Sunday, October 2, 2016

Updates and Announcements

Monday, October 3rd is the final day of our Box Tops drive! Please send in all Box Tops with your child.

Students loved our first “Free Choice” day! I saw several fun games being played-Trouble, Cups, and lots of card games.

We have our first classroom celebration on Friday! Here is a sign up for volunteers, food, and supplies for our kids: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e4eaaaf29a75-voyage

I hope everyone has a wonderful Fall Break! The students have worked so hard this quarter and have definitely earned some rest and relaxation.

Our week in learning

This week in grammar and writing we will be reviewing conjunctions, compound parts, and compound elements.  We will have a short quiz on Thursday combining all of the parts of speech we have learned so far this quarter.  As a reminder, there will be grammar tutoring on Thursdays (instead of Math) from 3:05-3:40 pm.  

Students received a roots study guide last week, we will review in class on Monday and will be taking a test over roots 1-25 on Wednesday, Oct. 5th.  

This week in literature we will be completing reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and are looking forward to our literature celebration on Friday.  Thank you so much to all the parents who have signed up to help and bring in supplies! To culminate our reading, we will be writing descriptive paragraphs about a character from the book using textual evidence to support their writing.  

We are currently working on our last poem of the quarter, “Narcissa,” by Gwendolyn Brooks.  Students should be prepared to recite their poem by Wednesday, October 5th.

We are continuing the chemistry unit this week. We will be finishing The Mystery of the Periodic Table and taking an open note quiz on Thursday.

The due date for the Science Fair Essay is quickly approaching! Please ensure that your child is working on the project such that they will be able to turn their essay in the last school day before Fall Break! Students will also be signing up for a project presentation date. They should bring in their poster board on the day they sign up to present.

This week, students will learn about the decline of the Aztec and Inca Civilizations. The unit test will be on Friday, October 7th. Note that this test is the day before students leave for Fall Break partaking in rest and relaxation! Students will turn in their journals on Friday as well, along with their completed study guides.

We have completed Unit 2, and this week will move on to fractions.  We will spend a great deal of time focusing on factors and multiples this week and will use concrete materials to introduce fractions.  This unit relies heavily on a knowledge of both multiplication and division facts.  Please continue to review these nightly if your child is at all struggling.  Using flashcards or a math facts app in the car is a great way to practice.  The more comfortable they are with their math facts, the easier fractions will be!

Study Skill of the Week

Students can create their own quizzes or tests to help them study for a test. This can be done by taking questions from a study guide, or flashcards, and writing their own test. Students can then take their test for practice. This gets them thinking of possible questions and allows them to test their knowledge themselves.