Weekly Update

Writing/Spelling

This past week we finished our first writing unit!  We focused a lot on editing this past week, such as correctly punctuating quotations and paragraphing.  Then, on Friday, we celebrated our realistic fiction narratives!  Students gave group members awards such as "Leadership with Leads," "Dynamite Dialogue," and "Creative Characters."  Students should have brought their copy of their papers home this past week.  The rubrics will go home once papers have been graded.  We will resume with our next unit on essay writing on Monday.  We start "Essay Boot Camp" with a personal essay, writing about something that we love.  Then, we will write a persuasive essay.  We spend a lot of time in learning the structure of an essay.   In Spelling, students will get their new words tomorrow.  The next spelling test will be this Friday, October 14th.

Reading

In reading this past week I was able to confer with many students.  I look forward to conferring with all students by the beginning of this week!  Also, our new reading unit starts on Monday!  

Math

This past week we completed Chapter 3, reviewing the associative property, finding factors and multiples of numbers, and working on word problems.  As a reminder, students have math homework (titled "My Homework") Monday-Thursday.  You should see these and worksheets done in class coming home with either a check (all correct), "fix..." (noting corrections to be made), or "see me" (noting the student needed help at the back table).  Any blue worksheets that come home are challenge worksheets.  The students have been very motivated to work on these!  The Chapter 3 Test is this Wednesday, October 12th.  Students took home the study guide on Friday, titled "Review."  Students should finish these tomorrow. Chapter 4  is titled, "Multiply with One-Digit Numbers." It is important that students are studying their multiplication facts at home!

Science

This past week we logged on to the online textbook for the first time.  Here students will find extra credit activities.  The link to the online textbook can be found by clicking here.  After logging in, students click on "To Do" in the right-hand corner of the home page.  Then, the assigned activities will appear.  Click on the activity to complete.   After finishing an activity, click on the "I'm Done" button next to the activity.  Extra credit activities are due this Friday.  This week we will finish the chapter with a study of fossils. The Chapter 4 Test on Ecosystems is this Thursday, October 13th.  The study guide is in the "Science" section of students' binders and we will work on these tomorrow.  After our ecosystems unit, we will resume with our study of Missouri in Social Studies. 

Other Important Info.  

• October 14th marks the end of first quarter.  It is a half day with dismissal at 11:50.  No lunch will be served.  Please make sure your child knows how they are going home.  
• Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, October 24th and Wednesday, October 26th.  On Wednesday you should have received an email from SignUp Genuis.  Please let me know if you did not receive that email so we can schedule a conference. 
• On Friday, students took home plastic baggies to collect change for our Scholastic Book Fair.  This year, the change will directly benefit our classroom!  Any money that our class collects will allow us to get books for our needs and interests in our class library!  The Scholastic Book Fair runs from October 19th-27th.