Thursday, December 14th

Reminders and Announcements 

• Tomorrow is a 2 hour early dismissal; we dismiss at 1:45.
• Tomorrow is also Midterm for Quarter 2.  Midterm Reports will be sent home next week.
• Winter Break starts Saturday, December 23 and goes till Monday, January 1.
• Classes resume on Tuesday, January 2.

Math 

We have covered all of the standards in Unit 4.  This past week I gave a mid unit check to see what skills students needed to review.  Some students have their review in their Thursday Folder today.  The rest will come home as I have a chance to sit with them to reteach or set up small group review.  Overall, we did very well.  We may wrap up this unit ahead of schedule!

This unit includes Order of Operations, Multiplying Decimals, Powers of 10, Exponents, Metric Conversions, and Division of Whole Numbers.

Writing 

Focus Standard:

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

We have been researching explorers this week and will use our notes to write an informational essay next week.

Reading 

Book Clubs are going well.  Most students are actually finishing up their books ahead of schedule!  I love to see kids interested in a good book.  Club rotations will continue for the next week or two (for longer novels).  After this round, students will be able to choose another novel.  Book Clubs will continue to run for the remainder of  the year.

In addition to book clubs, small leveled instruction will focus on informational text.  We are looking at main idea and detail first.  We will then look at text structure to see how the author's choice of organization helps the reader understand the message of the text.

Science/Social Studies

We will begin our next integrated units on Exploration and Space by looking at why explorers traveled and searched for new lands and how they navigated to get from one place to another.

Thursday, December 7th

Announcements and Reminders 

• Students should be getting their agendas signed nightly Monday - Thursday after they have done at least 20 minutes of reading and talked to an adult about their reading.  Not sure what to ask or talk about?  Click here!
• Students also have a math worksheet that comes home Monday and needs to be completed by Friday.  
• School will dismiss 2 hours early on Friday, December 15th.
• We are desperate for 2 liter bottles!!!  Please send them in by tomorrow.  Thanks!!

Math 

We will continue to work with multiplying decimals this next week by applying the skill to real life situations.  Please refer to last week's post if your child needs help understanding the skill.

Writing 

This next week we are moving into informational writing.  The first couple of days we will focus on creating a strong informative paragraph.  As the week progresses, we will start the process for our informational writing on Space Exploration.

Reading 

The novels are a huge hit!!  Ask your child about their reading.  We will continue with book clubs next week.  In small groups, we will be reading informational text.  and learning how to determine the organizational structure of a text and how the structure helps the reader understand the writer's message.

Science/Social Studies

We are wrapping up our units on Earth's spheres and Early Americans next week.  We will begin to study explorers of the world and sky next!