Welcome to Monday and welcome to snow in Chicago. Looks like winter is with us now. 2 weeks to go before our winter break and tons to do in the classroom! Here are reminders and a look at our week ahead:
* If you haven't returned your report card envelope, please do so. We will use these for our second and third trimesters.
* Scholastic book clubs were due today. We should receive them no later than next Thursday!
* Our field trip to the Native American Museum is Friday, December 20th. The money and permission slips for this trip are due by this Friday. We are looking forward to a great time!
* This is our Geography Bee week! As stated last week, the results of this will have no impact on your child's report card or grades. We are excited to expose the kids to all new questions and an important look at geography. It looks like our first round in the classroom will be Wednesday afternoon.
* The kids continue to work on the Prezi presentations on their Native American tribes. They will be presenting these to the class as the rest of us take notes on their tribe. The students will then use these notes to do a culminating activity which will require them to do a bit of role playing. More information to come!
* We are getting started with our science unit. The kids will have time to look at websites on static electricity to gain background knowledge. We will then start experiments in the classroom later this week. We're looking forward to some fun hands-on experiments!
* This is a big week for multiplication in math!!!! The students will learn how to multiply double digits and triple digits. The Chicago Math Program teaches a partial products method, which you will see noted in the study link answer key and study links. I will be teaching the students the traditional method of multiplication. Therefore, the directions on the study link may be crossed off or changed, according to what we did in class. Keep practicing those math facts!!!!
* In reading we are finishing up our last text structure: description. The kids will then practice reading over nonfiction passages and naming the text structure that the author used. They will then be organizing the information from the paragraph into a matching graphic organizer. They are becoming quite the reading detectives! Later this week, we will also take a look at author's purpose.
* In writing, we are working on debates with the kids! The students are realizing that opinions are all around us and not everyone is going to see things our way. We have been working on seeing topics from different points of view and using these ideas to help us come up with reasons to persuade the audience over to our side. The kids will be researching a new debate topic this week in the computer lab and will use this information to write a persuasive essay. They will have their choice of topics: cursive or tomato. I know they seem odd, but if you ask your child about it later this week, it will all make sense!
* I hope you all have a great week and stay warm! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!
~ Mrs. Galazka
