Weekly Update 11.28-12.2

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!!

I had a lovely time with my family and friends.  I am very much looking forward to the longer Winter Break.  However, we have a TON to get completed in the next short three weeks. 

Here's what's happening this week:

Spelling:

Nobody is testing this week.  Blue- 24 withinwords Yellow- 6 within words Green- 17 syllable and affixes

Social Studies:

We starting chapter 8 and looking at government systems on the local, state, and national level.  We are also learning about taxes and what that money pays for.  We are also looking at how laws are made.

Math:

We are still working with multiplication, learning how to use multiplication to list combinations and how to represent multiplication facts with rows and columns. 

Science:

We are studying how the Earth, Sun, and Moon move. 

Reading:

We will work on identifying main idea and detail in short passages.  We will also begin reading poetry and understanding the types of poetry.

Writing:

We will be reading several wonderful narratives and then writing our own!

 

Important Dates:

Thursday, December 1st- Madison and Shane's Birthday!!

Friday, December 2nd- Cookies with Santa  6-8pm

AWESOME WEBSITE

http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listcompreheta.html

Oops!

I forgot to include in our Important Dates, that it is Ellie Goodman's birthday on Tuesday, November 22!

Thanksgiving weekly update

Happy Friday!

I sent home mid quarter reports with all students, so please discuss these grades with your kids and have them return the signed copy on Monday.  Many students are really struggling with writing.  Please be practicing writing every night.  I recommend they write in a journal or diary.  This can be about their day, about their reading, or they can write stories.  What I'm noticing is that their sentences don't really  flow and their overall ideas don't make sense.  They're really struggling with fragmented sentences and incomplete thoughts.  They can tell me stories, but writing them in an organized way is quite difficult.  Thanks for helping them with this!

Next week is extremely short, yet we're getting lots done.

No spelling next week.

Social Studies:  We're beginning the study of local, state, and national government.  We will begin by identifying U.S. symbols.

Math:  Students are learning how multiplication is just repeated addition.  We are finding multiplication in arrays and intersecting lines.

Science:  We are studying the lunar cycle and how to identify the different moon phases.

Reading:  We will be working on Thanksgiving plays!

Writing:  Students are writing a Thanksgiving story to their pen pals.  We will have this done...hopefully!

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday:  BOOK ORDERS DUE and Joey Otte's birthday!

Wednesday:  No school

Thursday:  Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday:  No school...Turkey leftover day!

Saturday:  Dylan Schade's Birthday!

weekly update 11.14-18

Did you know we're now in the middle of second quarter?  Seriously, where does the time go?  I will be sending home mid quarter reports to students have an area of concern.  If you do not receive a report, then your child is meeting expectations in our academic areas.

One more full week until Thanksgiving week!  This is what we will be covering:

Spelling:  Blue group test on Wednesday, Green group test on Thursday, Yellow group test on Friday

Social Studies:  We are wrapping up our study of being a good citizen.  We will test over chapter 7 on Friday.

Science: I normally do not do this, but for the sake of moving on, the students will have a quiz on Monday.  As always, the quiz is an open book quiz over pages 338-342.  The focus is on why we have seasons (Earth's tilt) and the Earth's movement (rotation and revolution).  Then we will move on to studying why the moon changes.  We will be studying the two types of eclipses (lunar, solar) and the phases of the moon.  I hope that everyone is remembering to fill out the moon calendar every night.  They will be turned in on Wednesday, November 30th.

Math:  We will wrap up our study of time on Tuesday with a test.  Then we will move on to MULTIPLICATION!  We will focus on the concept of multiplication as we investigate arrays and groups of items.  Now is the time to begin memorizing multiplication facts, if you haven't done so already!

Reading:  We are still practicing using visualization in our reading.  Then we will be working on retelling. 

Writing:  We are practicing using correct conventions in our writing.  Please remind your students to use capitals and punctuation appropriately.  I know they learned these skills several years ago, however, I'm still seeing a lot of students struggling to remember to practice this in their everyday writing. 

 

Important Dates:

Wednesday- Early Release

Thursday- Safe Touch class

Weekly Update Nov. 7

A huge THANK YOU to Mrs. McKay for organizing our Halloween party.  And thank you to all the families who donated treats, crafts, and party favors.  It was one of the nicest holiday parties I've attended in school.  The kids really enjoyed all the creative crafts...and candy!  A final thank you to all the parents and grandparents who helped run the party!  I'm looking forward to more holiday celebrations with you.

 

We ended the week with a fun fall activity of writing haiku poems and painting fall trees with q-tips!  Their masterpieces will go home after they are displayed in the hallways!

Here's what is going on this week:

Spelling:  Everyone is working on a new list this week.  Green:  16 syllable and affixes  Yellow:  5 within words  Blue:  23 within words  The lists are available on spellingcity.com

Social Studies:  We are beginning a new chapter (7).  In this study, students will explain how citizens can help improve their community, understand and apply the process of conflict resolution, and identify the U.S. Constitution as a document that helps protect our rights. 

Math: We are working with telling time, differentiating between a.m. and p.m., and finding elapsed time.  We will also work with calendars and schedules to sequence events.  On Monday, students will be asked to bring in photos of themselves from birth till present.  We will be making timelines with these pictures.

Science:  We are studying how the Earth moves.  Please be talking with your child about rotation (Earth spinning on its axis and takes 24 hours) and revolution (Earth rotating around the sun and takes 1 year).  We are also finding out that the tilt of the Earth is the reason for the changing seasons.  No matter how many times we work with flashlights, globes, and actually moving in rotating and revolving motions, this is a difficult concept.  Thanks for keeping these concepts and vocabulary in your conversations.

Reading:  We are visualizing while we read. I love teaching this skill, because it gives us so many opportunities to share our creative sides. 

Writing:  We are looking at how sentences are formed.  I'm seeing a lot of sentence fragments and run-on sentences.  We will be working on improving sentence fluency. 

Important Dates:

Tuesday:  I will be out all day for a workshop.  I will miss my class...but I'm looking forward to returning and hearing great reports!

Wednesday:  I will be out for a workshop in the morning.  I will return after lunch.

Baked Goods Pottery Night!  4:30-8:30.   A portion of all proceeds will be donated to Sappington. I'm going to be bringing GiGi, and we're making a Christmas present!  Hope to see you there.

Friday:  Veteran's Day assembly 9am.  Please let me know if a veteran is coming with your child.