My, oh my, where has the week gone?  I'll probably see some of you in just a few minutes at the common core meeting!

Tomorrow is our spelling test. I cannot emphasize enough that a child really knows the spelling of a word when (s)he correctly uses it in their sentence writing...not just simply spelling a list of words.  We have been working hard on simply recognizing when a group of words makes a sentence.  This is what we've learned:  A sentence is a group of words that makes sense.In other words, the group of words tell a complete thought or idea.  We know that the words do this when we can answer two questions.   (1)Who or what do the words tell about AND (2)what are they doing...what is happening?  If we don't know either of these two things, the words do not tell a complete thought.  So many times, children think that the capital letter at the beginning of the words and the punctuation mark at the end is what makes the words a sentence. WRONG!

This week we've been talking about the four different kinds of sentences and how we know which kind it is.  (statement, question, command, exclamation)

We will have the timed tests on math facts tomorrow.  I hope you practice on these at home!

We are working on our field trips.  More information along the way!

I've just about scheduled all my beginning of the year conferences.  I look forward to talking with you.