October 28-30

Short and Sweet...Like Candy!

These three days are packed with plenty of school for your little ghouls!  Don't forget that this is conference week.  Contact myself or the office if you have forgotten your time to meet with me on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening.  I look forward to meeting with all of you!

I was really impressed with the Math Test scores from our test on Friday!  The scores ensure understanding, and that should lead us into a great unit with division!  I will continue with the timed tests in multiplication to help increase their fluency with these facts.  It is still vital that students practice these facts, and know them quickly by recognition.  With that, students will be able to hopefully see that division is simply "backwards" multiplication.  If students are fluent with multiplication, I have no fears about them beginning division.  By Wednesday, students will be dividing through twelves...hopefully.  I will try to research some good division games for the computer and place them on the right side bar as a link.  (The sidebar seems to be working now!)

In Social Studies, students will review for the chapter 2 test that will be on Tuesday.  Mrs. Partridge and myself decided to create our own test for this chapter, to make it reflect the material more and create an ease in studying.  Again, the test is on Tuesday.  

In Reading this week, students have finished Bunnicula, and they have worked on the skill of drawing conclusions.  For our end of the the book assessment, students will take three different AR tests.  One for comprehension, one for literacy skills, and one for vocabulary.  Only the comprehension score counts towards points.  The other two tests are for grading purposes.  Students will then take some computer lab time to create a Google Presentation.  Students will get a Google account for here at school, that they can also use from home.  They will use this email address to log on to Google Chrome and create a presentation with a partner.  This program allows students to work simultaneously on the same document.  Each partner group will have a chapter assigned to them and they will have specific criteria for each slide.  We will work on this in computer time, as well as with the laptops in the classroom.  This week we will also continue work on our Literature Circles.  

In English Language Arts, we will finish our final drafts to our "Monster" papers on Monday.  On Tuesday, students will share their work on their monsters.  We hope to have these with our actual monsters on display for conferences!  On Wednesday, students will work on a fluency strategy of "Writing from a Word".  We will select a word as a class, and then students will use that to prompt them to write for 15 minutes.  

In Spelling, a "Dear Parents" on /j/ sounds will go home on Monday.  This will help students with their skill test.  Our "Cloze" test and skill test will be on Tuesday, and students will practice any missed words on Wednesday.  

Thank you again to all who helped out with the party.  The kids and myself had a great time.  I appreciate your your time and effort to make the day fun for students.  

  

Have a great long weekend.  I hope everyone enjoys Trick-or- Treating on Thursday.      

October 21- 25

The New Quarter

Our second quarter has begun.  It should be a very seamless transition.  The only thing that we need to watch for is that all percentages begin again.  So at the very beginning, their percentages will be very similar to the grades they receive on daily work and any tests taken.  I will remind students (you may want to remind them, as well) that their scores at the beginning of each quarter are very important so that students are not trying to dig themselves out of a hole for the remainder of the quarter.  Other than that, we will keep chugging along as usual!

This week in Math, we will continue taking our 5 minute timed test and graphing the results.  I am so excited to see students improving daily.  That is a great sign.  Daily practice is essential to multiplication success.  Try playing some games from the links on the right side bar to help improve student scores.  We will continue with lessons that involve multiplication, such as problem solving, square numbers, and multiplication tables and patterns.  Thursday we will begin reviewing for our test, which will be on Friday.  Students will take the 5 minutes timed test, but we will not record these scores as a grade.  This will be for our benefit to check student's progress.  Keep practicing those facts!

In Social Studies, students will continue learning about our state and the cultures and activities that are a part of Missouri today.  By Friday, we will be completing a study guide for chapter 2.  Our test will be on Tuesday of the following week.  

This week in Spelling, we will continue to work with the new words that students received last week.  (Hopefully I can update the sidebar on the right with the new words!)  We will use these words to study surprise spelling patterns, /j/ spelling patterns (-dge, -ge, -j, -gi, -gy), and adding prefixes and suffixes.  We will prepare for a test by next Tuesday.  

In Reading, students will continue with their literature circle book study.  We will finish up our whole group study of Bunnicula and drawing conclusions.  Each student should get a really great boost to their second quarter AR points by quizzing over this title.  

In English Language Arts, students will begin the drafting process.  In Art, students created a monster.  They will use this monster to create a 4 paragraph narrative.  Each paragraph has a specific element to address.  We are looking for proper narrative format, as well as paragraph format.  Each paragraph should be indented, include a topic sentence, a body, and a closing.  We are looking for descriptive vocabulary and transition words.  Their Writer's Notebook is a great resource to help with this assignment!  We will need to have final drafts completed by Monday.  

Have a great week!  I hope to see you all on Friday from 2:00- 3:00 for our Fall Party!    

October 14- 18

Last Week of the Quarter!

 Quarter one is coming to a close.  Thursday is our last day of this quarter, making it the last day for AR points (10), and first quarter grades.  Friday, the 18th, will be a half day.  

In Math this week we will dive into multiplication!  For some kids, this will be a simple review.  For others, this may pose more challenging.  We are trying to reach many different learning types with several strategies for memorization of these facts.  Each day, students will begin math with a 1 minute timed test.  They will graph their progress in a bar graph each day.  Hopefully, this will be a great visual to see their growth as they learn their facts.  We will use Schoolhouse Rock videos again, as well as a skip counting page.  Students will also learn about the properties of multiplication.  

In Social Studies we are preparing for a test.  Monday and Tuesday we will try a few study techniques.  The study guide will go home on Monday with the correct answers, so try to take a look at these both Monday and Tuesday night to ensure comprehension of the test material.  Our test will be on Wednesday over chapter one, our state's climate and resources.  On Thursday, students will begin chapter two, looking at our state filled with many cultures.  

Spelling this week begins with test preparation.  On Monday, we will review /s/ sound spelling patterns (s, ss, sc, ce, ci, cy) and send home a "Dear Parents".  Our test will be on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we will review any missed words from the test.  Thursday, we will have a words preview of new words.  Our new words for this unit are: fire, ready, green, yes, built.  Our bonus words are: vegetables, refrigerator, object, gym, dodge, gypsy, ginger.  Unit test words are: means, first, built, Americans, several, their, green, together, form, animal, ground, ready, its, because, certain, fire, front, always, yes, there.  For some reason, the site is not allowing me to place them on the sidebar as I would like.  Sorry for the confusion.  

We will continue with our Literature Circle groups in reading, as usual.  Each group should finish their book this week, and begin a new one.  Students will continue practice with drawing conclusions using the book Bunnicula, and their Reader's Notebooks answering 3 important questions.  "What do I know for sure?" (explicit information, or information directly from the text), "Stop and think about this information.  What else were we able to figure out from this information?" (conclusions using textual evidence, background knowledge, and connections to their life), and "How did I figure this out?"  (text evidence, background knowledge, personal connections).  The students are doing an awesome job with this.

In English Language Arts, students will be looking at paragraph structure.  They will use the knowledge of paragraph structure (topic sentence, details, and a closing) to write a small narrative next week.  Students will learn a new strategy  of writing observations.  Students will go to multiple locations throughout the school to use their five senses to write.  This should help with detail in their writing.  

Since I cannot edit my sidebar, here are some important dates:
10/15: Spelling Test; McTeacher's Night, 4-8 

10/16: Social Studies Test

10/18: Half Day

October 7- 11

Coming to an End

It is hard to believe that our quarter is almost over!  This is the last week before quarter one closes out.  The quarter's actual end date is October 17.  This is the end of AR points, as well.  They are asked to have 10 points by this date.  If your child does not have 10 points, look for a note in their agenda some time this week.  You may also check their progress with the Home Connect option.  I am really impressed with this group and their performance so far this year.  

In Math this week, we will begin Monday with a test review.  We will test on Tuesday.  This test deals with data and measurement.  On Wednesday, students will begin their graphing unit.  We will study bar graphs, line graphs, and coordinate graphs.  This unit should come easy to most students.  The most challenging thing for this class is answering what the question in really asking.  You may address underlining what the question is really asking with your child.  I ask students to label their answers, and this helps them to try to read more carefully.

In Social Studies we will begin using the text book.  We will start our unit with Missouri's geography- rivers, regions, latitude and longitude.  We will also take a look at Missouri's resources and climates.  

In Spelling, I think that the students are beginning to catch on.  This unit's tests were awesome!  some are still struggling with when to capitalize.  The skills are really starting to shape up!  This week, we begin a new unit. Students will start by addressing any words that they missed on Friday's test.  The "Word Preview" will be on Tuesday.  We will again introduce the new words and bonus words.  We will also give students all 20 test words.  Be on the look out for these.  The skill we will address in class is /s/ spelling patterns.  The most common are s, ss, c (ce, ci, cy), and sc.  We will also discuss that when a vowel is followed by r, it creates a new sound.  (As is herd)  Friday students will practice adding prefixes and suffixes. ***For some reason, I cannot change my spelling words, so here they are:
Americans, enough, there, United States, than, country, rest, certain, most, feel, though, words, worked, six, then, their, perhaps, cold, true, behind.
**New Words**- rest, perhaps, certain, six, feel  
***Bonus Words***- recess, sentence, difference

Reading this week will continue with our Literature Circles.  Students are doing a phenomenal job of completing their reading and their jobs.  We will also finish work on our Glogs.  The class seems to enjoy working on them, when we can get technology to cooperate!  Thank you for allowing your child to work on these at home.  They are looking great!  When these are completed, we will start work on drawing conclusions.  

In English Language Arts, the class will learn about complete sentences using subjects and predicates.  This can be a dry subject, but hopefully a beneficial one!  Our writing strategies for the week are "I Wonder" and "Writing Off of Literature".  These two fluency strategies seem to be fun for students.  The "I Wonder" is simply that- writing about things we wonder about.  In "Writing Off of Literature", we will read a short story or poem and ask students to write about whatever comes to mind.    

Just a friendly reminder to ensure that your conference preference sheet comes back soon.  I will send formal dates and times out by the end of the week.