Short Week but lots to do.

Hi Everyone!!!

I hope that all of you are gearing up for a great holiday break. We all have a lot to be thankful for so these next couple of days are a great way to show your thanks! ...and with food no less. What could be better?

Eventhough we only have a couple of days, we are still going to be working hard and catching up on some things that might have slipped through the cracks.

Reading: We are still working on the Wishgiver. We are now looking at a new character that is involved with a "treeman." Kinda spooky but we'll have to wait and see what that chapter holds for us. Hopefully we will complete the book the week after our Thanksgiving break.

Math: Once again, division is taking over the math time. We are going to work on dividing with a calculator. This will help prep the students for the EOQ when they are allowed to use calculators. I still want them using their brains and not relying on the calculator so much. The best practice at home is to work on Times Tables and Division facts. Simple facts will make a world of difference.

Social Studies: We are getting LOST...with the Lost Colony. We are going to take a couple of days to look into North Carolina's oldest mystery and see if we can learn any insightful things. Who knows...maybe someone in our class will solve the Mystery of the Lost Colony.

Science: We are working on the Earth....it's a big job. The students are going to being learning about Volcanos, Earthquakes and other natural disasters that shape and change our earth.

There is no spelling this week but we will be working with our Wordbuilders Activity books. This is helping the students get insight to new words and how to use endings such as, --er, --ed, --ing, etc. Wordbuilders is a great program and the students really enjoy working together with each other, discoverying new words.

** REMINDER!!!! We will be having our Terrific Tuesday tomorrow (Tuesday). Please remember to send in Chex-Mix, BBQ Chips, etc. We are making our theme around Thanksgiving.

I'm BAAAAACK!

Hi Everyone,
It has been a wild couple of weeks lately. I've had the flu, which of course turned into pnumonia (which I don't know how to spell). But I'm back in the saddle (so to speak) and we are picking up what was left off and are running with it.

Here's a look at what we're working on for the week of November 16-20!

Reading: Are reading groups are still working hard. We are really into reading to ourselves and working on retelling information to our group leaders. We are also working on finding the facts in the story. This will help the students hunt for their information during the EOG at the end of the year.
We have also shifted gears and are working on a new Chapter Book in class. The title of our story is The Wishgiver by Bill Britian. I have always enjoyed how funny this book is but also tells how you should be careful what you wish for. We will be working with sequencing from the stories that are told from the point of view of the three characters.

Math: We are going to continue working with Division and making sure we have the concepts. We MUST keep working on our multiplication facts. We still have a few people who are struggling with division because they are not sure of their math facts. We are going to work on longer division (dividing 3 digits by 2 digits) and estimating then dividing.

Social Studies: We are wrapping up our lesson on Native American's in NC. The students will be report writing for a grade using the facts and information they find in the chapters. We will continue on with our writing and reading of social studies.

Science: This week we are looking at the layers of the earth. We are going to use our new Science Studies Weekly papers to help get a better understanding. We are going to be working with some measuring, experiments and other cool, hands-on activities.

Spelling List for the week: across, alone, among, brother, again, front, banana, appear, compass, pedal, given, heaven, mountain, ocean, cousin, purchase, often, color.

Remember that all homework is due the day it is assigned.

It is YOUR responsibility to get any late assignments to me. I will not "hound" after you to turn in your work. Any work that is not turned in stays at a 50%. Please me sure you get the work into me!

1st Quarter Writing Menus

REMINDER!!!!!

Writing Menus will be due tomorrow morning.

Each student will be allowed to come up and present what they worked out and show the rest of the class. This has been a writing project that also includes Reading and Social Studies.

Late assignments will not be accepted since the starting date was October the 1st.

I'm looking forward to some great ideas from the students.

Short Week but Full of Learning.

Hi everyone.
I hope you're all enjoying the fall colors and the nice weather that we've been receiving. This is our short week leading into our Fall Break on Thursday and Friday. Just a reminder, School will not be open on Thrusday or Friday. Enjoy your Fall Break and come back rested and redy to go.

Here is a look at what we'll be working on these next three days.

Reading: We are starting Stone Fox and working on Sequencing. We are also going to touch on Cause and Effect. This is a different genre than the kids are use to. It's realistic fiction, and not really the funny, fantasy type that we started off with. It's a nice change of pace.

Math: We are working on Multiplying bigger numbers, such as 3 digit by 2 digit. This is working pretty well and the students are able to relate the information back to what they learned last week. I"m impressed at how quickly they have learned this new concept.  Below is a picture what what we worked on today.

Science: We are still shocked by our electricity unit. The students did a great job last week of making their batteries work with their lightbulbs. I hope to preform a few more experiments where the students can have some hands on "playtime."

Spelling this week: Our class is working with the vocabulary from Stone Fox. The students are working hard and making a great effort.

** Upcoming Dates:  Field Trip to Heritage Theater on November 10th. Cost of trip is $6.00.

Our "Bright" Students!!!!

Our class worked on electricity during Science. I'm extreemly proud of the way they worked on making their bulbs light up.

Here are a couple of pictures of some successful experiments!

Question of the Week (10/22)

Dear Students,

Here is our question of the week. We will be having one of these each week, so please make sure you answer the question by the end of the week.

Here is our Question!
* Martin has 24 baseball cards in his collection. If he collects the same number of cards for 3 months, approximately how many baseball cards will he have?

Please answer in the comment section. Remember to Sign Your Name so I'll know you answered.

New Way to Look at Multiplying 2-Digit by 2-digit

Hi everyone.
Our class has recently started working on multiplying and we are coming up with different stratigies to help us understand better.

One way discovered yesterday was the Latice Format.
The process:
1) break the two factors (52 and 39) into two seperate numbers. One ending with a zero.
2) Multiply to get answers in the boxes (post-its)
3) Once you have your products, then add across.
4) The final step is to add your remaining numbers for your final product.

The students find this method easier to do and understand because it breaks down numbers visually.

Hope this helps!