Friday’s Trunk or Treat event was so much fun!  I enjoyed seeing some of you there, and I’m sorry if you were there and I didn’t get a chance to see you! (If you saw me, then you saw how busy I was being a mom and chasing my little ones around making sure I didn’t lose them!)  🙂

*Important Announcements This Week*

*Jamestown Field Trip:  Our field trip to Jamestown is next week!  The field trip to Jamestown will be on Friday, November 2, 2018.  We will leave SPES at exactly 7:30 AM and will return to school around 4:15 PM.  Please note that this means your child will NOT be able to take the bus to school that day.  You will need to drop your child off, and we are suggesting your child arrive no later than 7:20, so we can account for all children.  Thanks for your help with this!  Please be sure to check the weather forecast for the Jamestown area and dress your child appropriately. It can get very cool and windy along the James River, so I would definitely recommend dressing in layers and wearing comfortable shoes for walking. Children will be asked to bring 2 nut-free snacks – one for the morning ride to Jamestown and one for the afternoon ride back from home.  In addition, your child will need to pack a lunch and a few drinks. Please pack a couple of waters that have screw tops so that your child can drink “safely” on the bus without spilling. We will NOT be visiting the gift shop, so please do not send any money with your child.  Your child may bring a camera (it may not be a phone), but it is their responsibility to keep track of it and carry it around all day.

*Treats for the Troops:   Short Pump Elementary has a tradition of collecting items to send to our troops overseas.  We do this in collaboration with the Blue Star Families of Richmond (http://www.bluestarrichmond.org), a chapter of a national organization of families with loved ones who proudly serve our country.  Each grade level is assigned specific items to collect. Our goal is to collect 200 of each item in order to complete 200 care packages for active duty military personnel in combat zones and various USO sites.  Students can bring the items into their classroom any time between October 29 – November 9, 2018.

Here’s the breakdown by grade:

• K:  Q-tips, travel size shampoo/conditioner, sample size Gold Bond foot powder
• 1st:  dental floss, “wisps” (dental cleaners), toothpaste, toothbrushes
• 2nd:  socks, travel size lotion, deodorant/antiperspirant (stick only)
• 3rd:  instant oatmeal, individual snack packs (nuts, dried fruit, fruit snacks, trail mix), beef jerky
• 4th:  power bars/granola bars, powdered drink mixes (Gatorade, coffee, Kool-Aid, Crystal Light)
• 5th:  tuna/chicken in foil packages, crossword puzzle books, playing cards

*Stinger Fund:   Safety continues to be Short Pump Elementary’s number 1 priority, and this year, we hope that you can support us in this effort as well. Please consider donating to the Stinger Fund, which is comprised of direct donations to support instruction and this year safety as well. We need to raise over at least $15,000 collectively to reach our goal. The way we figure it is if each family in my class donates at least $25, it will cover instructional materials of my classroom that the PTA financially provides each year and allows me to have a walkie-talkie, an enhanced security measure. Thank you for your consideration!

*What Are We Learning In Class?*

*Reading:

This week we will work more with fictional text and continue to practice comprehension strategies.  The reading comprehension topic that we will continue working on this week is author’s purpose. We will dive deeper into fiction text by looking at the specific word choice that authors use.  We will review synonyms and antonyms and the “strength” of the different words that an author uses. Students will work in small groups this week to create “word webs” for synonyms and antonyms of common words.  During small group rotations, students will meet with me in small group and we will continue to practice using comprehension strategies using leveled texts.  While students are not meeting with me, they will read to self and work on their writing.  I look forward to see how they do with these stations that we have been working so hard on over the last few weeks.

We will not have new word study words this week.  Instead we will work on writing sentences using strong adjectives and verbs.

Students will also complete a reading comprehension assessment on Friday.

*Math:

We will continue with our unit on computation of addition and subtraction this week.  This week we are going to continue with subtraction. As I have explained to the class, it is very important that as your child regroups (or what many people call “borrowing”), that he or she is understanding what they are doing and what it means mathematically.  It is very important for students to be able to explain what it means when we cross a number out and make it one less, and then make another number 10 more.  Please encourage your child to talk through a few problems with you.  As I have explained in class, the other “must” for subtraction is that your child is checking his or her subtraction problems by doing an addition problem.  Please check your child’s homework and make sure there is an addition problem to make sure that he or she has the right answer.

On Monday we will pick back up with subtraction without crossing over zeros and then we will move on to what to do if there is a zero in our top number. Students will have math homework to practice these skills each night so please check in to see that your child is completing his or her homework neatly and correctly.

The class will take a short Computation Quiz on Thursday 10/25.  Then we will spend the rest of the day on Thursday and Friday working on word problems – both single and multi-step problems.  Multi-step problems can be very challenging, so we will spend a lot of time in class discussing the ways to think about these problems and how to solve them.

We will take the Addition/Subtraction/Estimation Test on Tuesday, 10/30.

*Social Studies:

The students did a great job on their test on Virginia Indians last week!  This week we will move on to our new unit on Jamestown (VS.3).  To begin our Jamestown unit, students will work on an inquiry lesson on Wednesday where they will be analyzing primary sources and asking questions about the documents.  Based on the questions that they create, I will group them into teams to research their inquiry topics. They will complete these independent projects over the next couple of weeks during our enrichment time.  Later in the week we will begin learning about the Jamestown content using notes.  We will start with the VS.3a section, which explains why England wanted to create colonies in the New World.  Please encourage your child to begin reviewing the content that we cover in class a little bit each night.  As with all social studies units this year, there is some challenging vocabulary that students need to review at home.  Thank you for your help with this.

*Science:

We will continue with our weather unit this week.  On Monday we will learn about different types of air masses and what happens when these air masses collide and cause fronts.  We will learn about cold fronts and warm fronts, and the type of weather each type produces.  At the end of the week we will review all weather information.  The Weather Test will be on Wednesday, 10/31.

Have a great week!

-Mrs. Jacobsen