Dear Parents:

First of all, Gooooooooooo RAYS! Tomorrow the children are allowed to wear their Rays shirts again in support of our hometown team in the playoffs!

This morning at Town Meeting Mrs. Densa's class helped to kick off our first grade service learning project with the SPCA. This year each grade will lead a service learning project that, if possible, will involve the entire lower division. The first grade is leading a donation drive for the SPCA and is asking that each child in the lower division bring in at least one donation on the SPCA's wish list. At the end of the month the first graders will load up all the donations and hand deliver them to the SPCA followed by a tour. Some easy donation items are dog & cat snacks, newspapers, paper towels, shoe boxes, blankets and towels. Please see the link below for a look at their wish list!

http://www.spcatampabay.org/page.aspx?pid=396

Don't forget that Conference Day is this Thursday. The students will not have school. Please refer to the schedule that I sent home last week. If you cannot make your time, please let me know as soon as possible! Also, due to Conference Day, we will have our library check-out on Friday right after lunch before our lesson with Mrs. Smay.

Even though we only have four days of school this week, we are busy and learning! Here's a look at what we are doing:
Language Arts/Reading: This week we are working on words with short vowel /e/, words with "l" blends such as clap, and reviewing short vowel /o/. This week's wall words are day, eat, first, said, time, and was. This week's robust vocabulary (WOW) words are chorus, odor, shoved, assemble, consume, and enthusiastic. We continue to work with words with the word endings ed and ing. During the past few weeks, we have worked on constructing and comparing telling sentences and questions and using the correct punctuation for each. This week we will practice constructing exclamations and learn when to use the exclamation point as punctuation. During reading workshop we will continue to work on reading with a smooth/storyteller voice by going back and rereading, noticing punctuation, and not reading too slow or too fast. Partners will also learn that they are "coaches", coaching each other through the "tricky" words rather than telling their partners the words. As we read we will also be working on the comprehension strategies of comparing and contrasting and answering questions to help us understand what we read. We have been learning about different genres of literature. This week we will talk about the genre of fantasy. We'll be reading several versions of "The Little Red Hen" and the children will see that different authors can put a different spin on a story. The children will also enjoy retelling the story and create their own version.

Writing Workshop: In our Small Moments: Personal Narrative Writing unit, the children are learning to plan details to stretch their stories across several pages. We're also reminding ourselves to use high-frequency words, to incorporate word endings, to use punctuation, etc. as we write.

Math: We will continue to work on number stories, complete our Unit 2 assessment, and begin to work on visual patterns.

Science: Our human body unit continues. Last week, we enjoyed three special presentations on the brain, the skeleton, and the eyes. Enjoy the pictures! This week we are learning about our amazing hearts. This morning, Mrs. Peck brought cow hearts to dissect! Did you know that we actually have heart strings? So, when someone says "pulled on my heart strings"... Last week, one of our classmates shared that he had had a bad kidney when he was born. So, today she also brought a kidney to share with the children as well as models of the heart, kidney, and digestive system. She has loaned first grade those models to use for the next couple of weeks. We are so lucky to have Mrs. Peck! We are also conducting a little experiment (with the chicken bones) in our class to see what happens to our bones without enough calcium. The children should be able to tell you the results in a couple of weeks!

And we are packing all of this in in just four days!!! THAT is amazing!

Other things to remember:

Word card ring needs to be returned on Friday this week! Please be sure to practice reading AND spelling the words with your child. Have your child write sentences using the words!

No school on Friday, October 14 due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.

Picture Retake Day will be Tuesday, October 18.

Fall Festival will be Friday, October 28.

Field Trip to SPCA on Thursday, November 3. Parents are welcome to join us. We will leave school at 10:45 and return at approximately 1:30. We will eat lunch at the SPCA. Please complete and return the Sage form that your child brought home today.

Volunteers this week:

Tuesday - Art - Jill Emerson (12:05)
Wednesday - Math game - Kelli Cross (1:00)
Friday - Parent Reader - Marshall or Natalie Ames (2:15)

Have a great week!
Susan