Happy Fall

September 25, 2015

Dear Families,

Wednesday was the first day of fall. In the morning, you can feel the chill in the air. You can see the leaves turning beautiful colors. I love autumn! Our first Spirit Night fundraiser of the year is at Mooyah in The Orchard Town Center. On Tuesday, September 29th, from noon until 9:00, Mooyah will donate 15% of all sales generated by Prairie Hills back to our school. But if our sales surpass $1,000 they will donate 20%! Just be sure to mention you are with Prairie Hills when ordering; no flyer needed.  In addition to raising money for our students, all purchases made at Mooyah during the month of September also benefit the No Kid Hungry campaign. 

Our fall fundraising envelopes are due Friday, October 2! Just remember if every student sells at least one item or a $10 donation they will get to attend the one-item party!

In reading, everyone is in a reading group based on their reading ability. I want to remind you that homework should not be a battle. You are the best judge of what your child can handle. Send me an email, note in the folder or give me a call. I want your child to LOVE school. Hopefully, last week’s note helped answer some questions in this area.

As promised, I am going to talk a bit about writing this week. We teach writing with Interactive Writing, Guided Writing, writing mini lessons and Independent Writing with conferences. Interactive Writing (IAW) is where the students and I share the pen to write a story we negotiate together. Together, we go through the steps an author must go through to write a story, a list, a poem or a letter. Along the way I teach punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, word choice, organization, fluency, and try to help the budding authors develop a style. Guided Writing is where I meet with small groups that have similar writing abilities or have similar needs. Independent Writing is where everyone is writing about a topic of their own choosing. I am floating around conferencing with students on their writing. At conferences (October 8), I can be more specific with you.

 In math, we continue to focus on number concepts – counting (forward and back by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s), graphing, number combinations for 10 and using the number grid to solve problems. I will share the results of their first unit test with you at conferences. I am sure you will be pleased.

In Social Studies, we are finished talking about past, present and future and we will be able to share this first unit with you at conferences. I realized that I didn’t send the personal timeline in the Friday folder and sent it in the homework folder. I hope I didn’t stress anyone out. I just needed for you to give your child some things in their past to put on their personal timeline. This week we will complete the timeline and take a look at traditions.

October is Read Aloud Month and the beginning of the Pizza Hut Book-It program. It is based on reading (student reading or being read to) 20 minutes each night (the Pizza Hut program will continue with new monthly goals until March). If your child meets the goal, he/she will earn a certificate for a free Personal Pan Pizza at Pizza Hut. We will be using a color sheet for your child to keep track. Do not turn it in weekly. Return it by the first week of November to be eligible for the pizza. This is not extra reading. This is just an extra incentive for completing the reading homework – book bags and other reading you are asked to do daily. This can either be you reading to your child, reading with your child or reading by your child (or any combination of these).

If you have a specific question or concern, you may write in the comments section and I will address your question. As always, feel free to call or email with any concerns or just to check in. I also check email at home, so often times this is the quickest way to contact me.

 Please find the October book order in the Friday folder. I will send it in on October 2. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, Susan Stark

susan.stark@adams12.org

720-972-8804

P.S. As you look at your child’s papers, you might notice a coffee stain on some of them. My husband had a little bit of coffee left in his cup he put by the computer. My daughter knocked the cup off and onto my very organized student file folder stored carefully by the usually food and drink free computer. I am sorry.