WEEK OF OCTOBER 24th

Remember NO SCHOOL on Monday October 31st. Have a wonderful Halloween!

SNACKS: Please send a snack with your child each day. 

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.   

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   

HOMEWORK:                                                                                                                                       MATH:  There is a reviewpage they received on Thursday Due Nov. 1

Book Report Project:  This is due November 4th.     Students chose a book to read between home and school. They have a graphic organizer to fill in character, setting, plot, problem, and solution. They need to have an item, drawing, etc, in a bag or container to represent each area. They will present these to the class on Nov 1 and 2. This assignment requires students to manage their time and to be careful about procrastinating. The standards we are focusing on are RL.2 summarizing and SL.4 -Report on a topic speaking clearly and at a good pace.

Students are already choosing books for the Nov/Dec Book report and should begin reading as soon as possible. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  MATH:    Students have learned all concepts in the Place Value unit. We will have 2 short quizzes next week and review. The Place Value test will be the week of November 10th. I have additional practice pages available that students have been asking for and there are tutorials and practice sites on the blog in the MATH Tab. 
 
LANGUAGE ARTS 
Writing: Students have completed their Spooky Stories. Student who wish to read them will do so on Tuesday. Our next writing assignment will be a personal narrative.
Standards: W.3 -Writing a narrative using detail organization, conversation, introduction and conclusion.   L.2 Demonstrate capitalization, punctuation, & spelling in writing.

READING: We began our genre unit novel "Guests".  This is historical fiction centering around the theme of dealing with change.We will work as a class, smaller guided reading groups, and independently. Through this book we will practice reading comprehension strategies, simile, metaphor, personification, vocabulary in context strategies, and grammar. 

 SCIENCE   Wow!! Everyone did so well on this first test. Being involved in discussions and class activities is important and I am proud of their involvement and hard work. We began our section about balanced and unbalanced forces. We arm wrestled and gave other examples in order to demonstrate these concepts. They had a great time with that!

 Studies:- Mrs. Custer

This week we learned about the early explorations of Europeans, focusing on new products they found in the Americas, technology they used to navigate and what motivated them to travel. 

Word Study
We took the Lesson 7 test Friday. These will come home on Monday. We will need to review compound words as many students forgot that it is 2 smaller words combined to make 1 word and used suffixes such as -ly and -ing in their compound words. 
  Next week's lesson is the various spellings of the /s/ sound.
 

Week of October 17-21

CONFERENCES:  October 24th & October 26th.

I encourage you to bring along your child to conferences if you wish! Our spring conferences will be student-led and they will have something they create about their learning experience.  

Friday, October 28th is a half day. Students out at 10:45.

Monday, October 31st there is NO SCHOOL.    

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!  

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.   

http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   You can find the school announcements here along with other information. If you have not signed up for School Connects where you would get announcements, etc. sent to your email, you can check with the office about how to do this.

HOMEWORK:                                                                                                                                       MATH: Lesson 15 - 5 review problems

Book Report Project:  This is due November 1st.        Students chose a book to read between home and school. They have a graphic organizer to fill in character, setting, plot, problem, and solution. They need to have an item, drawing, etc, in a bag or container to represent each area. They will present these to the class on Nov 1 and 2. This assignment requires students to manage their time and to be careful about procrastinating. The standards we are focusing on are RL.2 summarizing and SL.4 -Report on a topic speaking clearly and at a good pace.

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  MATH:   
We are now working on Place Value. So far we have worked on reading, writing, and comparing decimals to thousandths, ordering decimals, and adding decimals. We have been reviewing those standards and will add in subtracting decimals. We have been looking at visuals of what it means when a number is a decimal- less than the whole number one. There are tutorials and practice sites on the blog in the MATH Tab. 
LANGUAGE ARTS 
Writing: Students are writing Spooky Stories. We are using sound words (Onomatopeia) and focusing on giving details that help the reader "see" what is happening. 
Standards: W.3 -Writing a narrative using detail organization, conversation, introduction and conclusion.   L.2 Demonstrate capitalization, punctuation, & spelling in writing.

READING:
We read a short fiction story this week and practiced thinking and writing about the plot and theme as well as practiced writing thorough responses to text questions. Next week we begin our first Historical Fiction genre unit. We will read the novel "Guests". We will work as a class, smaller guided reading groups, and independently on reading comprehension strategies.
 SCIENCE   We completed lessons 1-4 which focused motion, finding the speed by calculating the distance divided by the time and creating data charts and graphs. The test is Monday and only 4 questions. We done a lot of review and practice in class as well as played a fun game called Kahoot! 
  Tower Garden: Students measured their plants in centimeters, created an interactive graph online, and graphed their first measurement. We will learn to check the PH level of the water this coming week and watch a video about aeroponic gardening.

 
  Studies:- Mrs. Custer
This week we reviewed Native Americans based on 7 regions in North America and then began a study of European exploration to the New World.  We read some of Christopher Columbus' own words regarding his first expedition and broke into groups to read more about how and why Europeans wanted to travel to this New World.  There is no homework this weekend.

Word Study
We took the Lesson 6 test Friday. These will come home on Monday. The skill this coming week is compound words. The word list is in the SPELLING Tab.
  Grammar: We also had a lesson and practice about synonyms and antonyms as well as reviewed these parts of speech: Nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We have also been working on breaking words apart into appropriate syllables. This is helpful when hyphenating words in writing.

CONFERENCES: October 24th & October 26th

CONFERENCES:  October 24th & October 26th            

An email for conference sign-up was sent home and the link is in the announcements. A paper sign-up came home on Friday. I do like to include your child in conferences, so bring them along! If you prefer not to have your child with you, this is fine.

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!  

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.                       http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   You can find the school announcements here along with other information. If you have not signed up for School Connects where you would get announcements, etc. sent to your email, you can check with the office about how to do this.

HOMEWORK:                                                                                                                                       MATH: 1/2 sheet of fraction review- 5 problems due Monday 

Science: Continue to study the Study Stacks - the test will be the week of Oct. 24th.   

Social Studies: Read Ch. 3 and complete assignment- in planners.                                   

Book Report Project:  This is due November 1st.        

Students chose a book to read between home and school. They have a graphic organizer to fill in character, setting, plot, problem, and solution. They need to have an item, drawing, etc, in a bag or container to represent each area. They will present these to the class on Nov 1 and 2. We used a book they read in 4th grade to create a practice assignment. I will send this example home next week. This assignment requires students to manage their time and to be careful about procrastinating. The standards we are focusing on are RL.2 summarizing and SL.4 -Report on a topic speaking clearly and at a good pace.

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 MATH:  
  Students took the test over Unit 1 Adding & Subtracting Fractions. Grades are in powerschool and students are making goals for concepts to work on.  You will see these goals and receive the tests at conferences.
We are now working on Place Value.
LANGUAGE ARTS 
Writing: Students are writing Spooky Stories. We are using sound words (Onomatopeia) and focusing on giving details that help the reader "see" what is happening. 
Standards: W.3 -Writing a narrative using detail organization, conversation, introduction and conclusion.   L.2 Demonstrate capitalization, punctuation, & spelling in writing.

READING:

This week we focused again on strategies to figure out vocabulary in context. We also practiced using BK + TC- Background knowledge and text clues- in order to make inferences when reading. We read "Happy Campers", an article about a camp for young cancer patients and thier families. We have practiced strategies for finding text information, making inferences, and gone through examples of what it looks like to write a complete and thorough response for a 3-4.

 SCIENCE   We continue to study the concept of speed. Students are working on investigations where they are moving across a 10m distance doing various movements and then recording their times, and calculating their speed. We then created a line graph of our motion and are comparing it to the trend of a steady heel to toe walk. We will be looking again at the proficiency scale and reviewing for the test over lessons 1-4 this wee. The test will likely be no sooner than October 24th. 
  Studies:- Mrs. Custer


Word Study
We took the Lesson 5 test Friday. These will come home on Monday. Our next skill is using the homophones there, they're and their. The word list is in the SPELLING Tab.

Week of October 3-7

CONFERENCES:  October 24th & October 26th            

An email for conference sign-up was sent home and the link is in the announcements. A paper sign-up came home on Friday. I do like to include your child in conferences, so bring them along! If you prefer not to have your child with you, this is fine.

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!  

Middle School Website: This is the link for the middle school website.                       http://www.hamiltonschools.us/schools/hamilton-middle/   You can find the school announcements here along with other information. If you have not signed up for School Connects where you would get announcements, etc. sent to your email, you can check with the office about how to do this.

HOMEWORK:                                                                                                                                       MATH: Lesson 55 - 5 problems due Monday 

Science: Continue to study the Study Stacks                                      

Book Report Project:  This is due November 1st.        

Students chose a book to read between home and school. They have a graphic organizer to fill in character, setting, plot, problem, and solution. They need to have an item, drawing, etc, in a bag or container to represent each area. They will present these to the class on Nov 1 and 2. We used a book they read in 4th grade to create a practice assignment. I will send this example home next week. This assignment requires students to manage their time and to be careful about procrastinating. The standards we are focusing on are RL.2 summarizing and SL.4 -Report on a topic speaking clearly and at a good pace.

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 MATH:   
  This week we have continued to review all standards, had focused groups for students that need assistance in particular areas, and practiced how to attack word problems. We began the study guide.
  The TEST over Unit 1 Adding & Subtracting Fraction will be Wednesday. October 12th.
  Tutorials in the MATH Tab under where it says "Current Unit".

LANGUAGE ARTS 
Writing: We are working on our first opinion piece. We read a short article about the pros and cons of self-driving cars. We took a side to argue in favor of and searched for details to support our stance. We filled out a graphic organizer plan and will begin writing on Monday. This we are doing mostly together. The next ones will be more independently with support from me.
Standards: W.1 -Write an opinion piece with support   L.2 Demonstrate capitalization, punctuation, & spelling in writing.

READING:

This week we focused again on strategies to figure out vocabulary in context. We also practiced using BK + TC- Background knowledge and text clues- in order to make inferences when reading. We read "The Mary Celeste" a history mystery about a ghost ship to practice these comprehension skills. 
 SCIENCE   We are studying the concept of speed. Students are working on investigations where they are moving across a 10m distance, recording their times, and calculating their speed. We have also practice reading and creating line graphs as we will be graphing our calculations.
The TEST over lessons 1-4 will be the week of October 17.

Social Studies:- Mrs. Custer

This week we completed our Rip Books over chapter 2 vocabulary.  They have been graded and were sent home Friday.  We have now started our work on regions of American Indians.  Chapter 3, a colored regions map, and a GSPEC chart will be finished later next week.

Word Study

We took the Lesson 4 test Friday. These will come home on Monday. Our next skill is ways in which the sound /k/ can be spelled. The word list is in the SPELLING Tab.

WEEK of SEPTEMBER 26- 30

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.  
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!  JRT - Just Right Time (This is like RTI)

JRT begins next week. Monday/Thursday is Reading JRT and Tuesday/Friday is Math. Students have been assigned teachers based on need in reading and math and will be going to class with those teachers after lunch from 11:25-12:00.

HOMEWORK:

Math: 6 review problems. (It says page 17 at the bottom)

Reading a minimum of 20 minutes each day is always Homework
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 MATH:   
  We are reviewing all concepts.  The test over adding and subtracting fractions will be the week of October 10. Students took a quiz on Friday which is in Powerschool- this does not count toward a grade, but is a way for students to see what concepts they need to focus on. We will be working in groups that need same concept assistance. I highly encourage your child to use the resources on the MATH tab of the blog when doing homework or just for extra practice. 

* Not knowing their math facts is part of what is causing some issues for kids. Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing incorrectly will mess up the entire problem even when showing they know how to perform the concept. 

  LANGUAGE ARTS 
Writing: This week we completed the revising and editing of Camp Manitou paragraphs. The focus was on writing a paragraph, using complete sentences, and practicing revising and editing. We also wrote captions (memes) for animal photographs. We were trying to use precise language, meaningful punctuation, and practice moving photographs from a source to a google Doc. I will create an interactive flippable book with student work and send it to you next week. 

We will write an opinion piece next week.

READING:

Students read an article on their own and are using strategies we have discussed to find information to answer text questions, find the details to fit the main idea, and figure out unknown vocabulary. Next week we will use some fiction picture books to practice making inferences. An inference is where we use text clues + our background knowledge to read between the lines or make an educated guess about what the author is saying.

We have been working primarily in a large group learning/practicing strategies as well as working in pairs at this point.

SCIENCE  
We completed our lesson 1 investigation of motion working in groups to design an obstacle course that will cause a marble to go the SLOWEST possible from one of the table to the other. Students designed, tested, discussed problems and redesigned.  We held our competition and discussed factors that positively/negatively affected outcomes. There are 4 photos in the PHOTOS TAB. 
 Next week we will perform investigations for finding speed of an object. Study Stacks for vocabulary is in the their Google Classroom.

 Social Studies:

This week we started on our second unit, including the Bering Strait Land Bridge Migration Theory and early Native Americans.  We are reading chapter 2 in our textbook and creating a Rip Book to record our new vocabulary terms.  This will most likely be due on Thursday. Friday the kids got back their first social studies quiz.  It covered the 3 branches of government.

Word Study
We took the Lesson 3 test Friday. These will come home on Monday and scores are in PowerSchool. Our next skill is spelling words with silent letters. The word list is in the SPELLING Tab.

We also studied action verbs, helping verbs and linking verbs. We will continue to practice nouns and verbs with classroom activities, games, and online practice.