Week of January 26th

Week of January 26th

  SPELLING BEE:
Teagan Lamb and Tyler Thompson from our class were in the 5th grade spelling bee on Friday. They both did a terrific job! Tyler was the overall winner- congratulations to Tyler!

  *Homework this weekend-  
Math- Workbook Pg 85. This is in their planners.

  February Book Project- Focus on Character
This assignment has a technology component. As some students do not have access to this at home, some time will be given in class for this part. 
 Students should have a book chosen (fiction) and begin reading. I will go over the  assignment and send it home on Tuesday (I have a substitute on Monday). I will attach the assignment for you to see- I don't have a digital copy of this right now, but will send it via email by Tuesday. You can download and save this if you wish to refer to it and your child does not have his/hers at home. I am noticing some students are having difficulty keeping track of the assignment page and not asking for another even though I am reminding them each week and asking if everyone still has what they need. 

MATH:   

  Our new unit is Multiplication of Whole Numbers and Decimals. We are multiplying larger whole numbers such as 456 x 34 and also decimal numbers such as 4.56 x 2.3 and learning how to place the decimal. We talked through a video tutorial that gave us a picture of what multiplying decimals looks like. Students are doing well, just needing to work on watching for facts and adding regrouped digits carefully. We also had a first lesson on multiplying exponents. We will continue to work on both of these concepts, problem-solving and reviewing other past concepts as we have been daily.


Delta Math Tests- Students completed these last week. Students who did not pass concepts have review work at school and will be given some for home as well.


READING:We read paired nonfiction texts about the Chicago and Peshtigo fires in 1871 looking at cause and effect, main idea, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies. Students presented their book projects as well. We will continue working on nonfiction next week.
 
WRITING:
I really enjoyed watching the kids give their presentations and looking at their posters! It was something they had been looking forward to as well. Several students brought in a samples, and this was the first time some kids had tried foods like kiwi, mango, spinach and more.                                                                                                                                            
  We are getting started on our next project- a short story focusing on sentence fluency, simile/metaphor, prepositional phrases, and Onomatopeia (sound words). We have done some mini-lessons about these concepts. Students have an assignment page that includes a checklist of exactly what they will do, what standards they will be graded on, and graphic organizers to refer to about the concepts listed above. They will also receive a rubric next week.

SCIENCE:
Monday and Tuesday 3 of Mr. Alkire's 8th graders presented the moon phases lesson. They did a great job and it was fun for the kids to have them in. We will review the reason we have seasons, a year, a day and take a quiz on Thursday.
We will be discussing eclipses and tides next this coming week.

Spelling 
Students will take the Lesson 16 Spelling Test on Monday. The new lesson also begins that day-making plural words. I have been sending the spelling list home each Monday. I have been talking with the class about the fact that even though we don't take the word test anymore, those words come up in the skills parts of the test. Knowing how to spell these words will be very helpful! I notice a lot of them laying around the room so not all are going home.

PLANNERS: While what is on the planner is similar for students, there are times when there are some variations. For example, I give different homework for some students for math at times. I talk through assignments each time we fill out the planner and discuss due dates when I know one is coming near. I have students think through the time they have left in class and whether they need to take something home for homework that maybe others are not. I tell those students to put it in their planners and get those things together for home. This is a skill that they will need as they get older. Being 10 and 11, this isn't something they can necessarily figure out on their own, so I talk through it a lot with them. For example, reading and writing activities can usually be completed in class, but there are times when some may need to take these home. I encourage students to talk to me if they need extra time for an assignment. (Due dates and assignments for reading and writing are on the Daily 3 board.) If I know they are using their time wisely in class, I am fine with giving extra time and do within reason so it can be completed well.

Week of January 19th

Semester 2 begins Monday
 
FYI: 
Our February break day will now be a regular school day. 
  *Homework this weekend-  
Math- Workbook Pg 75 & 76. This is in their planners.

January Book Project due January 29th.
 Students have known about this since before break and were encouraged to begin reading their books over break. We have discussed requirements a few times and they have all the information/forms needed. I asked Friday if anyone needed another copy.

MATH:    

We completed the math test for Multiplying and Dividing Fractions, and I will send those home Monday. I was able to meet with some students last week and they have their tests. Our curriculum spirals so students will have continued review of all concepts in class and for homework. Our new unit is Multiplication of Whole Numbers and Decimals


Delta Math Tests- Students completed these last week. Students who did not pass concepts have review work at school and will be given some for home as well.

READING:
Students took an assessment over Long Way from Chicago last week. These will be sent home Monday or Tuesday. This week we will be reading short fiction and nonfiction texts focusing on overall comprehension, main idea/details, author's purpose, synthesizing information, inference, vocabulary building, and cause and effect.
 
WRITING:
I'm so looking forward to students' campaign speeches on Monday when they present! After researching a fruit or vegetable, each student wrote a speech to persuade the class to vote for him/her. They each made a campaign poster as well. They may dress up in a fun way for the presentation (Like all orange if your fruit is an orange, etc) and bring in their fruit or vegetable. Some students want to bring in samples of their fruit/veggie. This is NOT required. Please have this cut ahead of time if food will be served. 
  Our next project is a short story focusing on sentence fluency, simile/metaphor, prepositional phrases, and Onomatopeia (sound words).

SCIENCE:
Monday students will begin discussing the moon and it's phases. Two 8th grade students have been working on a lesson for this with Mr. Alkire. They will be presenting the lesson on Monday and Tuesday. This will be a fun change for our science classes! 

Spelling 
Students will take the Lesson 15 Spelling Test on Monday. The new lesson also begins that day. The skill are blends such as 'bl'.

FYI: No school Friday, January 23rd.


End of Semester 1: January 26th is semester end.
Your child received a new schedule on Friday.
I have copies at school as well.
  It is quite difficult to schedule 200+ students to make sure they have PE, Music, and Art, band if they chose it, and to give all students their choices.  It's possible that your child may have a class he/she didn't choose or didn't get one he/she chose.  The kids and I have talked about this and seem understanding about it. If you have questions let me know.

  Testing, Testing!
Friday students took the Dibels test.

Monday:           SRI test
Tuesday:          5th Grade Delta Math test (Covers  six 4th grade standards)
Wednesday:    Unit 3 Math Test & Book Club novel assessment
Thursday:        6th Grade Delta Math Test (Covers six 5th grade standards)

*M-Step Practice test. January 27th Mrs. Custer's Class and our class will join together to take a practice M-Step assessment. This is the assessment that students will be taking this spring- no MEAP.  This assessment is completely online so we will be having students get familiar with how it works.

Charlotte's Web:

The entire school will be watching a performance of Charlotte's web in the gym on Wednesday morning.

*Homework this weekend-  
Math- Pg 71. This is in their planners

January Book Project due January 29th.
 Students have known about this since before break and were encouraged to begin reading their books over break. We have discussed requirements a few times and they have all the information/forms needed. I asked Friday if anyone needed another copy.

Writing: Some students chose to take this home to work on if they felt they needed some extra time.

MATH:    

We have been reviewing all concepts of multiplying and dividing fractions. We have continued to focus effort on problem-solving and learning how to decide what operation is required. If division is required, they must then decide if it's dividing a fraction by a whole number or a whole number by a fraction. We've talk a lot about checking to see if the answer makes sense with the question. The test is Wednesday and then we move onto Multiplication concepts.

 

READING:
We are finally able to finish up our book club book, Long Way from Chicago. Students will have an assessment over this on Wednesday after some review. We will then work on comprehension strategies with short stories and nonfiction.

WRITING:
Students are working on a campaign speech to get others to vote for their fruit of vegetable as Fruit or Vegetable of the Year. Students have had to research nutritional information and are writing in first person as if they actually are the fruit or vegetable. They are also creating a campaign slogan and a poster. The final drafts are due next Thursday. We will present these the following week.
Students have a detailed assignment sheet, note-taking sheet, and a rubric for the project and for the presentation. I remind them to be looking at these as they are working.

SCIENCE:
We have been studying the reason we have seasons. The tilt of the Earth's axis as it revolves around the Earth and the amount of the sun's rays a given place receives are two main reasons. We have also discussed the reason there is night and day. We will be discussing the moon's phases soon. Some students from an 8th grade class will be assisting in teaching that lesson.