Oct. 15th - Oct 19th

DATES:
Oct. 25 and 26............. No School
November 1st.............. Field Trip 

Math and Reading Homework due Monday Oct. 22nd


MEAP took up much time this week so it slowed us down a bit. I was very impressed with my class as they really gave this assessment a good amount of time, and were respectful and quiet for others when they were finished!

MORE Field Trip: Normally we don't have two field trips so close together, but we will be going on November 1st to the Planetarium and to a play about native Americans and the museum. We will be putting in a WISH request for parent volunteers for this trip.


HOMEWORK: Reading at home: I am hoping students have been reading at home frequently. Monday, October 1st we began our first monthly reading assignment. Students chose a novel and will read this over the month of October. We discussed the assignment again Today to remind and review.   


Math: We have investigated all concepts in our Place Value unit and will be reviewing next week. Students need to know place value to 100 billion and decimals to the thousandths. They should be able to write numbers in standard, word, and expanded form, round whole numbers and decimals, and compare and order whole numbers and decimals.
We have watched tutorials- most are on my fusion page- worked whole class, in small groups and individually. I have students fix mistakes with me to be sure they are on the right track and see who I need to assist further. I am trying to help students understand that just because they finished the paper or tutorial, or website, doesn't mean they are done- if we struggled, were confused, etc. we need to ask for extra help, extra practice activities, watch the tutorial again, etc...

MATH FACTS: Please practice math facts with your child. Keeping a set in the car may be a good idea. A few minutes frequently during the week will be quite helpful. Division is something most students need to work on.

Reading:
We continue in our  genre unit reading Guests, a historical fiction novel. This novel is a little more difficult read as it contains quite a bit of inferencing. We are having a lot of discussion along the way. We have been noting the author techniques of  personification, metaphors, and similes as there so SO many of them!


Writing:
 Students have completed their plans and are drafting their river tour pieces. Students will be able to choose how they wish to share their final drafts- write it, put it on a google doc, Power Point, digital flipbook, or some other digital format. Anything digital will be uploaded to their personal websites. 
  Friday we also reviewed similes and descriptive language. The class used these skills to write a poem about fall which you can check out on the bulletin board outside our classroom.

Spelling:  Next week's skill for lesson 7 is compound words.
  Spelling tests are every Friday. Monday begins the new lesson. The spelling list will be sent home Monday.  If you go on my fusion page, there are directions to get to Spelling City where students can play games and take practice tests over the spelling lists for each week.


Science:
We had our quiz on Wednesday- we reviewed 2 days in class and students were to study at home. Students will be began research projects on the solar system, working in pairs or threes to research a planet and present their information in a poster or digital format. 

Have a great weekend and I will see you at conferences!