Week of April 25

 CONTACTING US   
Email: lblowers@hamiltonschools.us                                                        lcuster@hamiltonschools.us

HOMEWORK: 

Blowers Class- students should have a book chosen for the May book project which will be a book jacket. We discussed this on Thursday and some students have their book chosen and should begin reading.

MATH - Mrs. Custer

The kids are all bringing home their April math fact tests and their division test today.  There will be a division retest available in a couple of weeks, so please keep the test to practice and review if necessary.

BLOWERS WRITING:    

This coming week we will begin a persuasive paper. We will be reading a couple articles about whether sweets should be banned in schools. Students will evaluate the information and then take a position.

READING: with Mrs. Blowers

  We are in our last week of Sign of the Beaver. There will be an assessment on Friday. Students have their previous assignments that we will review and I will help them to know what to focus on. We will be working with some nonfiction next and then integrating some nonfiction in with our next book clubs. 

Social Studies:

This week we learned about the causes of the American Revolution.  Everyone should be reviewing their notes before we talk about the war next week.

Science: We observed our hermit crabs and began our learning about physical and behavioral adaptations.

 Spelling:     The Lesson 23 skill test over homographs was Friday. Next week's skill is the various spellings of the /j/ sound as in jar. 

Reminder: 

 * 2 hour delay on Wednesday April, 27th.

 

* I reminded students that they may email questions if they are confused about anything they are working on at home.

 

 CONTACTING US   
Email: lblowers@hamiltonschools.us                                                        lcuster@hamiltonschools.us

HOMEWORK:   
Science (Both classes) A few students need to complete the summary in their science journal- they would have written this in their planners.

 

Reading (Both classes)  A few students need to complete the work for Chapters 15-17 in Sign of the Beaver- in planners if they need to.

  Students KNOW that reading daily for homework is an ongoing assignment! 

MATH   - Mrs. Custer The division test is now behind us (grades will be entered this weekend) and we are getting into new math concepts like simple expressions and the order of operations.  Next Thursday is our April math fact test day.  The goal is 30 problems in just one minute for each operation.  There are always extra practice papers available in my room for anyone who wants them.

BLOWERS WRITING:    

Students have done quite a lot of editing and revising on their biographies and have begun presenting them. We will be doing some persuasive writing next.

READING: with Mrs. Blowers

  We continue reading and discussing our novel, Sign of the Beaver. We have been focusing on comprehension strategies such as making inferences, vocabulary in context, summarizing, compare/contrast, and cause/effect. We will have an assessment over this novel the week of may 2nd. Students know they should be entering into discussions and saving all work in order to prepare for this.

Social Studies:
This week we began to learn about the causes that led to the American Revolution.  The kids are beginning to understand the feelings that many colonists had towards the "Mother Country".

 Science: We continued our discussion of classification systems. Students read a short piece about the classification system with a partner and wrote the main idea and big ideas down which were written into a summary.

Our hermit crabs have arrived! We will be observing them beginning next week as part of our unit. 

  Mr. Sikma and I have a Tower Garden  that we are sharing- a vertical, aeroponic growing system, allows you to grow up to 20 vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers in less than three square feet—indoors or out. 

This year we are doing more of just exposing kids to the aeroponic system and plant growth so we will be doing some work with this in the coming weeks!
 

Spelling:     The Lesson 24 skill test over apostrophes was Friday. Next week's skill homographs.

 

Week of April 11th

CONTACTING US   
Email: lblowers@hamiltonschools.us                                                        lcuster@hamiltonschools.us


I appreciate the amazing hard work of our students during the MStep test!

HOMEWORK:   
Blowers Writing: Finish rough draft of Biography if needed. Revise and edit your draft.
Math:  Dividing Review 1

MATH   - Mrs. Custer
We had a little time to review long division and division with decimals this week.  Great job to our MSTEP Rock Stars for working So hard this week.  Back to normal on Monday!

BLOWERS WRITING:    

Students are finishing up on revisions and editing of their biographies. I have read everyone's drafts 2-3 times giving suggestions or guiding questions. Students should reread drafts this weekend and revise and edit. Final drafts are due Thursday and we will share them out after that.

READING: with Mrs. Blowers

  Because of testing we have been limited in the amount of time we could spend began our genre unit book, Sign of the Beaver, but were able to get a little further into it.

 Science: We began our new unit, Systems, by discussing and investigating classification systems.
 

Spelling:     The Lesson 22 test was Friday. Next week's skill is homographs.

 

COMING UP THE WEEK OF APRIL 11TH:

COMING UP THE WEEK OF APRIL 11TH:

Week of April 11th -           MSTEP testing

MSTEP: 
1) THE KIDS WILL NEED HEADPHONES FOR THIS. Most students have them there already, but if not please send some along.

2) We begin right away at 8:00 Monday morning. :(  Please be sure your child is rested and eats a good breakfast! There is about 2 1/2 hours of testing on that day. I know it's not great timing.

 CONTACTING US   
Email: lblowers@hamiltonschools.us                                                        lcuster@hamiltonschools.us

HOMEWORK:   
MATH: Complete worksheet 5-5. Choose 1/2 of the problems to complete over break- this is a minimum of 10 problems. 1 per day and they'll be done! :)

Spelling:     The Lesson 21 test was sent home. Lesson 22 is adding suffixes.

Because of MSTEP testing we will be having limited times with our regular math, writing, and reading schedule. We will not have social studies or science except possibly Friday.