Weekly Update Jan. 30- Feb. 3

Happy Monday!
I can't believe this is already my second week of substituting in Mrs. Feldt's classroom. I have already learned so much from all of your students, I am so lucky to be on this journey with Team 38! Please feel free to contact me at anytime on my e-mail lcorrenti@lindberghschools.ws for any questions or concerns you may have, I am always here to help.

This is what is happening this week:

Spelling: We are all towards the end of our spelling words. Blue- sort 26, will be taking their test on Wednesday. Yellow- sort 13, will be taking their test on Thursday. Green- sort 19, will be taking their test on Friday. I have met with each of these groups and I can already tell that they are all going to do great on their test!

Math: I am so pleased to say that the student's scores on the Geometry test were very good. I was so pleased to score these tests!! We will be starting to learn more about solid figures and will also get into learning about area and perimeters.

Science: As we are wrapping up our little states of matter unit, we will have a quiz over solid, liquid, and gas. Since we have been working on this each day and today for morning work, I am very confident that your students will do great on this quiz. After the quiz, we will then start the unit with physical and chemical reaction where we will be conducting a couple experiments to really show the students these type of reactions.

Social Studies: We finished chapter 9 and the tests really show how well the students understood this chapter of income, saving, spending, budget, opportunity cost, scarcity and more! Maybe this will rub off at home too? :) After ending chapter 9, we will begin chapter 10 this week!

Reading: Thank you all so much for bringing in the articles to help us better understand author's purpose, that truly helped us out a lot. We took a quiz last week on author's purpose where they read 3 different articles and had to decide if the author was trying to persuader, inform, or entertain the reader and they all did wonderful on them!

Writing: Students are finishing up writing their persuasive papers and cannot wait to videotape them to show you all, hoping they might get some of these things they are persuading you all! :)

Dates to remember:
Valentines Day is coming up- Tuesday February 14th. Students may make their Valentine boxes at home. I will attach a class list with this update as well!

Also, we are getting a new student this week. Her name is Samantha Linder, and she came to Sappington for grades K-2 and will be joining us again!

weekly update Jan. 23-27

Happy Monday!

Today is the first day that I am not in the classroom.  Ms. Correnti is now teaching Team 38!  I know the students will have fun learning from her.  I will be in the building working with teachers, but I have told the students that I will be working with them frequently.  Following this week, Ms. Correnti will be providing weekly updates through email and on the blog.  Her email address is lcorrenti@lindberghschools.ws, so please feel free to contact her with any questions or concerns.  And of course you can continue contacting me as well. 

 

This is what is happening this week:

 

Spelling:  New words have been given.  They will be up on spelling city by this afternoon.  Blue- sort 26 within words Yellow- sort 13 within words  Green- sort 19 syllables and affixes

 

Math:  We are wrapping up our study of geometry.  Last week, the students had a little trouble identifying lines of symmetry, so please be helping them with this at home.  They will be taking a test over this chapter on Thursday. 

 

Science:  Students are learning about the 3 states of matter:  solid, liquid, gas.  We will be studying the different types of molecules that make each state and how the shape and density identify each state as well. 

 

Social Studies:  We are finishing chapter 9 and will take a test over the material on Friday. Students will be provided a study guide to help them prepare for this test.  They have been doing a great job understanding income, saving, spending, opportunity cost, and scarcity.  I'm confident they will do well on the test!

 

Reading:  Students are learning how to identify author's purpose in fiction and non-fiction pieces.  They will choose between the following purposes:  to inform, to entertain, to persuade.

 

Writing:  Students are working on persuasive writing.  They will be providing persuading opinions and reasons and details for their topic. 

 

Dates to Remember:

Monday- Ability Awareness Day

 

Density Experiment

Students found the density of several household items.  We first started with blue colored water.  Then we added syrup, which sank to the very bottom of the water.  This showed us that syrup is more dense than water.  The molecules in syrup are packed more tightly than the molecules in water.  We continued to add several items and observed their density.  We recorded our observations in our science journals.  Can you determine density of different items you find at home?  If so, post your comments below!

weekly update 1.17-1.20

I hope everyone enjoyed the 3 day weekend! Here is what is going on this week:

 

Word work:  Blue group is testing Wednesday, Yellow group is testing Thursday, and Green group is testing on Friday

 

Math: We are learning about polygons, quadrilaterals, triangles, congruent and similar figures, and symmetry.  Please be using the geometry vocabulary book that was sent last week to study with your child.  Mastering this vocabulary is very important!  Test over this material will be next week.

 

Writing:  We are learning the differences between fact and opinion, synonym and antonyms.  We are also starting cursive this week!  Mrs. Merrell the school Occupational Therapist visits our class every Wednesday to teach the students correct form and structure of cursive letters.  I do not assign homework or assignments for cursive. 

 

Science:  We are experimenting with density!  Students will test if object sink or float.  We will take a quiz over this material on Thursday.  It will be an open book quiz and I think we will do some of it together.  This is a very difficult lesson for students, and I just want to make sure they have a firm grasp on the material.  Then we are moving on to states of matter.

 

Social Studies:  We are going over the directions for Economic Fun Day. Then we will study income/budget and opportunity cost.

 

Reading:  We are studying text features in non-fiction print: table of contents, epilogue, glossary, bold print, headings, captions.

 

Important Dates:

Spelling Bee - The spelling bee will be on Friday at 2:00.  We will broadcast on KSAP.
Movie Night - Friday night at 6:00 is the SPTG family movie night. 

Weekly Update 1.9-1.13

Hello,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  This is our first full week back in third quarter and it is a BUSY week!
Spelling:  No tests this week.  We're still working with our words that were introduced last week.
Writing:  We're learning the differences between singular and plural nouns and how to spell them correctly.  We did a good job of punctuating dialogue, and we will continue working on quotation marks and commas.
Reading: We are sequencing fiction and non-fiction pieces.  We are also working with a new way to communicate in guided reading...EdModo!  Edmodo is an online site that allows the students to reply to each other about their reading.  I also post assignments on this site.  The system is not perfected yet, so thank you in advance for your patience as I'm trying to get it all organized with every reading group.
Math:  We are testing over chapter 11 this week (Tuesday).  I'm sorry for not attaching the multiplication sheet to last week's email.  I will do that today.  We are then moving on to studying geometry (ch. 19).  It is vital that students study the vocabulary in this chapter!  I will be sending out helpful resources for this chapter. Keep studying multiplication facts every night!!
Science:  We are beginning the study of matter.  This week we will talk about physical properties of matter, volume, mass, and density. 
Social Studies:  We began our study of economics!  I will be discussing our Economic Fun Day project this week and will post details on the blog and on email,once I have introduced it to students.  When discussing spending and saving in your home, please include your child. This will help them connect what they are learning in the class with real life situations in your home!

Important Dates:
Tuesday:  Culver's Night 5-9pm at South County Culvers (benefitting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)
Wednesday:  Early Release
Thursday:  Field trip to Weldon Springs!  Bring a snack to take with us and a sack lunch to eat in the classroom when we arrive back at school at 1pm.
Grade level Spelling Bee
Friday:  PRISM forms due

Weekly Update January 3-6

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break with your kids!  I was a little unhappy about waking up so early today, but I was super excited to see all my students.  They were so eager to share holiday stories. 

We had a class meeting this morning and talked about the second half of third grade.  I told them that we will be moving very quickly and learning even more difficult things to get them ready for 4th grade.  They agreed that they will need to work extra hard and focus even more on their own learning, in order to do well.  I know they will meet expectations, as they are all dedicated students!  Here is what is going on this week:

Spelling:  Everyone has new words!  Green-18 syllables and affixes, Blue-25 within words, Yellow-7 within words

Math:  We are reviewing the properties of mulitplication.  Please review the sheet I have attached to this email with your child.  The test will not be until next week.  I have reminded the students to study multiplication facts every night, as we are beginning fact tests.

Writing:  We will be completing our study of poems with writing a few winter haikus and cinquain poems.  Then we will be studying the mechanics of writing such as using commas and quotation marks correctly.  I told the students I am including a writing assignment each night in addition to the 20 minutes of reading.  They only need to write for 10 minutes.  They will be writing on a small packet of notebook paper so I can easily grade their writing each week.  Sometimes they will write about a question or prompt I give them, and other times they will have free write.  I'm hoping that they will become more fluent writers with this assignment.

Science: We are completing the planet powerpoint project.  They will be presenting their work later this week.  On Friday we will have a test over the solar system. 

Social Studies:  We are beginning chapter 9 about Economics.  Students will be learning about budgets, income, interest, and money choices.  This is one of my favorite units, because the students apply these lessons to real life situations. 

Reading:  We are reviewing how to identify and write a summary after reading a selection.  Then we will be working on sequencing events in both fiction and non fiction pieces.

 

PRISM INFORMATION:

* The green PRISM form is due to me by January 13th.  If you are interested in entering your project into the St. Louis Science Fair you need to let me know by January 12th.  Otherwise, your project will just be entered into the Sappington PRISM celebration.

* Projects are due to me by Wednesday, February 15th.

* PRISM celebration will be held at Sappington on Thursday, February 23rd.

* Go to this website to get all the additional information and forms: http://pages.lindberghschools.ws/education/dept/dept.php?sectiondetailid=10593&

 

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday:  SPTG meeting 6:45 in cafeteria.  They will be discussing PRISM