demand writing. Each student will learn on-demand writing with their homeroom teacher, but I will just give them an extra dose. This month the other teachers will be teaching about cultures. Science: Science is not a tested area this year, but we will continue to work through new science concepts. We will not be stressing over this. Science will be taught for about 30 minutes, Tuesday-Friday. We have been working on Living Systems and will focus on cells for most of the month. Spelling: All students receive a spelling list on Monday. There will be additional content words added to the list that they need to know the definition of as well. Spelling tests will be every Friday. Language Arts: We start the month off with the theme of Nature's Fury and end it with Give It All You've Got. Each week we read a different story based on these themes and students work on comprehension skills, graphic organizers, spelling, word analysis, sequencing of events, predicting, grammar skills, and writing skills with the story. The program that we use is a research-based one that gets great reviews. You should feel lucky that your child has such great resources. I read aloud daily to the students which helps us get more practice with predicting and guided discussion. Plus, the kids really enjoy this time in class. Reading and discussing aloud, bonds us as readers. It's like we have our very own book club within our class! Student Planner: I sign the planners daily stating that all the work written in the planner is accurate for that night. Please sign the planner each night so both of us helps your child stay organized. Double check, before you sign, to make sure that the homework has been completed and is packed away in their binder. If you need to send me a note, you can just put it in the planner and I will be sure to see it. Thanks! Picture Day: September 8 Fall Break: October 10-13 Thanksgiving Break: November 24-28 |