FUN RUN

Wow! We are neck in neck between our classes! Mrs. Jeter's Jellyfish are up to $14 per lap and Mrs. Coleman's Crusaders are up to $16 per lap! Who will make it to $20 per lap tonight?

THANK YOU to all who have worked to get pledges so far this week! There's still time to get a few more. Just log in to funrun.com with your code (located on your child's Fun Run brochure) and enter any additional pledges you get.

We love the Fun Run Fundraiser because the students learn great character lessons, exercise, and we actually get part of the pledges to purchase additional materials for our classes! That's right, the teachers get to make purchases that your child can benefit from!

This year, Mrs. Coleman plans on purchasing magazine subscriptions to educational magazines, including National Geographic for Kids Magazine! These will be awesome for classroom reading!

Happy Pledging!

FCAT Explorer Is Down

Thank you to all our wonderful parents who read the homework note in the report card and have tried having your child use FCAT Explorer this week! :)
Unfortunately, FCAT Explorer is experiencing problems this week. This is through the state and I cannot fix it myself. So, have your child enjoy this week of reading and conversing about what they have read and hopefully, FCAT Explorer wil be up and running again soon!

As always, a BIG THANK YOU to our awesome parents for all your support!

~Mrs. Coleman

Soon to come: Pictures from the fantastic Characters in a Can and Dudes Do Read!

Reading: Captions (Text Feature)

What are captions? Captions are text features that the author uses to give us more information about an illustration or photograph. In class, we are working on writing our own captions for Charlotte's Web illustrations. We are working on writing 1-2 complete sentences that tell how a character feels and why they are feeling that way.

Here is an example:

Fern couldn't take her eyes off Wilbur because she thought he was perfect!

She felt very thankful that her father allowed her to keep and take care of the runt pig.

Students can create captions for their independent reading books by reading the text near the illustrations, then thinking of 1-2 sentences that can tell how the character is feeling and why they feel that way. No illustrations? Draw a "quick sketch" based on a part read today, then write a caption for your quick sketch.

Happy "captioning"!

~Mrs. Coleman

Reading: Summarizing

This week, we are learning and practicing how to summarize what we have read. There are many ways to think about summarizing, but this week we are learning "somebody, wanted, but, so, (and)". Here are some examples from chapter 1 and chapter 12 of Charlotte's Web. This shows all the parts of "somebody, wanted, but, so, (and)" and it shows that there are different ways to summarize the same chapter.

Each night, have your child read 20 minutes or more, then try telling you the summary of what they read (just that chapter) by using "somebody, wanted, but, so, (and)". Have your child try telling it a different way. Which way do they think tells what that chapter was mostly about in the BEST way?

PARENTS: Worried? Your child hasn't mastered this skill yet? No worries! We have only begun to practice the skill of summarizing. It takes a lot of practice. See the student note below for an idea to support their practice of summarizing. They can practice an oral summary every day after they read a new chapter, too.

Remember STUDENTS: Summarizing is NOT a long retelling of all the details in a story/chapter. We are working on 1 sentence summaries that tell what the story/chapter was MOSTLY about. Try writing 1 sentence at the end of each chapter on a post-it. Use the "SWBS(and)" strategy.

Happy summarizing!
~Mrs. Coleman

New Procedure: red folders & progress reports

Starting Monday, October 21st, students will bring home the red folder with student work and an updated progress report every other Monday. The progress report will be stapled to all other papers. Please leave all work stapled together and sign the progress report. Send back the red folder with the signed progress report attached to all papers on Tuesdays. You will keep the parent copy of the report that will be included in the folder.

This should help everyone, as there will only be one place to sign. The only piece you keep is the parent copy of the report. No work should be kept.

Have a fantastic family fun weekend!

Thank you!
~Mrs. Coleman & Mrs. Jeter

Character in a Can due THIS Friday

Friendly reminder: Character in a Can book reports are due THIS Friday.
This includes:
1. A 3-D Doll (to represent a MAIN character from a chapter book or biography the student has read this school year) in a can.
2. A full written report describing the chosen main character (see rubric for details) attached around the can.
3. The rubric AND rough draft.

We already have had some AWESOME characters turned in! I can't wait to post pictures of them all!

Happy Reporting!
Mrs. Coleman

Truancy Awareness: Wear Orange on Wednesday

October is Truancy Awareness Month! The purpose of Truancy Awareness Month is to provide awareness of truancy issues and the importance of daily school attendance.

Wednesday, October 16th, let's ALL WEAR ORANGE to show support for students attending school each day.

Let's try for 100% attendance all week! :)

Happy School Days!
~Mrs. Coleman & Mrs. Jeter