We have a busy week ahead! I wasn’t in school on Monday because my younger brother got married on Sunday! I was so happy to be able to celebrate such a special occasion with my family and welcome my new sister-in-law to the family! The substitute told me that the class did a great job and I am so proud! 🙂
*Important Announcements This Week*
*Jamestown Field Trip: This Friday, November 2nd is our field trip to Jamestown! We will leave SPES before the normal school day so you will need to bring your child to school that morning. We will leave SPES at exactly 7:30 AM and will return to school around 4:15 PM. We would like for students to be there by 7:15 so that we can all board the bus and be accounted for and ready for our 7:30 departure.
Weather Reminders! — 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 we would definitely recommend dressing in layers and wearing comfortable shoes for walking. Our trip is rain or shine so your child may want to wear a rain coat and bring an umbrella if the forecast is calling for rain.
Food – Children will be asked to bring 2 nut-free snacks. One snack for the morning ride to Jamestown and one snack for the afternoon ride back from Jamestown. 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. If you need to purchase a school bag lunch for your child that day, you must let me know by Wednesday of this week so I can let the cafeteria manager know.
We will NOT be visiting the gift shop, so please do not send any money with your child. Your child may bring a camera (not a phone), but it is their responsibility to keep track of it and carry it around all day. No other electronic devices are permitted on the trip.
*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, 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.
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
Students can bring the items into their classroom any time between October 29 – November 9, 2018. Thank you for your support!
*What Are We Learning This Week?*
*Reading:
During our whole group lessons this week we will continue to work on specific reading skills and strategies. We will continue our work with author’s purpose this week in both fiction and nonfiction. We will be analyzing two texts and looking deep into the text to analyze the choices that the author used. We will also continue focusing on learning new vocabulary from our character traits list. Understanding these new vocabulary words are a great way to improve our reading and writing skills! During small group rotations, students will meet with me in small group and we will continue our strategy work using leveled texts. They will also rotate through the “read to self” and “work on writing” rotations.
We will take a week off from specific word lists for word study this week due to the short week with the field trip.
*Math:
We will review on Monday for the Addition/Subtraction/Estimation Test, which is going to be on Tuesday, 10/30.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week we will practice working on computation with decimals.
*Social Studies:
This week we will begin our unit on Jamestown (VS.3 notes). The topics we will learn about this week are the reasons why England wanted to set up colonies in the New World (VS.3a), the economic and geographic influences on the decision to settle at Jamestown (VS.3b), the 3 charters that were given to the Virginia Company of London (VS.3c), and the beginning of government in the Jamestown colony (VS.3d). We will not be finished with learning about the unit when we go to Jamestown, but the trip will be such a great way to reinforce what we have learned in class as well as experience everything else we will study next week! As with all past units, it is very important that students begin reviewing the content that we cover in class a little bit each night. Thank you for encouraging your child to review at home.
*Science:
Our class will take the Weather Test on Wednesday, 10/31. (As our class discussed, we would rather have our test on Halloween than on the day after Halloween!)
Have a great week!
-Mrs. Jacobsen