Updates and Announcements

Welcome to week 4! We have so many exciting things happening this quarter! I am not sure that we have a single “normal” week.

Thank you to all of our parent volunteers for field trip chaperones! We were at capacity for volunteers by 7:00 pm that evening. If you would like to be on our list of alternates, you are welcome to still email me.

We will be having an additional field trip in May to the Capitol to make up for the cancelled 4^th grade field trip. For that field trip, we will not turn away any volunteers with fingerprint clearance. I’ll be sending out more information on that after Spring Break.

This Friday is Athletic Field Day! I am still in need of two or three volunteers to help out our class on that day. If you are interested, please email Mrs. Lynch.

We will also be needing some volunteers this Wednesday, January 30^th for editing groups. Read below for more information.

Our week in learning

This week, students will learn about the idiom “Till the cows come home”.

Students will learn about the roots primus, secundus, tertius, and quartus. They will be quizzed on these roots next week. Students should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will continue reading “The Secret Garden”. We will continue reading through chapter 13. Students will have a journal entry about every two days. If you have not already done so, please send in a physical copy of “The Secret Garden”.

In Writing and Grammar, students will construct their introduction and conclusion paragraphs. On Wednesday, 1/30, 9:00-9:50, we will be needing volunteers to help run editing groups. If you are interested, please contact your lead teacher. Students will hand write their final drafts on Thursday and type their final drafts on Friday.

This week in Science, students will continue their study of plant reproduction. We will jump into seeds and how they are dispersed, and will participate in a hands on activity to help order all the steps of seed dispersal. We will also jump into gymnosperms and how they differ from other seed plants. Students will be encouraged to use proper scientific vocabulary when appropriate.

On Monday, we will end our unit with a discussion of African slavery. We will discuss when slaves were first brought from Africa by Europeans both back to their countries and to the Americas, what that journey entailed, and what life was like for slaves in those places. Study guides for Unit 6: Age of Exploration are due on Tuesday, January 29^th. We will have a review day on the 29^th. The test is on Wednesday, January 30^th. We will end the week by starting Unit 9: Westward Expansion Before the Civil War, including discussions of Daniel Boone.

In math, we will continue our rather lengthy unit on decimals. Students will multiply and divide a decimal by a two digit number, multiply decimals by 0.1 and 0.01, and multiply a decimal by a decimal. ALL workbook homework assignments will be half of every type of problem. There will be math groups this Wednesday, 1/23, 8:00-9:00. Math groups will be sparse this quarter due to AZMerit preparations.

Updates and announcements

I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful three day weekend! My weekends are now spent working on classwork for my degree. I am so grateful to have been allowed to overload my coursework this semester so I can submit my certification paperwork in May.

Just a friendly reminder that spelling words should be dictated once to students. Only the missed words need to be rewritten three more times. When students have “all words” for homework, sometimes they get none wrong on the homework assignment, however they miss many words on the test the next day. We are stapling all spelling tests to the previous night’s homework so parents can see how these scores match up.

Athletic Field Day is Friday, February 1st from 8:30-11:00 for K-2 classes and from 12:00-2:30 for grades 3-5! Each year classes are assigned a Greek City State for their team. This year, your child’s team is Corinth, and our team color is red. Your child may wear a plain red shirt (no logos) other than class section or Greek City State and athletic pants or shorts. Students may also wear their school uniform if they wish. There will be no school lunch offered on Athletic Field Day. Please send your child to school with a lunch. We have the coolers, snacks and small water bottles covered, however we do need a few volunteers to follow our class and help out. If you are interested, please email me.

Volunteers for Athletic Field Day

In order to have Athletic Field Day run smoothly, we need your help! Coach Gethings & Coach Warren need volunteers setting up and running the event. Please sign up at

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508084aacaf28a4fd0-field

to help with the events.

Keep an eye on your email this week. We will be asking for chaperones for our school field trip to the Renaissance Fair on Tuesday, March 5^th. There are a limited number of tickets available, so it will be on a first come, first serve basis. The situation with tickets is a little different this year as all tickets must be purchased by a school before the event for kid’s day. This keeps our kids very safe during this fun event by limiting who can buy tickets.

Our week in learning

This week, students will learn about the idiom “Take the bull by the horns”.

Students will learn about the roots novus, ordo, and saeculum. They will be quizzed on these roots next week. Students should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will continue reading “The Secret Garden”. We will continue reading through chapter 9. Students will have a journal entry about every two days. If you have not already done so, please send in a physical copy of “The Secret Garden”.

In Writing and Grammar, students will construct an outline for their essay and begin writing their three paragraphs. Time will be given in class to work, and whatever is not finished will be homework. We will work through one body paragraph at a time. Students will need their research complete by January 22nd, which is when the hard copies of their book and online sources are due. Be on the lookout for an email asking for volunteers the week of 1/28. We will need some parents to help with editing groups.

Students will continue their study of botany this week, diving into the study of plant reproduction. We will start with the life cycles of mosses and ferns, and move into the function and structure of seed plants. Students will also learn about the process of germination and seed dispersal. We will pay careful attention to scientific vocabulary and how to use it in this section.

This week in History, we will come close to finishing our instruction of the unit, “The Age of Exploration”. We will discuss the English, French, and Dutch’s actions during this time period. This will include discussions of further explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake, Jacques Cartier, and Henry Hudson. Students received their study guides for the unit on Friday, January 18^th. The study guides are due on Monday, January 28^th, and the test will be on Wednesday, January 30^th.

In math, we will continue our rather lengthy unit on decimals. Students will change fractions to decimals using long division, and multiply and divide decimals by 10, 100, and 1000 type numbers. ALL workbook homework assignments will be half of every type of problem. There will be math groups this Wednesday, 1/23, 8:00-9:15. Math groups will be sparse this quarter due to AZMerit preparations.

Updates and announcements

We are off to a strong start! The third quarter is one of my favorites. Students are refreshed from their long break and our classroom culture is strong. We have so many things coming up in the third quarter, like Great Hearts Day, our field trip to the Renaissance Fair (more on that soon), and preparing for the AZMerit tests in the fourth quarter.

This Friday, we have MAP testing. If your child has a planned absence, please let me know and I can arrange to have them take the test early.

Just a friendly reminder-open math tutoring is on Mondays with Ms. White. I noticed that none of our students have attended this tutoring session and it is a wonderful resource.

See the Spring semester clubs on this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18DwPk4-JICmHZG_1ECNFz_ObqUlNc4rkamFSJ_a30t0/edit?usp=sharing

Our week in learning

This week, students will learn about the idiom “Steal his/her thunder”.

Students will learn about the roots cardo, porta, and porto. They will be quizzed on these roots next week. Students should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will start reading “The Secret Garden”. We will continue reading through chapter 6. Students will have a journal entry about every two days. Please send in “The Secret Garden” book by Monday, January 14.

In Writing and Grammar, students will have a grammar quiz on Wednesday. Students will start researching their explorer in class. Students will need to have hard copies of the website articles they use for research and a photocopy of the book pages they use. This is so they are able to highlight the information. Researching methods will be modeled in class. Students will be given time to research in class and their homework will be to finish the research they were not able to finish for the body paragraph assigned in class. Students will need their research complete by January 22nd, which is when the hard copies of their book and online sources are due. It would be best to start earlier rather than later in collecting these resource materials.

This week in science, student will continue their study of botany. There will be a short quiz on Tuesday over the characteristics of plants notes from last week. Students will continue learning about different types of non vascular plants, and begin a study of seedless non-vascular plants. We will also begin our study of plant reproduction this week by learning about spores.

This week in History, students will continue learning about the Age of Exploration, discussing the famous explorers Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. We will learn about the Spanish Empire, including their treatment of Indians, as well as English explorers and the colonies they attempted to settle.

In math, we will start a rather lengthy unit on decimals. Students will add, subtract, compare, round, multiply and divide decimals. Most of this week’s work should be review from last year. ALL workbook homework assignments will be half of every type of problem. We will explain what this looks like to the class and sample the first few homework assignments with them. There will be a short quiz over ratio Monday, January 14, then we will switch to the “5B” books. “5A” workbooks can stay home.

Updates and announcements

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break! We had very restful break which included a lovely visit with Paul’s family up in Montana for a week, lots of baking, sewing, crocheting, and kitten cuddles.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the latest homework survey.  We looked carefully at the numeric data and anonymous comments and had good conversation as a team.  Every child is unique and homework experiences vary widely, but there are occasional patterns in these surveys that help us to adjust our homework assignments.  With this in mind, we are going to make a few adjustments in the third quarter that will hopefully make the homework experience more joyful without sacrificing good learning.  We will continue to discuss as a team and will send another survey near the end of third quarter.  Beginning January 7^th, parents and students can look forward to the following changes:

*Students will do ½ of every type of workbook problems.

*Students will have little to no history and science homework. Students will have time at the end of class periods to work on study guides.

Our week in learning

This week, students will learn about the idiom “Sit on the fence”.

Students will learn about the roots naus, navis, homos, and heteros. They will be quizzed on these roots next week. Students should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will start reading “The Secret Garden”. We will start the week by learning about the background behind the setting of the story. Please send in “The Secret Garden” book by Monday, January 14.

In Writing and Grammar, students will review parts of speech and learn about transitive verbs and indirect objects. We will begin our Explorers research essay on Friday. A packet will be coming home with information. Most of the work will be done in class, however students will need to have at least one book source and one online source by Tuesday, January 22nd.

In Science, we will begin quarter 3 by starting of our study of botany. We will begin by comparing plants and animals to draw on what we have learned throughout the quarter before diving into the characteristics of plants and the major phyla. We will continue learning about the characteristics of these phyla for the rest of the week.

This week in History, students will start their unit on the Age of Exploration. We will learn about Marco Polo, the Spice Islands, and the instruments that were used to explore during this age. We will finish the week by exploring some of the routes taken from Portugal, and what travels were like for sailors, including how to avoid scurvy.

In math, we will start a very short unit on ratio. Starting this week, ALL workbook homework assignments will be half of every type of problem. We will explain what this looks like to the class and sample the first few homework assignments with them. There will be a short quiz over ration next Monday, January 14, then we will switch to the “5B” books.