Miss Quinn’s Owl Hoots September 18,2015 Contact Info: (personal number) Cowan website: cowan.k12.in.us Next week’s Poem of the Week: The Apple Tree Congratulations to: Cayden, Reagan, Jay, Aubrey, Kynlee, Aidan, Abel, Camdon, Jaxon, Epic, Kallie, William, Maddy, Delaney, and Rayne for memorizing this week’s poem of the week! Word of the week: Black Thursday, October 1 – Skating Party Friday, October 2 – Field trip to Fire Station October 8 th -9 th – Fall Conferences October 9 – No School for Children October th – Fall Break! October 20 th – Minnetrista Field Trip Remember to check out the website each week! As we move from play based learning, to more academic instruction, more resources for you will be added to the website. Also, as extra incentive to check the website, there is a different secret word from the newsletter secret word. This gives your child an extra chance to earn a golden strip! Many students are struggling with handwriting and writing letters this year. Because of this, we have decided to start implementing handwriting homework each week. This packet will begin on Monday. For the first 5 weeks, there will be a new packet sent home on Mondays that are 6 pages long. The packets will be sent home on Monday night, and are to be returned on Friday morning. You may complete the packet all at once, or do a page each night. The first 5 weeks will cover 5 letters each week, and a review sheet for the 6 th page. There will be an instruction sheet attached to the packet. Please make sure you are checking the packet to ensure your child has written each letter neatly and correctly. Things to work on at home: Writing/recognizing our name. Writing/recognizing all numbers and letters. Not calling out for your attention. Color words One to one correspondence (tracking the words with their finger) as stories are being read. Point to the words as you are reading their bedtime stories to help get them in the practice of doing this themselves. Beginning sounds in words. Give your child a random work and asked them what the FIRST SOUND they hear in the word is. After they tell you the sound, ask them WHAT LETTER MAKES THAT SOUND? This week we began a new topic in our reading series, characters. We will be discussing what characters are, identifying character traits for the characters in our stories, and identifying the main characters in the stories we read. In science this week, we began our two week study of apples. This is once of our favorite topics to teach in the fall. On Tuesday, October 20 th, we will be going on a field trip to the Johnny Appleseed exhibit at Minnetrista. Look for more information about this trip soon! Parents are not allowed to join us on this fieldtrip, but will be able to come with us on our spring field trip! We also made applesauce today in class as well! I sent home the recipe in case you want to try it at home! Many students are still struggling with writing letters. Please be practicing letter writing at home! If you would like handwriting practice sheets or number practice sheets to use at home with your child, please let me know. I am happy to supply these. This week’s secret word is: apple sauce.. Around the beginning of October, instead of two books for you to read to your child at night, they will bring home one for you to read, and one for them to read to you. Having children use picture clues, sound out the words, and use the first letter of the word to help figure out what it is. Also, make certain your child is tracking the text and using one to one correspondence by touching each word as they read it. The books will be paper books. Please make sure they are returned to school each day, as we will be using them in reading groups as well. Have a great weekend!