Mrs. Montejo's Class

April/May

Hello Parents!

I am sorry I didn't blog last month, the website was giving me a hard time!  Thank you so much for all your effort during CRCT week.  No one was tardy and all students were ready for the test every day!!  I really appreciate it. I can't believe the year is winding down already.  Even though we only have three weeks left, we still have a lot to accomplish so please remind your students that it is still important to stay focused!  Also, I am really looking forward to all of the fun events that are planned for the end of the year! 

We are in the midst of a great fundraiser here at school, the Boosterthon Fun Run!  Thank you for encouraging your child to help get pledges to support our school and our teachers!  Our class will participate in the Fun Run on Wednesday May 6, from 11:00 - 12:15.  Hope to see you there!

For more information, you can visit the website at

www.boosterthonsuperfan.com

Dates to Remember:

Boosterthon Fun Run - May 6th

Bank Day:  May 1st and May 15th

Field Day - May 13th

End of Year Celebration - May 21st

Last Day of School - May 22nd

You have all been wonderful parents and students to work with this year and I am sad to let these kids go! But off to third grade they will be in a few months!  Have a great summer and I'll see you back here in the fall! 

March

Hello!  Spring is almost here and we are ready for the warm weather!  The kids have been busy learning lots and lots in the past month... we have studied the sun, moon, stars and the earth and they have really loved finding out all the wonders of space!  I hope you are taking the time to look outside for a few minutes and see the moon each night.  You will find that there are many nights that you can start to see the moon before it even gets dark!  We have been studying and practicing standard measurement and metric measurement as well as temperature.  We are busy practicing all of our reading and word skills as well as our writing skills.  Here are some tips of things that you can focus on with your child this month, any review that you can do at home will be very beneficial to them!

Reading -  Remember to keep reading at home and talking to your child about what they read.  Ask them to make inferences using the clues in the story about what they think is happening, and ask them to draw conclusions about what they read.  We are going to begin focusing on writing a response to literature in the 4th nine weeks so we will be putting our thoughts about books onto paper! Thanks for reading and encouraging your child at home!

Language Arts - Keep practicing plurals, possessives, homophones, homographs, antonyms, synonyms, contractions, and spelling!  These are key skills that we have been learning and practicing all year and we will see them on the CRCT.  Everyone can use a little extra practice!

Writing - Remember to watch your children's writing for correct capitalization and punctuation, and noun-verb agreement.  Have them write a sentence or two about what they read and then talk about how their sentences look.  They love hearing your feedback!

Math - The best thing that you can be doing at home is keep practicing two digit addition and subtraction!  We are going to be starting three digit addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division in the 4th nine weeks! 

Please continue practicing the CRCT online tests! They are very good practice for the upcoming tests.  Take time to review the questions with your child and help them understand any questions they have trouble with or miss.  Thank you for taking the time! 

Also, your online math textbook is a great resource for math reinforcement, please encourage your child to go on and play the games that go along with units we have already covered. I will be sending home a letter soon letting you know about access to the science and social studies textbooks online as well. 

Important Dates for March:

Mar 2-6 Dr. Seuss Week

Mar 9-13 Spring Book Fair

Mar 12 - last day of 3rd nine weeks

Mar 20 - Report Cards go home

Apr 1 - Moon Calendars due

Apr 2 - FINAL (yay!) book report due

Apr 6-10 Spring Break

February

Hello!

Well, Phil says 6 more weeks of winter but I sure hope it warms up soon!  I hope you are all keeping warm and staying healthy.  January was another busy month and we have already jumped into February.  Here are some updates on what we are studying:

Math - We are working on fractions and are getting ready to start measurement.  Also, please keep practicing that two digit addition and subtraction because many students are still forgetting to regroup!  We will continue working with money as well, we are working on making change from $5.00 

Language Arts - Keep reading!  Also please be sure to practice adding different endings onto words and how to follow the rules for -s, -ed, -ing, as well as the difference between plurals, possessives, and contractions.   We are also covering synonyms, antonyms, compound words, homophones, homographs, and words with multiple meanings.  Be sure to point out these types of words whenever you see them and talk about them with your child!

Social Studies - We are finishing up our unit on Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jimmy Carter and how they influenced civil rights and human rights.

Science - We are gearing up to start diving into space!  We will begin studying the sun, moon, and stars next week and we will be looking at how they interact with each other and with the earth.  We will be asking you to look at the sky at night with your child throughout the next few weeks so please take this teaching opportunity to talk science with your child!  They really enjoy showing you what they have learned.

*Please make sure that you are doing the online practice tests for the CRCT.  I sent home a new copy of the login instructions last week.  There are many different tests they can take in different subject areas.  Please read through the questions with your child and talk about test taking strategies.  It will be very beneficial to your child!

Here are some important dates for the month of February:

Feb 5 - Class Picture Day

Feb 6 - Chick Fil-A biscuits

Feb 12 - Thinking Map training for Parents - 6:00pm

Feb. 13 - Junior Achievement starts

Feb 16 - Presidents Day - No School for students

Feb 20 - Spaghetti Dinner and Teacher Spelling Bee

Feb 25 - Star Lab visits the school (info to come home soon)

Feb 27 - Book Reports Due (info to come home soon)

March 6 - Friends Play

January 2009

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back!  I cannot believe we are half way through the school year already! The year seems to be flying right by.  December flew by with so much excitement and now January is set to be another busy and productive month!  I am looking forward to all of the exciting things that we will be learning about this month!  Here are a few topics to look forward to this month...

Language Arts - We will be diving into persuasive writing, practicing our reading skills such as inferring and determining important ideas, and reviewing many grammar concepts.

Math - We will be starting out by exploring and comparing bigger numbers, with place values of hundreds and thousands, and then we will be spending some time working with fractions and money.

Social Studies - We will be learning about Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King, Jr. and their influence on Civil Rights.

Science - Hopefully by the end of the month we will be starting to learn about the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky... an exciting February unit to look forward to! 

In addition to all the exciting things we will be learning, there are also a lot of important dates to remember! Here are some dates to keep in mind for the month of January:

Jan 6. - Welcome Back! First day of 3rd nine weeks

Jan 15 - Field Trip to Fernbank Museum

Jan 16,20,22,23 - Fire Safety lessons presented by the local Fire Department

Jan 22 - Book Reports due (information to come home soon)

Jan 26 - 30 - Conference week:

            During this week the students will have early release each day.  The afternoons are reserved for conferences which you will be notified of shortly.  You will recieve your child's report card at your scheduled conference.  I look forward to meeting with each of you! 

Have a Great January!

Mrs. Montejo

November

Hello! 

As the holidays are fast approaching, so are the end of the nine weeks! Progress reports go out tomorrow, and after that we only have three more weeks in December!  When we come back in January we will already be on our way to the third nine weeks!  I can't believe how fast the year is going!  We are having a great time and learning lots!  We have spent a lot of time working hard in all of our subjects.  Keep practicing that math at home... 2-digit addition and subtraction, counting money and making change, telling time, etc.  In Social Studies we have been learning about how Georgia started and we have learned about three important Georgia heroes: Mary Musgrove, Tomochichi, and James Oglethorpe!  In Science we have been learning about Energy and how it affects us.  In Writing we have been learning about writing to tell information, and how to use the writing process to create a nice piece of writing.  We have also been talking about how to use new and exciting words in our writing and make it more interesting to read!  We have been doing a lot of reading as well.  We are studying the differences between fiction and non-fiction and how we can use books to support our writing.  We have just been busy busy! 

Keep working hard at home and remember to keep practicing even over the holidays to keep their minds ready to go when they return!  In December we will be talking about Geometry in math, more Energy in science, goods and services in social studies, and inferring in reading.  We are also going to dive into the dictionary! 

Have a safe and happy holiday vacation! 

October

Hello! Can you believe the first nine weeks is basically over already?  The year is flying by and we are having a great time learning here at school!  We are learning about 2-digit addition right now in math and we are about to learn about 2-digit subtraction and money.  In writing we are still working on proper capitalization and punctuation, as well as using complete sentences.  In Reading we are learning to make predictions, make connections, and retell the story.  We are also learning about non-fiction books and how they are different.  In Science we are studying matter and how it changes.  And in Social Studies we are studying the Creek and Cherokee Indians of Early Georgia.   I know that all of you have been working hard on those spelling words at home, so keep studying! You are doing great!

Here are a list of important dates for October:

Oct 3 - Movie on the Mount

Oct 6 - Scholastic Book Orders due

            In-House field trip - presentation by a true Cherokee Indian

Oct 8 - Field Trip to the Funk Heritage Museum

Oct 10 - Last day of first 9 weeks

Oct 15 - Early Release

Oct 17 - Report Cards sent home

Oct 20 - 25 - Book Fair

Oct 25 - Fall Festival

Oct 30 - Book Reports Due (Information will come soon)

September

Hello! We are approaching the middle of the 9 weeks and we have already learned so much!  We are getting ready to begin learning about the Creek and Cherokee Indians, Matter, and two-digit addition.  We are continuing to learn about the reading strategies such as predicting, comparing, and making connections, as well as writing a narrative story. 

Be on the lookout for assessments coming home soon that have only a score on them... these are assessments that I am using to see how your child is doing and they also let you know what your child needs to work on.  Any assessments that have an S1, S2, or S3 on them is a summative assessment that will be used toward your child's report card grade.

Progress reports will be sent home on Wednesday, September 17 and will only be sent to students who are struggling to meet standards. 

Have a great end of the month!

August

Hello and Welcome Back to School!

I am so excited to be starting a new school year with a wonderful new class!  The first week of school has gone smoothly, and we are already jumping in to learning!  I can tell we are going to have a great year. 

Communication is very important to me, so please do not hesitate to contact me for any reason.  If you feel you want to meet with me, please schedule an appointment and I would be glad to talk with you.  I look forward to communicating through email with you frequently as well. 

In August we will be studying the following:

Math- place value- What can I do with numbers?

Reading-fiction stories

Spelling, phonics/blending sounds

Social Studies- maps, globes, directions, city, state, country, continent

Writing- narrative stories

Please mark the following dates on your calendar:

Monday September 1 - NO SCHOOL - Happy Labor Day!

Curriculum Night K-2-Tuesday, September, 2nd-  6:30-8:00. This will be our opportunity to discuss such things as the new report card, curriculum content, homework policy, discipline, and methods of instruction and evaluation. I am looking forward to seeing you at Curriculum Night!

To those of you who have already subscribed to this blog, thank you so much for doing that quickly!  You should receive this in your email.  If you are looking at this through the school website and have not subscribed yet, I encourage you to look to the left of this page and click the link that says *Receive Email Updates.  Follow the instructions to subscribe, and all future blogs will be delivered directly to your email. 

Thank you for your support!

Ashley Montejo