The week ahead...

Hi! I want to thank everyone who attended the Family Fun Night last Friday night! It was a lot of fun, and I think it was a success for our school. Thank you to everyone who donated in any way. A special thanks goes to Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Ruber, Mrs. Iwankovitsch, Mr. and Mrs. Spore, Ms. Palmerton, and Mr. Gallagher for volunteering to work our class game. The Basketball Shoot was a lot of fun!! Our PTO worked hard to put this together, and I think it was evident.

One of the biggest complaints from students this year is how hungry they are long before lunch time. I realize that it is a long time from 7am breakfast to lunch at 12:10. The hour before lunch is our Language Arts block which includes reading, writing, grammar, and spelling. This instructional time is far too important to be focusing on how many minutes until lunch. "How long until lunch?" IS the most often-asked question during that hour! So, I am going to try something new this week. I am going to allow students to bring a snack to eat at 10:15 each morning. Students who wish to participate in this must bring their own snack, and it must be appropriate. This means no sugary snacks or potato chips. Suggestions would be granola bars, dry cereal, fruit snacks, pretzels, etc. Absolutely candy or cookies. It also has to be something that can be brought in their lunch box or backpack and does not need to be refrigerated. Drinks will not be permitted. Students will be allowed to get a drink from the water fountain after finishing their snack. This will not be a break from learning, so students will be expected to eat the snack while continuing to stay on task and complete work. IF the snack becomes a problem, or interferes with learning in any way, then it will no longer be permitted. Your child will be responsible for his/her own snack and cleaning up his/her own mess. If a child forgets or loses a snack, then they will face the natural consequence of not having one. Extra snacks will not be provided. So, if your child is hungry and would like to have a snack in the mornings before lunch time, then feel free to send one in this week! I hope this will help us to be able to focus on learning instead of being hungry. :)

Don't forget that Friday is Picture Day! A picture order form went home last week in yellow folders. If your child did not get one, please let me know and I will send home another one. These will be the pictures for the yearbook, and they must be ordered in advance.

Thank you to everyone who helped their child correct his/her Chapter 1 Math Test and return it this week. I know Math is a bit challenging with our new Math series. Even after having this last year, it does get more difficult each year. The "Go, Math!" series includes a lot of reading and problem solving. We will continue to work on these skills throughout the year. This first test reviewed a lot of addition and subtraction skills from 2nd grade, and these are skills that are continually revisited throughout the year. Subtraction with regrouping continues to be a developing skill for many. Thanks for working with your child at home on these skills.
I will average your child's original score with the corrected score for their grade on this first test. I hope this will be a learning tool for students to see what is expected as the year progresses.

Thanks so much for all you do!