February 27, 2009

Dear Parents,

Your child’s animal research project is due on Monday.  On Monday morning students will have the opportunity to show their animal model and tell us a few interesting facts.  Afterwards we will start transferring their animal information into their hard-covered books.  It is important that students turn their project in on time.  You should’ve received another copy of our animal research project in your child’s homework last night.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. 

We’ve completed Unit 5: Place Value, Number Stories, and Basic Facts last Tuesday.  I was going to give a written assessment on Wednesday, but we’ve had about three students out daily this week.  I’m going to postpone the test until next week in hopes that students are back to school.  I did move onto the next unit: Developing Fact Power.  Enclosed you will find Unit 6 Family Letter.  Please review.

Also enclosed is a new list of sight words.  Normally I distribute them at each marking period, but many students have done so well.  Some students have a few flashcards left and some have none!  Keep up the good work at home!

Next week we will have our third reading theme test.  We will take the test on Monday to Wednesday from 8:00-9:45 a.m.  Please be sure that your child is to school time and has had a good breakfast.  As I have discussed with you at our last parent-teacher conference, each test will be taken with support.  I model how to correctly start each answer to the question.  Students are responsible for looking back into the story for the rest of the answer.  The results of this test are one of the many I use to assess your child’s reading and comprehension abilities.  Also this test helps students prepare for our Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). 

This year the ITBS test will be given the week of April 13-17.  The results of this test are for internal use only.  We use this information to find our strengths and weaknesses in our elementary.  Also your child will take this test from 1^st to 8^th grade.  As your child takes this test from year to year, you’ll be able to monitor your child’s progress.  The results of the test will be mailed to you just before summer vacation.

If you have not visited our class website recently, then you may want take a few minutes to look it over.  I’ve added many new pages such as Valentine’s party, High-Tech Dental visit, 100^th day of school and many others.  Our website address is http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us/e2009/Mrs.Niederstadt/

The following are dates that you may want to add to your calendar:

• Class Store – February 27
• School Store – March 6

• Class Store – March 13
• Manistee Public Library/Pizza Hut field trip – March 13
• Class Store – March 20
• Camp Read-a-Lot – March 20
• Young Author’s Night – March 24
• Substitute (Ms. Catanese) – March 26 & 27
• Spring Break – March 30 – April 6
• Parent-Teacher Conferences at 5-8 pm – April 15
• Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) – April 13-17

  Warmly,
  Mrs. N

Our Main Class Page for 2008-2009