September 17-21

I trust that everyone had a great Homecoming weekend, despite that turnout of the game!  The weather was great, as an upside! 

This week looks pretty productive.  Here is a look at what we will be doing.

In English Language Arts, we are beginning our review and study of the parts of speech.  We will use various forms of literature to illustrate that these ordinary words are in extraordinary writing!  In particular, we will be looking at nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  In our Writer's Notebooks, we will have a new strategy to improve our writing.  This week's strategy is called "Writing off of Literature".  We will read several short stories to hopefully prompt student responses.  We will begin reading the chapter book, Sarah, Plain and Tall; a most-loved historical fiction tale written by Patricia MacLachlan.  We will be using the text to launch our Literature Circles.  Literature Circles are a type of book study.  Each student will be assigned a "job" to complete over the assigned reading.  The Literature Circle will then meet and use their "jobs" to prompt discussion. 

In Math, we will be covering time, elapsed time, and reading calendars.  All of these can be difficult for students.  Please look for these homework assignments to aid your child with any questions they may have outside of the classroom.  On a side note, all students have a Math Notebook that they take notes in and have practice problems in from class instructions.  These are separated into Math's "Domains" in accordance with the new Common Core curriculum.  The students are instructed to take these home to assist with any homework questions.  If you have not yet seen this notebook, you may ask your child about it.

In Social Studies, we are focusing  on Missouri's 5 regions this week.  The class has been divided into 5 groups of 3 students, and each have been assigned a region to present to the class.  The groups will be working on these on Wednesday, and presenting on Friday.  (Today they formed their plan of attack!) 

Science this week will be a review of the concepts covered so far. 

In RTI this week, we will finish up our work with Drawing Conclusions in fiction and nonfiction, wrapping it up with an assessment on Friday. 

Look for Progress Reports in tomorrow's take-home pile! 

As always, I appreciate all that you do!