Monday, March 18, 2013

March 18th-22nd

Dear Parents/Guardians,
  We are now in the 4th Quarter of the school year.  At this point, all 3rd Quarter report cards have been sent home.  Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  I will be scheduling conferences this Thursday and Friday and April 3rd-5th for anyone who would like to come in and discuss student progress and especially for students who took a retention letter home. Congratulations go out to our 5 Principal's Honor Roll earners, our 3 Perfect Attendance students, and our Character Award winner Benny.  Good job students!
  This Wednesday is a Dollar Dress Down day to raise funds for a new garden that we will be starting soon. Students are encouraged to wear green.  March 25th-April 2nd is our Spring Break.  Students should relax in preparation for AIMS and the busy end of the school year, but they also need to make sure to keep reading at home.  Reading Logs for March will be due on April 3rd.  Cookie Dough Fundraiser packets were sent home today to give students an opportunity to sell to friends and family over the Break. If any families are able to donate supplies, we would greatly appreciate pencils, tissues, hand sanitizer, or lined paper. Thank you to everyone who participated in the Run, Walk, Roll Event over the weekend! Thank you to everyone who sent round foods to school for Pi Day.  We found the circumference of pies, pizzas, cookies, chips, funyons, cupcakes, etc.  It was educational and delicious!

There are no new Spelling Words this week. We were not able to get to our test last week, due to the half-day and Awards Assembly.  Words are available on last week's blog.
Have a great week and Spring Break!
-Ms. Vasquez

Monday, March 11, 2013

March 11th-15th

Dear Parents/Guardians,
  This week is the end of the 3rd quarter. It has really flown by! All missing work was due today. Most work from this week will appear in 4th quarter grades. We are continuing on at a busy pace.
  First drafts of book reports are due no later than this Friday. Students may count their book report reading time toward their Reading Log minutes for March.  Please remember that they need to be reading 400 minutes or more per month. This month, any student who reads five or more books will receive 4 free tickets to a Tucson Padres baseball game!
  We are studying Ancient Greece this week and continuing our Biography and Autobiography unit this week. We will also be celebrating Geometry and improved Galileo test scores on Thursday.  3/14 is International Pi dayStudents may bring any round food to measure and share with the class on Thursday afternoon.  Please ask your students about their Galileo scores.  All students received a break-down of their progress today. If you see a star, it means that they have demonstrated improvement throughout the year. A "Wow!" means that they demonstrated amazing improvement since the beginning of the year.  Writing scores are coded in pink, Math scores are coded in Green, and Reading scores are coded in orange.
Here are our Spelling Words for the week:
  1. amphibian
  2. acre
  3. appreciate
  4. brief
  5. contagious
  6. contribute
  7. conversation
  8. descendant
  9. disastrous
  10. echo
  11. enough
  12. fashion
  13. foreign
  14. hyphen
  15. ingredient
  16. liquid
  17. location
  18. novel
  19. physical
  20. scissors
Thank you and have a great week!
-Ms. Vasquez

Monday, March 4, 2013

March 4th-8th

Dear Parents/Guardians,
  We are quickly approaching the end of the 3rd Quarter.  All missing work is due no later than Monday 3/11.  Report cards go home on Friday 3/15. There is no afterschool and no lunch on the last day of the quarter. 
  Please remember that our big fundraiser this year is coming up on March 16th.  Run, Walk, Roll will be fun for the entire family! Please work on getting pledges.  There will be awards, games and FUN for all!  This is an LPA party in the park.
  This week we will be doing AIMS practice tests.  Students may have a bit less homework than usual, however, they will still be doing a Math lesson or supplemental each day.  Lesson 104 was assigned today, and some students may need to complete Spelling Sentences at home. Tomorrow students will have a practice Saxon Math test for extra-credit and preparation.
  We are in need of supplies.  If possible, especially if you were not able to provide classroom supplies last semester, send in a box of tissues or pencils or a bottle of hand sanitizer. These are items that we really need in the classroom!

Spelling Words for the Week:
  1. juice
  2. beautiful
  3. rumor
  4. cruise
  5. journalist
  6. urgent
  7. apply
  8. type
  9. system
  10. lyric
  11. appointment
  12. destroy
  13. announcement
  14. wound
  15. group
  16. incessant
  17. possesive
  18. resemble
  19. chemist
  20. machine
Thank you and have a great week!
-Ms. Vasquez