Speed drills

All of you indicated that you saw your child's status on the addition Speed Drills this past week. We discussed at Parent-Teacher Conferences the benefits of getting the required 80% mark before Winter Break so that during the Break your child could begin learning the subtraction facts. The time has come! Eight students have passed with the 80% or better! I will administer 4 speed drills this coming week to give your child an opportunity to pass before the Break. Please focus on this and save yourself and your child the frustration of having to work on both addition and subtraction at the same time. Help your child zero in this week and get this accomplished. Speed drills will be done Tuesday through Friday.

First All-fact Speed Drill

This week we took our first speed drill that includes all 100 addition facts. Two girls have now passed with 80% or better (One of those was a 99%!) Congratulations to you two girls! Next week let's have some boys pass. Study hard!

Preparing for Parent-Teacher Conferences

I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you during Parent-Teacher Conferences. To make optimal use of our 15 minutes of sharing, please jot down questions between now and then ---- questions you may have about anything concerning your child's work or about our classroom procedures, grading, etc. If there are certain pages your child has brought home that he/she particularly had problems with, bring them along, too. Let's make this a profitable time that will benefit your child's educational needs.

(Espanol)Estoy anticipando nuestra junta durante las conferencias para padres/maestros. Para utilizar nuestros 15 minutos a lo mas optimo, favor de apuntar cualquier pregunta que usted pueda tener tocante al trabajo escolar de su hijo o hija --- preguntas tocante a los procedimientos del salon, la manera de calificar, etc. Si hay algunos trabajos que han sido particularmente dificultosos para el/ella, traigalos tambien. Haremos de este tiempo uno de maximo beneficio para las necesidades escolares de su nino/nina.

Preparing for Parent-Teacher Conferences

Stickers Needed

My sticker box is very low on stickers and a couple of you have asked if there is anything we need for the classroom. If you are at Mall able to fill this need, I would really appreciate it if you could donate stickers to put in there. Your second graders are doing a fantastic job on discipline and I like to reward them appropriately. Your help will go a long way in accomplishing this. Thank you.

Spelling homework expectations

The spelling lists I am sending home are the first of lists I will be sending home on Mondays. The first two or three lists are very simple words just to break the students into the routine. On Mondays they will write the words three times each for homework. This list must be kept in the backpack at all times.

We will do some work with the words in class during the week but it is expected the children will study them at home to do well on the test. I will give a practice test on Thursdays and the final weekly test will be on Fridays. Any child who gets a 100% on Thursday is not required to take it on Friday. Instead, they will be allowed free time to play quietly at the back of the room.

Final week instructions

There will be no spelling homework tonight. Our spelling for the week will be a review of harder words we have had during the year. On Wednesday or Thursday I will put out a list of about 30 words that I will give as a test on Friday, but it will all be review. There is no need to work on these at home since I will be testing on actual ability to spell as opposed to “memorizing” the spellings of a certain number of words.

I will be doing speed drills in both addition and subtraction for those students who need it. I am also doing multiplication speed drills on only the facts that have been studied by the students who have completed addition and subtraction requirements.

Thank your for an excellent job of helping your student complete homework and required mastery of phonograms and math facts this year! You all are A+ parents in this respect!

Testing Week

It is extremely important that your child be in attendance and on time all week long. Although not all the days will be occupied fully on testing, we don’t know from one moment to the next how our testing schedule might change, so to be sure your child doesn’t miss out on anything, please make sure he/she is here all day, every day this week. There will be certain rewards given out for perfect attendance during the week, so don’t let your child miss out on the fun, either.

In addition, please make sure your child gets enough rest (9 to 10 hours) every night. Your child may need a small snack during the morning to keep him going, so you may pack a small snack for him/her every day.

Because of testing regulations, students are not to leave the testing place (our room) on their own, so please remind your child that he/she must use the times I take them to the restroom as a class for their needs and not during class time.

I am expecting some very good results on these tests; the children have been doing some fantastic work! Thank you, in advance, for your cooperation on this matter.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Navarro

Speed Drill Update

This week we will have our first subtraction speed drill. Six children have not yet passed the addition speed drill. If your child is one of them, please continue to work on that at home. When he/she is ready to try again, just send me a note or have him tell me and I will give the speed drill to just that child during the day. I will continue to do periodic speed drills in addition from time to time to keep the skill up, but the emphasis now is on subtraction.

Need to Study

Well, here we are at the end of another month. Can you believe it? The days are flying past and we must take care of those little details such as passing the addition and subtraction speed drills soon or we will find ourselves at the end of the year frustrated because we left it until the last minute. Please don’t do this to your child. Help him/her remember to study every night after homework and I assure you he/she will pass it right away. But we can’t skip that studying in the evenings. Please help.

Also, we are down to our last box of Kleenex for the class and we still have allergy season to go through. If you are able to, please send another box of Kleenex to help us through the year.

Update

This week we begin working on the subtraction facts but it will be awhile before we start having the 100-fact speed drills on them. My advice to you is that if your child has not obtained his/her required 80% on the addition, that you continue to work on those. I have decided to continue having addition speed drills at least once a week to help out those who have not completed the requirement. So please keep working on addition to complete that requirement.