Week of November 18th through 22nd

Hello! What a beautiful fall weekend we had! I hope that you're busily getting ready for the upcoming holidays? Perhaps the weather will hold up? (I'm not counting on it!) Please see important announcements for the week ahead below.

• This week will be our last week of keyboarding. The students will continue to be encouraged to use what they have learned during keyboarding anytime they are working on the computer. 

• The Bookworm Celebration for the 1st quarter will be this Wednesday, Nov. 20th. Please keep your eye out in the Worland newspaper for a picture! The goal for the first quarter was 50,000 words read (This is based on Accelerated Reader tests). The goal for the remaining three quarters of the year will be 75,000 words per quarter. Please encourage your child to read 20 minutes each night. (This will also help fulfill the Book-It reading goal.)

• The Marty Moose nutritional classes will continue this week. There will be NO Marty Moose next Wednesday due to the early release. These classes will continue through the last three Wednesdays in December. Please keep an eye out each Wednesday for a recipe that your child had an opportunity to try in class. 

• Please see this week's spelling words below. These words are tricky. They are called homophones. Homophones are words that sound the EXACT same but are spelled differently (ex. be and bee). Therefore, not only does your child need to know how to spell each word, but he/she must also know when to use each word. When you study with your child this week you will need to put each spelling word in a phrase or sentence. For example, "I tripped and fell in a hole." and "The whole class was quiet.". The student must hear the word in a sentence in order to know which one to use.
• hole
• whole
• its   (The cat chased its tail.)
• it's  (It's sunny outside.)
• hear
• here
• won
• one
• our
• hour
• their
• there
• fur
• fir
• road
• rode
• peace
• piece
• Extra Spelling Words:
• report
• erupt
• charts
• presentation
• educational
• impressive
• certificate
• creative

There will be NO spelling words next week due to the short week. Have a great week! 

Mrs. Martinez

Week of November 11th through 15th

Hi! Mid-November already? Hard to believe! I want to wish any Veteran a Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you for all you do for our country! Please see below for important announcements for the week ahead.

• The Marty Moose nutritional program starts this Wednesday, November 13th. For our class, it will run from 1:30-2:30 for the next FIVE Wednesdays (excluding Thanksgiving week). Your child will be bringing a recipe home after each class. Keep an eye out for these great nutritional treats for the whole family! 

• Students will be continuing with keyboarding instruction this week and next week. Please encourage your child to use his/her HOME ROW when typing. This should now be a familiar term with your child. 

• Click on the following link for a shortcut to the school district calendar. This comes in quite handy to use in order to access the lunch menu for the week. To access the daily lunch menu, once you arrive at the calendar, click on 'Daily Menus' on whichever day you're wanting to know the lunch menu.

• Please see this week's spelling words below. This week we are discussing the 'oy' sound as in 'boy'. This can be spelled with either 'oy' or 'oi'. It is important to know the difference. 
• joy
• spoil
• point
• toy
• voice
• joint
• join
• boy
• oil
• soil
• coin
• choice
• noise
• boil
• come
• are
• poison
• destroy
• Extra Spelling Words:
• power
• athlete
• court
• competitor
• professional
• championship
• entire
• rooting

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments. Have a great week! Thanks for viewing the blog!

Mrs. Martinez

Week of November 4th through 8th

Hello! I hope you had a nice weekend. Please see below for important announcements for the week.

• We are continuing to swim this week. The students have been leaving East Side at approximately 8:50 am and return around 10:05. Swimsuits, towels, and any other items your child took for swimming will come home on Friday. I believe that this Friday is free swimming time and you are invited to swim with your child. Ask your child for further details. 

• My class will also be serving this week. When students serve they will work in the lunchroom from 11:20-12:30. (This includes time to eat lunch!) Please keep this in mind if you want to take your child to lunch this week. Call the school on the day you would like to take your child and find out if he/she is serving. You could also send me an e-mail and I could let you know when your child is serving, too! (smartinez@wsh1.k12.wy.us)

• Our students are also beginning keyboarding instruction this week. One important keyword that you can use with your child when he/she is using the computer at home is to use their HOME ROW for typing. This will help Mrs. Patt when she is instructing them at school. 

• The Marty Moose nutritional program will begin next week. (I know--there's a lot going on!) This will occur every Wednesday for 5 weeks from 1:30-2:30. You will see a photo release paper coming home this week. Please don't let the wording scare you. Basically, this photo release allows the Centsible Nutrition teacher, Cindy Aguilar, to take photos of your child; these photos *may* possibly be used in University of Wyoming catalogs--however, I can honestly say I have never seen any photos of my past students anywhere. Please review, sign, and send this photo release back to school as soon as possible. 

• Just a reminder, the book order is due on November 11th. I realize that the book fair just got done--and I completely understand if you do not plan on ordering books this time. But I do always send a book order home each month. (It's nearly time to start thinking of ordering for Christmas gifts!) If you do ever want to order from a book order and keep it a secret from your child just let me know and I'd be happy to help. 

• Click on the following link for a shortcut to the school district calendar. This comes in quite handy for me as I use it to access the lunch menu for the week. To access the daily lunch menu, once you arrive at the calendar, click on 'Daily Menus' on whichever day you're wanting to looking at.

• Please see this week's spelling words below. This week we will be reviewing all the different ways that the short o sound can be made. Short o says AW as in DOT. The different spellings we will discuss this week for short o are: 'a', 'o', 'aw', and 'al'. 
• talk
• cross
• awful
• law
• cloth
• cost
• crawl
• chalk
• also
• raw
• salt
• wall
• lawn
• always
• soft
• small
• often
• strawberry
• Extra Spelling Words:
• signal
• gadget
• laboratory
• occasional
• electric
• experiment
• genius
• invention

As always, don't hesitate if you have any questions or comments. Have a great week! 

Mrs. Martinez

Week of October 28th through November 1st

Hello! Thanks for stopping by! This week is going to be a busy one--as will the weeks ahead. Please review important upcoming events for this week below.

• Swimming starts this week. Swimming will last from October 28th until November 8th. The students will be heading over to the pool at approximately 8:50. They should be in the water from 9:00 until 9:45.

•  Our Halloween party will be this Thursday (the 31st) at 2:30pm. After the last recess, at 2:15pm, the students will have the opportunity to change into their costumes. This is completely optional--as students do NOT have to change into their costumes if they do not wish to.

•  If you volunteered to help with the Halloween party but never received notice then I probably placed you on another party committee (assuming that you signed up to help with more than one party). FYI: All parent volunteers have already been contacted for the Halloween party and already know what they are bringing. 

•  Please see this week's spelling words below. This week we will be discussing the 'ou' and 'ow' sound that can be heard in words such as 'cloud' and 'brown'. 
• clown
• round
• bow
• cloud
• power
• crown
• thousand
• crowd
• sound
• count
• powder
• blouse
• frown
• pound
• house
• found
• mountain
• coward
• Extra spelling words: (your child should know if he/she has these or not)
• familiar
• vacant
• blurry
• blasted
• jerky
• rickety
• rude
• applause

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. My e-mail is smartinez@wsh1.k12.wy.us . I hope you have a Happy Halloween! 

Mrs. Martinez

October 21st through 25th

Hello! My apologies for not posting this blog on Sunday night like I usually do. I will do a better job next week. I hope you enjoyed the three day weekend. Due to parent/teacher conferences another three day weekend is upon us this coming week as well. Please see important reminders/announcements for the week below.

• Parent/teacher conferences have already started. Please be sure to call the front office if you are unable to keep your scheduled conference. Kari also has a list of the conference times--just in case you lost your reminder and need a little help. 

• Due to parent/teacher conferences this week, there will be NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 25th.

•  Remember, since this is a short week the students will be getting their expectation charts signed on Wednesday night (the 23rd). 

• The spelling test will also occur on Thursday (the 24th) due to the short week.

• Please see this week's spelling words below. This week we will be discussing words with silent letters. Even though these letters aren't heard, they still need to be in the word in order for that word to be spelled correctly. 
• itch
• wreck
• knee
• patch
• wrap
• knot
• watch
• knife
• stretch
• write
• knew
• knock
• match
• wrong
• know
• catch
• wrinkle
• knuckle
• Extra Spelling Words:
• harvest
• separate
• ashamed
• borders
• advice
• borrow
• serious

Once again, sorry about posting this later than usual. Please let me know if there is any additional information that I could add to this blog to better help you. Thank you for taking the time to view this blog! Have a great week!

Mrs. Martinez

Week of October 14th through 18th

Hello! I hope you had a nice weekend. Please see important announcements below for the week ahead.

• Parent/teacher conference confirmation papers will be going home on Monday, October 14th. I tried to accommodate the day/time you selected when I sent the blue letter home regarding conferences. However, please keep in mind that I also had to schedule with other teachers (for siblings) and doing it at the exact time/day was not always possible. Please see if the day/time would work for you and send back the bottom portion of the conference sheet ASAP.  I would like to have all conferences confirmed by this Thursday since the conferences start next Monday. 

• This Tuesday, we will have our Young Author's visit. Author Eugene M. Gagliano will visit all elementary students and talk about the importance of reading, writing, and following dreams. If you ordered a book from Mr. Gagliano it should be going home with your child this week. 

• The students are accustomed to getting their expectation charts signed on Thursday nights--however, since there is NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 18th I would like for the students to get their expectation charts signed on Wednesday night this week. This will also be the case next week since there is no school on Friday, October 25th either. 

• Please see this week's spelling words below. This week we are focusing on three-letter clusters--this includes 'thr', 'scr', 'str', and 'spr'. Extra spelling words will still be assigned to those students who have continually had the extra spelling words--unless I have spoken to you or your student. 
• three
• scrap
• street
• spring
• thrill
• scream
• strange
• throw
• string
• scrape
• spray
• threw
• strong
• scratch
• think
• they
• straight
• scramble
• Extra spelling words:
• imagine
• tools
• illustrate
• scribbles
• sketches
• tracing
• research
• textures

Just an additional reminder: There is NO school this Friday, October 18th due to Fall Break. Have a great week!

Mrs. Martinez

e-mail: smartinez@wsh1.k12.wy.us

Week of October 7th through 11th

Hello! I hope you had an enjoyable weekend! Please see important reminders/information below.

• Thanks to the Worland ELKS, all third graders in the district will each be receiving a dictionary. This dictionary will be distributed to your child on Monday, October 7th. If you happen to see a member of the Worland ELKS Club around Worland make sure your child says thanks! 

• This week is Fire Safety Week. Our class will have a visit from local firefighters on Wednesday, October 9th. Just a reminder: It's important to have a plan in place with your children with regards to what everyone should do and where everyone should meet in case of a fire at home. There's no time like the present to set this up!

• Book orders are due on Friday, October 11th. Please make sure you send the order along with the money for the order to school on or before this day. Online ordering is also available. My online activation code is DH6XV on the Scholastic website. You will need to set up an account in order to place an order online. 

• I will be gone on October 9th and 10th due to a meeting in Casper. Please understand that the substitute, Mr. Niles, may run things differently than you or your child are used to. This will be an important lesson in 'going with the flow'! Please remember that you can always reach me via e-mail, however, if the need arises.

• This Friday, October 11th, is deemed "S'mores Night" by the East Side Parent Group. This fun-filled evening begins at 7:00 pm. The parent group will be supplying glow sticks and s'mores--you will provide the good company! Please remember--> all children need to be accompanied by an adult.

• We will be moving onto multiplication this week in math. Please keep in mind that your child still needs to maintain proficiency with addition and subtraction of 2- and 3- digit numbers [with and without regrouping]. For a little practice each evening, I would suggest that you give your child two math problems each night to solve (one addition and one subtraction). Also, I will be discussing what to do when the top numbers are both '0'. For example, 700 - 256. Many students do not know what to do with the zeroes when regrouping is required. If you could help reinforce this concept at home that would be wonderful! 

• Please see this week's spelling words below. This week we will be discussing long and short vowel words. There are also a couple of proper nouns in the spelling list--remind your child that proper nouns *must* be capitalized in order to be given full credit on the spelling test. 
• math
• toast
• easy
• socks
• Friday
• stuff
• paid
• cheese
• June
• elbow
• program
• shiny
• piles
• sticky
• each
• both
• comb
• holiday
• Extra Spelling Words:
• collect
• orders
• continued
• scrambled
• sorted
• rapidly
• darted
• ragged

My e-mail is: smartinez@wsh1.k12.wy.us . Have a great week! :)

Mrs. Martinez