* There has been a slight change to our class schedule. Due to some scheduling difficulties with other classes, we had to switch our library time on Monday to 10:15-10:45 and our art time on Wednesday to 9:15-10:00. Feel free to make these changes to your parent packets from our curriculum night. The new schedule can also be seen on our classroom blog.
* Study hall for the kids begins this week. This means that if students do not have their homework complete or turned in on time, they will spend the first half of their lunch (the time usually spent at recess) in our LMC. A pink consequence sheet will also be filled out and expected to be signed by parents and returned the following day. The beginning of study hall also means the beginning of the new Lucky STARS program. If the students turn in their homework all week (and remember to put their name on all papers!), then they will receive a raffle ticket which will be filled out and turned in on Friday. A winner from each 4th and 5th grade classroom will be picked each Monday to be the Lucky STAR of the week. His/her name will be announced at lunch and he/she will receive a small award or prize.
* Weekly Folders will go home this week. For those of you that were not able to make Parent Night, the Weekly Folder will give a quick update of how your child is doing with behavior, effort, and work quality. These folders will go home on Friday and should be signed and returned the following Monday.
* This week in reading we will continue to monitor our inner conversation by using a coding method while reading. The kids will work with writing symbols and bracketing parts of text that they found helpful, exciting, interesting, or familiar. We will work with making connections with the text that we read. While last week we focused primarily on fiction text, this week we will work with nonfiction text and nonfiction features as well. The children will work in small groups and partners to share their thinking and to use their "Read, Write, Talk" strategy.
* This week we will have multiple lists for spelling. The spelling pattern of the week deals with the long "a" sound. This can be spelling with a-e, ai, ay, eigh, and ea. We will take a pretest on Tuesday and we will use these to determine your child's individual spelling list of the week. There will be 3 leveled lists that are offered this week. Each child will receive the list on Tuesday and will need to complete a word sort and one spelling menu item by Friday.
* In writing the kids will continue to work with focus. We will practice acting out steps in our moments to help us get specific details written down. The kids will also work to respond to others' writing and cited specific skill related responses to make the reader feel good.
The goal of our writing is to focus on ONE topic and to really elaborate on it by adding in as many different details as we can.
* In math we continue to work through our geometry unit. This week we will talk about parallel and perpendicular lines, various types of polygons, circles, and using compasses to create constructions. The kids took an addition/subtraction timed test last week. Although the focus on our first unit is on geometry, I want to spend these first couple of weeks getting comfortable with our addition and subtraction facts again. The kids and I talked about what it means to have recall of facts and how this can help when problem solving. They have a blank addition/subtraction test to work from at home (along with answer key) and the Everyday Math site games to help them practice. The goal is to complete 100 problems in 3 minutes. Once I see that the kids are comfortable with addition and subtraction, we will begin our multiplication fact tests.
* In science we explored the 4 layers of the earth last week. The kids became an expert on one layer and beginning Tuesday, they will use this knowledge to teach others in our classroom. Once everyone has information on all of the layers, the kids will create another model of the earth to help them remember the information better. We will also begin taking a look at volcanos and volcano parts.
* MVP of the Week schedules will be passed out this week. A parent letter and student letter will come home with your child THE WEEK BEFORE his/her MVP week. A poster and organizer will also be attached to the letters to help the planning process.
* I think that's it for now--if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. I hope you all have a great start to your week!
