Happy almost Halloween!  The kids are so excited for tomorrow to get here!  We have been enjoying the Halloween season by making cinnamon pumpkins, reading Halloween stories and writing about our costumes and trick-or-treating.  This is such a fun time of year!

Now that we have finished our Jolly Phonics sounds we are working extremely hard on Tricky Words and other sounds that do not follow a specific rule. For example we have been working on the tricky y at the end of words. We learned what sound a y makes but recently we have discovered that a y at the end of the word makes the /ee/ sound.  This week we also have been talking about short vowels, their sounds and what sound combinations go with them. The c and k have been giving us a hard time. We never know if we should use one or both of them.  We practiced this week that if a word has a short vowel in it it will us both the c and the k. Some example words were: pocket, stick, brick, duck and rocket.  

In Math we are cruising through Unit 3.  This is takes a lot of work from our kiddos each day. We have been working really hard at jumping back and forth on our number line, making patterns on our hundreds chart, differentiating between even and odd numbers and telling time to the half hour.  We continue to count by 2's and 5's each day. This is something we want all first grade friends to be able to do by themselves,  both writing them and recognizing the pattern.  

We are just about done with our Science Weather Unit. Last week we investigated three different kinds of clouds. We took a short field trip outside to see what kinds of clouds were out that day and then came inside and tried to classify nine different pictures of clouds into specific categories.  The three types of clouds we learned about were: cumulus, stratus and cirrus.

A few things to remember...

• Please watch for your child's report card to be coming home tomorrow in their backpack.  
• Parent-Teacher Conferences are Thursday, November 1 and 8.  If you cannot remember your time slot feel free to send me a note or email. 
• Scholastic Book Fair is going on at Kalona Elementary starting on October 31- November 8.
• Friday folders come home every Friday. Please go through the papers sign and return on Monday.
• New Book-It "calendars" will be coming home on Thursday. October calendars need to be turned in by Monday, November 5, 2012 in order to receive the pizza certificates and prizes.
• Book Orders are coming home and are due next Friday, November 9, 2012. We are trying something different this time.  We would like to have parents order online if it works for them.  As a parent you receive a $5 bonus for your next order just by ordering online.  If ordering online does not work for you please feel free to send a paper order to school with your child. We will have this book order and one more at the beginning of December, it's never to early to start Christmas shopping! ;-)
•  Continue helping your child every night with their sound bags, tricky word bags and writing homework.  These are great ways to help your child become a successful reader and writer as well as boost their self confidence. 
• Make sure you sign up to be a follower of our classroom blog AND sign up to follow by email.  This way you do not miss out on any classroom information.