CONTACTING ME: You may contact me by calling the middle school or by email. lblowers@hamiltonschools.us If we need to talk at length on the phone, I will generally call after school or in the evening. My cell is a 231 area code so if you see that, it could be me.

CONTACTING ME: You may contact me by calling the middle school or by email. lblowers@hamiltonschools.us  If we need to talk at length on the phone, I will generally call after school or in the evening. My cell is a 231 area code so if you see that, it could be me.

Home Folders/Organization/Homework   *Your child chose a folder to label as their "HOME" folder. This is where to look for notes, homework, and completed work.
  

SNACKS: Please send a snack with your child each day. Many students are not bringing one with them and 3-4 hours since breakfast is a long time! 

Constitution Day We wore red, white, and blue! We red an article about the constitution and it's importance, students practiced the Preamble in social studies, and we ate red, white, and blue cupcakes!

Camp Manitou-Lin is September 21 from 7:20 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. You received a note about this next Tuesday. The lunch form, $26, and the Liability form are due Monday.

  We will do a ropes course, canoeing, and other team-building activities. So far weather is looking good! I will email and send a note next week about what to bring.

 

HOMEWORK:
Math: Reteach 80 only #'s 3-6. 
Reading a minimum of 20 minutes each day is always Homework
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

 MATH:   
We have been reviewing/learning some 4th grade concepts: part of a fraction, fraction as division, converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and visa versa, how to find the Greatest Common Factor of two denominators in order to simplify a fraction, and how to to find the Least Common Multiple in order to make a common denominator. We have been drawing pictures, looking at interactive visuals, and discussing situations where we would use fractions in order to connect the fractions to what it looks like and uses.
  We are beginning to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators, doing a lot of practice together, with partners, and in small groups.
  You can find tutorials in the MATH Tab under where it says "Current Unit".


LANGUAGE ARTS 
Writing: We have begun going through the routines and our first writing project is a choice between "What I Did this Summer" or "What I Didn't get to do this Summer". Students are typing these into google docs after conferencing with me and then editing and revising a second time after a few comments from me in the document. This will not be graded, but rather a way for me to see what students' strengths and where I can help them which I am documenting.

Reading:

We read the article "Flaming Sky" about the Hindenburg to practice strategies for figuring out new vocabulary in context. We reviewed and discussed some comprehension strategies for when we are stuck. We had a lesson about text features such as title, captions, maps, etc. and are partway through practicing using these features while reading an article with a partner.

 We continue reading aloud "Wonder" and are focusing character traits.

  Friendship: Every so often during Wonder we are having some mini-lessons & discussions about friendship. This week we talked about when making new friends and keeping ones current friendships, it's important to show interest and be a good listener. We also discussed that if you and a friend have a problem, resolving it together is best instead of involving a lot of others which can cause bigger problems.

SCIENCE 

   Our unit is Forces and Motion. This week we are practicing making a data table, graphing the information, and discussing how we know something is moving- because we use a point of reference. We did an investigation using plastic frogs jumping them a distance, collecting the data, and will graph this information.

Social Studies:

Mrs. Custer teaches this and I will put her information on the blog each week when she gives it to me.  

Word Study

We took our first proofreading test together in order to learn how to do it. Next week we will begin Word Study. The Lesson 2 skill is double consonants. The word list is in the SPELLING Tab.

Grammar: We reviewed nouns and searched for them in our reading.