September 9th - 13th

September 9th - 13th 

DATES:
Monday, Sept. 16. ....... PTO Meeting 6:30-7:30 in the Media Center
Monday, Oct. 1.............FUNDRAISER ENDS
Saturday Oct. 5.............EVERYTHING FOR KIDS SALE - 9am -2 pm
Tuesday, Oct. 2............SCHOOL PICTURES and COUNT DAY
Tuesday Oct. 8.............MEAP TESTING BEGINS
Mon., Oct. 21..............PTO Meeting

MEAP PREP SITE: If you would like to help your child prepare for the MEAP at home, you can access this site: http://www.linkstolearning.com/links/TestPrep/meap.htm
I will be using this site along with other materials as well.

BIG NUMBER BUDDIES: 
Mrs. Sikma asked if our class would assist her class with reading and writing big numbers. Of course we were happy to help! Here is a collage of photos that Mrs. Sikma took! 

     
 MATH:
   We continue to focus on MEAP Prep review and our first unit which is Order of Operations. What does MEAP prep include? Aspects of multiplication, division, decimals, geometry, fractions, measurement, etc. The students are learning the PEMDAS means working left to right, Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Add, and Subtract. 
 The Delta math test is next week. It covers 4th grade outcomes in the areas of multiplication, division and some fraction content. 

HAVE YOUR CHILD PRACTICE MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION FACTS PLEASE!  
This is going to help your child move more quickly through the math work they do and feel less stress.

READING
  Students took the SRI test on Friday. We continue to work on MEAP Prep material, comprehension strategies, how to find and respond to different types of questions and practice vocabulary strategies and literary devices.
 
How can you help at home? Reading daily builds fluency and comprehension. A 5th grade level goal is to read 130 words per minute by the end of the year.
  
WRITING:
 We  read the book, "A Bad Case of Stripes" on Monday. The students are writing their own "Bad Case of _____" stories. We have practiced what makes a quality introduction and what signals tell us when to transition to a new paragraph- this will take some time and practice. This week we will discuss the difference between editing and revising- 2 skills that make better writers!

SPELLING:
  Students took the Skills and Word tests on Friday. This will come home with them on Tuesday. Spelling list 2 will come home on Monday. The test will be the following Monday, NOT this Friday. The skill this week is double consonants.

SCIENCE:
  This week we began our first science unit, Forces and Motion. Our first lesson is about motion and the forces involved. Students worked in groups to design a marble run that would allow the marble to go the SLOWEST it could without stopping from one end of a table to the others. Student are revising their first designs and repeating again on Tuesday.