Book Orders are coming home tonight!

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub

One-Time Class Activation Code: LD2Q9

Dear Families,

Encouraging reading is one of the most important things we can do to help your child succeed. It can be tough finding the right books to keep them interested, which is why I am so excited that our class will be participating in Scholastic Reading Club this school year.

If you wish to order books, please fill out the order form and payment online.  The directions are listed below.  Once the orders are submitted they arrive at school and we will send them home in your child's backpack.  Ordering online will also allow you to place orders from any of the catalogs that Scholastic offers. Sooo, you can order to all of your children on this one form. It is truly one of the most exciting days for the kids when the books arrive at school.  It is the best present ever! J   

Please submit the first orders by Friday, October 11th.  If you have any questions, please contact me. 

Thank you for your support,

Jean McLoone

If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:

•    REGISTER at scholastic.com/readingclub

•    ENTER the Class Activation Code at the top of this letter

•    CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks

•    SUBMIT the order to me by the due date listed on the website

•    EARN FREE Books for our classroom too!

Community

We have just completed our first social studies unit. The unit title was Community (a place where people work and play together). We discussed the many wonderful places in our community.  We learned that we are citizens that belong to many groups.  We discussed the different groups or "communities" that we belong to: family, church, classroom, sports teams, choir, etc.  We made comparisons and contrasts between our neighborhood, city, state and country.  We connected our learning to a Google Earth activity in the LMC where we found our homes and made a map that showed our walking route from our homes to Patton School.  We also learned about basic needs vs wants.  The children reflected on their learning by posting their needs and wants on Kidblog.  Some of their other in class projects will be coming home soon.  I am pleased with the growth the class is making in building our positive classroom community.

Writing

We had a neat opportunity during writing this week.  The children were able to participate in a live webcast with the author Kevin Henkes. He gave a presentation about his life and explained how he was inspired to write different books.  This allowed the kids to see that authors are real people that write about real experiences in life.  Many of his books and characters are based upon people and situations in his life.  The kids really enjoyed seeing many books in his slide show like Chrysanthemum, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse,  and Julius the Baby of the World.  Mr. Henkes also introduced a new chapter book that he has just published, The Year of Billy Miller.  Several children seemed very motivated and ready to find this book and read it!!

We will use children's books very frequently as "mentor texts" which give examples for what we are going to write.  During our autobiography unit, which we are just finishing up, the children listened to Tomie dePaola's 26 Fairmount Avenue.  While we read this small chapter book, we discussed that Tomie was writing about his life.  He included facts about his family, his hobbies, where he lived, and many other facts.

One other topic we have explored in writing is letter writing. By the end of the year, the children should be able to correctly format and punctuate a letter including a heading, greeting, body, closing and signature.  The kids will have second grade pen pals in another class and we will write back and forth to practice formatting letters and writing with a purpose.

We look forward to beginning a bit of poetry writing in the near future!

Patton Tech Contract

As children come to school comfortable using technology in many different ways,  Patton School Staff felt it was important to have a consistent policy for everyone to follow.  We realize that at home, students may know how to change settings and preferences, and have more freedom on how technology is used. However, since our devices are shared among all students, we need to emphasize that settings should not be changed and that technology is used for learning purposes.