Thank you!!!!

Thank you so much for my gift this holiday season.  I know how tricky the holidays can be and it's truly touching that you thought of me.  May your break be filled with warm family moments and relaxing days.

Pink Eye in Class

There has  been some cases of pink eye in the classroom.  I'm reminding all students to wash their hands and not put their hands near their face.  Thanks for helping out with the same message at home!

Newsletter Dec.19 - Dec. 23rd

Reminders:

Jackdaw box project due 1/3/12

Holiday Break Dec. 24^th – Jan 2^nd – Students return Jan. 3^rd

Martin Luther King Jr. Choral Poem presentation Jan 12^th – more info to follow

Students are responsible for bringing library books back to school one week after they are checked out to renew or return

In ELA we’ll focus on reviewing what we’ve learned about comprehension, fluency and writing during the month.  We’ll continue to write using paragraph form and apply the CAFÉ strategies of various fluency levels, using dictionaries and thesaurus and re-telling stories.

                This week’s topics:

·         Writing – write about tolerance in our lives

·         Café  –  review week  

·         Vocabulary – electricity, conductor, insulator, repel, attract, battery, bulb, filament, current

·         Spelling – NO SPELLING THIS WEEK

·          Grammar – common and proper nouns

 In math we’ll continue to work throughout the division process (DMSCB).  Every student has been given a reminder of the steps to glue on the outside of their math journal. I’ve also encouraged students to write the acronym on each math sheet.  This helpful hint will remind them of the steps.  This is a very hard concept and pulls in almost everything we’ve learned so far.  Practice in the steps and math fact understanding is key for success.

                This week’s topics:

·         Division in word problems

·         Review division and study key vocabulary – quiz Wednesday

·         Test Thursday

In science we’ll continue learning about the basics of electricity.  We’ve done lots of exploring in wires, conductors, bulbs, and batteries.  We’ve labeled diagrams and conducted experiments making bulbs light when all terminals are touching with the aid of a wire.  We will be having a quiz on Thursday highlighting the parts of bulbs and batteries, and how to make these materials work together properly.  Study pages, 2, 5, and 6 especially in science packet.

Nov. 28 - Dec. 2

Reminders:

Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences – 12/8 & 12/9

Return conference reminder – 12/1

Return Homework for Parents – 12/2

 This week we’ll read How to Babysit and Orangutan.  In this non-fiction story, Camp Leakey, the island of Borneo, provides a home for orphaned baby orangutans.  Human caretakers raise the young orangs, teach them survival skills and eventually return them to the forest.

                This week’s topics:

·         Writing – write a letter to a Marine in deployed in Afghanistan

·         Café  –  expand vocabulary – use dictionaries and thesaurus in reading and writing

·         Vocabulary – displeasure, jealous, endangered, smuggled, facial, coordination

·         Spelling – /ou/ as in frown and bounce

·         Grammar – complex sentences

 This week we’ll continue learning basic algebra.  We’ve read stories that helped explain variables or “mystery numbers”.  Please continue to work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts as they are needed to find variables.   We’ll depend a lot on fact families to find solutions mentally.  This is so much easier when facts are memorized.

                This week’s topics:

·         Identify, describe and extend patters  ( numbers and symbols)

·         Function Tables  (finding rules and operations – addition or subtraction)

·         Multiplication and division expressions – using variables and fact families to find mystery numbers

·         Function Tables  (finding rules and operations – multiplication and division)

This week we’ll learn about the Algonquian language group.  We’ll focus on their tribes, natural resources and roles.  It is important to see the Iroquois and Algonquians as separate tribes, but also realize they have many things in common.  I’ll be sending home a study packet during the week and asking students to review definitions, names and facts about our entire study.  Please help your student by looking through the packet each night.    The test will be Friday 12/2.

Nov. 21 - Nov. 23

Reminders:

11/23 – Cotton Ball Jar Party

11/24 & 11/25 – No School Thanksgiving

12/8 & 12/9 – Student, Parent, Teacher Conferences

This short week we’ll finish up writing our friendly letters.  Make sure to send in a stamped envelope by 11/22 so all letters can go out in time.  We’ll also be reading many stories and non-fiction texts about Thanksgiving. 

 This week we’ll begin chapter 5 focusing on algebraic expressions.  It’s important that students understand the idea of variables standing for a value.  Make sure to help students at home while they are practicing homework.

This week’s topic:

·         Addition and subtraction equations

·         Learning definitions of equation, variable and solved equations

Our tribal sign projects are finished and look great!  Your students also got a chance to work closely with rubrics and being responsible for their own work.  I asked each student to grade him/her self before I will grade their work.  The effort was noted and all did a great job working on their first small group project.  This week we’ll learn about the Algonquin Tribes.  There will be homework over the break in social studies!!

Our Student, Parent, Teacher conferences are coming up quick!  Please make sure to review the time you have signed up for or asked to come.  Let me know if there are any conflicts and I’ll do what it takes to meet with every parent.  The students are really looking forward to being reflective and showing off their hard work!!  Keep an eye out for your parent homework in preparation for the conference. 

** We have filled up our cotton ball jar of good behavior!  Students may bring in ONE small blanket or towel Wednesday for our tent party!

Newsletter for November 14th

 We listened to The Garden of Happiness.  The main character, Marisol, pants a sunflower seed in a new neighborhood garden. When autumn comes and her flower dies, Marisol gets discouraged. Her happiness returns, however, when she discovers that a group of teenagers has painted a mural of sunflowers on a brick wall nearby.

                This week’s topics:

·         Writing – Review friendly letter – Send in a stamped envelope!!!!

·         Fluency – discuss the rates of fluency that are applied to different stories for different reasons

·         Vocabulary –inhaled, lavender, mural, skidded, haze

·         Spelling – /ur/ as in turtle and learn

This week we’ll continue practicing the 6 steps of multiplication.  The sequence has been glued onto our math journals.  We’ll also review factors and multiples.

                This week’s topics:

·         Estimate products of two-digit numbers

·         Multiply two-digit numbers

·         Review factors vs. multiples

·         Review and test (Friday)

We have begun our Tribal Sign Project!  Each student was randomly placed in one on the five Iroquois nations.  The teams have assigned roles within their groups.  They’ll be researching for information on clans, alternate names, food, map, and gustoweh (arrangement of eagle feathers on hat).   Each group will create a poster that highlights the new information learned in each area (independently) and group poster that showcases their tribe.  They are very excited!

Pumpkin Jack Decay Project

Last week we read a story called Pumpkin Jack.  The main character has a jack-o-lantern named Jack which begins to rot.  His mother makes him put Jack in the compost heap. The pumpkin begins to decay but not without leaving behind some seeds.  These seeds are replanted and the life cycle continues!  We were so inspired we began our own experiment. Today we created a control to watch the process of decay in once living things.  We created a lab report, documented the experiment with photos and took notes in our science journal.  This should be so fun!