What a wild and crazy week here at the beach!

2 weeks down, 34 to go.  ;)  This has been an interesting week, to say the least.  First and foremost, I want to welcome Yemi, Zakiyah, Debora, Rebeca, Hannah, and Aniyah to our class!!  I am so terribly sad that Mrs. Bowlden was taken from us, but I am thrilled to have each and everyone of you become Sunset Sweethearts!!  I know this is a huge change, but luckily it has been done so early in the year that the move will hopefully be as smooth as possible.  If you are the parent of one of our new girls, please read the previous posts to get caught up on what has been happening in our room.  As always, my door is always open.  Feel free to call, email, or stop by whenever. 

Second, I want to thank everyone who was able to make it to Parent Orientation last night.  I loved being able to meet all of you.  For those of you who were unable to make it, I am sending home all the information with your daughters today.  Please review our class rules and procedures/behavior plan.  The powerpoint and behavior plan are yours to keep.  I just need you to sign the top saying you have reviewed it and send that slip back on Monday.  I am also sending home the medical release forms for our Jekyll Island trip.  That serves as the permission slip.  The trip costs $75 this year, and you can pay in installments between now and January.  We are asking to get all the money in by November 1st, if possible, because we learned this morning the price may go to $100 after that.  Finally, a title one packet is going home, and there is a sheet on the front for you to sign.  Please send that in Monday as well.

This was our first week working strictly with curriculum.  We working on place value of whole numbers and decimals in math.  We learned about to write the numbers in standard, expanded, and word forms.  Next week we will learn how to compare and order numbers with decimals, and then move on to order of operations.  Your daughters have already started working on some persuasive writing for me.  Our class pet, Roger the betta fish, passed away Tuesday morning.  The girls wrote me a short piece convincing me to get another pet.  They did an excellent job, and we now have Toby the betta fish.  The girls even named him.  They are also still working on their volcano papers.  In science we talked about the Earth's plates and how they move.  We went in depth with what happens to Earth as forces such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.  Next week, they will be doing hands on activities with forces.  We will be creating our own volcanoes and letting them erupt.  We are also going to make stop motion videos of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and floods and how they effect the Earth (especially in cities and towns).  The girls studies Sort 1 in spelling this week and learned how adding the suffix -ed changes the spelling of words.  Next week they will study Sort 2, which deals with a review of the prefixes re-, un-, dis- and mis-.  Remember, they must chose 3 activities from their speller's choice menu to complete throughout the week.  Two must be activities requiring writing, and one can be a nonwritten activity.  They will turn in their spelling on Friday before their tests.  Finally, please make sure your daughter is reading at least 20 minutes a night, and that she completes her reading log (which is due every Friday as well).

We have no birthdays in our class next week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!