I do not spend a great deal of time going over math homework in class. Math Homework comes home MOST nights. Your child may do the homework independently OR with limited assistance from you. The important thing is that he/she makes you aware of what he is learning in math at school. We do a lot of talking about about how we got the answer in math so students hear different math thinking. We request that you CHECK your child's work and have him CORRECT ERRORS and that you INITIAL the homework indicating that you have checked it. (Answers for all homework sheets are in the pink Parent Letter you receive at the beginning of every unit.)We want to avoid having the child do it himself and not show it to you to be checked. That defeats the purpose of communicating with you! If your child has difficulty on the homework, please write a note on the paper to let me know. It should not be difficult as it is a review of what was learned that day. Thank you for your help with this.
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We have read several versions of the Nutcracker and we have been listening to the music for weeks. A former Consolidated student came in to talk to students. She explained about the performance and about being a ballerina. You may have noticed the autographed picture that came home from school. She will be performing in the ballet and will be there tomorrow when we go to "Backstage at the Nutcracker" at Merrill Auditorium. We will be leaving at 8:30 and back at 11:30. We will have snack on the bus and lunch in our rooms so please pack a simple snack and a bagged lunch (no glass bottles, please). 
We have been learning a lot about the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving this week. I hope students can come home to tell you all about what was eaten at the First Thanksgiving and about the feast. They should also be able to tell you who helped the Pilgrims survive and don't forget to ask them to describe their voyage over. We will continue on this theme next week.
In light of the recent events at Consolidated, we spent a lot of time talking about hand washing this week. Each student washed their hands or used GermX before they ate their snacks or lunch. Hopefully, these good habits will stop the spread of any germs! 
We did a lot of activities centered around our core literature book called The Ox Cart Man by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney in preparation for our October 30th field trip to Olde York Historical Society. I will be bringing in some artifacts next week and they will see others on the field trip as they compare the chores today to the chores long ago. Enjoy the weekend before the rains come!