Our first full week is complete and there is a lot going on already!  In Language Arts/Writing we worked on singular and plural nouns, throughout most of the year we will be working out of a packet when we work on grammar.  Some of the packet we work on as a class and some independently.  We do not send this packet home and so the work will be completed here at school.  This week we read the story of The Three Little Javelinos which is a version of the classic Three Little Pigs.  We took a test over the story of Friday and they will be sent of this coming Friday.  We focused of story elements including character traits.  For the next two weeks we will be working on Myths.  This is not a story that is located in our reading books, we will be working out of packets.  The main story is about King Midas and his magic touch.  We will not be having a test over this story this week.  In writing we began to write about our summer vacation and elaborating on what we did based on a story we read this we.  The kids are enjoying this assignment and it's great to hear about their summers.
      In Social Studies we are learning about Government and focusing currently on being a good citizen.
      Last week in math we began our topic on Understanding Multiplication and Division of Whole Numbers.   Each night your child has been bringing home their math books to complete the homework because we didn't yet have their access codes to get onto the math program.  We now have the codes and we are going to go on this week and explore the site.  Through this site children will be able to access their textbook online so they don't need to bring the book home each night and they will just be able to tear out the page from their books.  If you don't have internet access at home please send me an email so I know to send home the math book.
     This coming week in math we will be focusing on Division as sharing and repeated subtraction.  We will also be discussing tools they can use to help solve math problems.  Thursday we will be reviewing this topic and Friday we will be having our first math test.  Our test will be similar in setup to this Thursday night's homework.
      In Avon Lake we like to monitor the growth that students make through MAPS testing three times a year as well as a math SLO at the beginning and end of the year.  This week students will be given the SLO and then one part of the MAPS test.  The SLO will be measuring all the topics that we will be covering this year and the results from the SLO will be set aside until the end of the year when they are given a similar test to compare growth.  These tests are used for teacher evaluation purposes and will not be counted as a grade.  The MAPS tests will be given for reading and math and helps to establish your child's reading levels and helps me to put them into reading groups.
Monday afternoon we will be meeting with Ms. Stuart to discuss recess and more opportunity for play and making new friends at recess.  Ms. Stuart just retired last year from Redwood Elementary and was their Physical Education teacher.

Please remember that next Monday is Labor Day and there will be no school.

Volunteer sign up has been updated and you may access it through our blog.  Have a great week!