Week of May 16th

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

HOMEWORK:

Science: Study the  Guide and journal- TEST WEDNESDAY

Social Studies: TEST MONDAY
Blowers Writing: Complete your persuasive draft.

Reading:  Complete the assignment in planners for Monday- this is different for each group.

Keep reading your May book for the project DUE MAY 31st.

 

MATH - Mrs. Custer

The Delta math test was on Thursday and the kids did So well.  I am proud of all of them for great gains in math this year!!  We started measurement and the Metric system this week.  There isn't homework yet, but continue to practice for next week's division retest  (Wednesday) if you are trying any standards again and next week's final math facts tests (Friday) if you haven't yet hit 30 problems in one minute.  Best of luck!

BLOWERS WRITING:    

  Students chose an article to read, wrote notes to support their view on a graphic organizer, and began writing a draft. The draft of this persuasive paper is due on Monday. 

READING: with Mrs. Blowers

  W are partway through our book club. Groups are reading Call of the Wild, The Fighting Ground, or Long Way from Chicago.

Social Studies:

Our test is on Monday.  Reviewing the concepts on the study guide will be very helpful for anyone who needs extra practice on the American Revolution.

Science: 

We have been reviewing material for the test which is Wednesday. This first test is over classification, physical and behavioral adaptations, and organisms responses to catastrophic events. Kids have a study guide and journal pages to study.

 Spelling:     The Lesson 27 skill was Friday. Next week's skill is rules for spelling words with double letters.

WEEK OF MAY 9TH

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

HOMEWORK:

Reading: Keep reading your May book for the project DUE MAY 31st.

 

MATH - Mrs. Custer

On Friday we took our test on algebra, patterns and coordinate graphs.  Next week we will start measurement with the customary and metric systems.

 

BLOWERS WRITING:    

  Students completed their persuasive papers. We will be starting a new persuasive piece this week. Poetry will be our next after that.

 

READING: with Mrs. Blowers

  Students started book club on Thursday. Books students chose to read are A Long Way from Chicago, The Fighting Ground, and Call of the Wild. This will take us through much of May.

Social Studies:

We spent this week studying different perspectives on the American Revolution, from the King of England, to English merchants, Patriots, Loyalists and the slaves.  We should be ready for our test next week.

Science: 

We began our investigation of ancient life forms by observing and discussing rocks and fossils. We also began our discussion of catastrophic events and how they affect life on Earth. We will associate this with animals and how they must adapt to environmental change.

 

 Spelling:     The Lesson 26 skill was Friday. Next week's skill is homophones. The spelling list is in the Spelling Tab.

Week of May 2nd

Wednesday, May 11 is a HALF DAY ending at 10:45.

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

HOMEWORK:

Reading: Keep reading your May book for the project.

Math:  Lessons 6 and 95 are due Monday.

MATH - Mrs. Custer

It has been fun learning a new standard in math with coordinate planes.  We started by learning a lot of new vocabulary, and then working with real world situations.  There is a quiz on Monday.

 

BLOWERS WRITING:    

  We began our persuasive paper. We read a couple articles about whether sweets should be banned in schools. We evaluated the information and students took a position and are using information to write their position paper. There are some strong feelings on this one! :)

 

READING: with Mrs. Blowers

  We completed our assessment for Sign of the Beaver.  Next week we will be working on idioms. Students chose a book for book clubs, which begin Wednesday. We will also be working with nonfiction texts that fit in with their book club book as well as with the Tower Garden when we have computers available. 

Social Studies:

Social Studies - We learned all about the start of the American Revolution.  Check out these links for fun, musical ways to learn more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_56cZGRMx4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ikO6LMxF4

Science: We continue to observe our hermit crabs in our investigation of physical and behavioral adaptations.

 

 Spelling:     The Lesson 25 skill was Friday. Next week's skill is synonyms.

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.