October 19-23

Good morning parents!
It's Monday morning, and I just thought I would give you an update on what we are doing in class this week (October 19-23). This week in class, we are beginning a new unit on writing. Here is a brief run-down of what this week looks like in class:

Monday: Learning new vocabulary words to add to our collection
Tuesday: Re-electing class officers for the new nine weeks
Wednesday: Taking the writing unit pretest, which includes writing an essay
Thursday: Briefly revisiting the writing process, which includes a writing assignment
Friday: Taking a vocabulary quiz over this week's words and beginning essay writing

The kids don't have any homework in here today or tomorrow, but they might have homework Wednesday and Thursday. If they do not finish their five paragraph essays from the pretest, those essays will be homework to turn in on Thursday. Not doing well on the pretest will not affect their grades in my class; however, I will give 5 completion points to all students who finish the test and try their best. I just want to learn what they know about writing so that I can have an idea of their strengths and weaknesses in this area.

Also, they might have homework on Thursday, because they have a writing assignment to complete using the writing process. Thursday in class, we are doing a writing assignment called "Are you more like..." in which they get to write about themselves. If they don't get this completed in class, which is a good possibility since it explores the entire writing process, they can turn it in on Friday or Monday.

The only homework that they might have on Friday would be to complete the writing assignment form Thursday and to study for the short story test next Tuesday. We recently finished a short story unit, and they will be taking a test over that information on Tuesday. We will review for that test by playing Jeopardy in class on Monday, but it might be a good idea for you to encourage your child to study the information before Monday. When we play Jeopardy in class, the winning team gets 5 bonus points on the test the next day. Your child has the opportunity to win those points if he/she studies and can help his/her tema answer the questions on Monday!

Again, if you have any questions about anything in this class, please feel free to contact me at kwalls@byngschools.com or between 10:25-11:10 at 580-310-6744. Have a great week!