Week of 9/7/09-9/11/09

I hope that eveyrone's Labor day was wonderful! Starting this week off with Tuesday and not Monday made things a little interesting, but today was Nicholas' birthday and we had a great day in all!

This week your child needs to focus on continuing to finish their 1st Outside Reading book for the month by Wednesday next week! (Just a good goal, not a MUST!)

They have a test tomorrow and we start Math Tiles training/our first session of Math Tiles this week! They really love Math Tiles, so if you can help out every couple weeks, we could really use you! Even grandparents or other relatives are welcome!

Besides spending time with those spelling words each night, your child needs to be listening to the first History Song. They have a test in history next thursday (9/17) and knowing/memorizing this song is really going to help them do well! They should be able to sing the song without looking at the words before the test. You can help them prepare by looking at their song sheet and asking them who someone is/what they did/when they did it. For example: Hernando Cortes came to America and brought horses. He wanted to conquer the Aztecs in Mexico in 1519. (5th stanza of song) Getting them to understand who each person is and what they did will help them excel! They will also get a Study Sheet this Thursday.

The only other suggestions that I have are to check their homework. Make sure they are writing their Name, Subject, Date, and Mrs. Traylor on their paper, as well as, numbering their papers. Today we did classwork in Math and more than half the class did not label their papers correctly, number, etc. This may not seem like a big deal, but getting them to be religious about this will become second nature and when they have Binder Explosions, as we like to call them, then they can easily put all their papers back into their sections on their own. Please encourage them to do it correctly! It also helps me to grade their papers and they need these basic skills to do well on tests.

I am very proud of them. This is a great group, they are quick learners, and really have been succeeding. The majority of problems come from a lack of following directions, not a lack of understanding!

Please pray for me this week to have strength and to be encouraged. It is hard as a first year teacher and Satan can get in all sorts of areas to try to discourage me, but I will press on towards the upward call of Christ and I pray your children will see me striving and want to strive to follow Jesus, as well. Thank you for your prayers! I can tell when you are praying!

Love,
Mrs. Traylor