Weekly Update

Math 
We finished Chapter 4 with the Unit 1 Test.  The Unit 1 Test will come home with students next Tuesday to be signed and returned.  On Friday, we started Unit 2 with Chapter 5 by reviewing how to tell time.  Unit 2 covers Chapters 5-7.  In these chapters, we will learn about elapsed time as well as collect, organize, and analyze data with a variety of charts and graphs.  

Playing a "I Have, Who Has" time review game

Reading
We finished our Nonfiction Unit using our classroom magazine, Storyworks.  All reading groups explored our class magazine and identified the main idea and supporting details in one of the articles.  Many of the nonfiction articles also had videos for us to watch online after reading to learn more about the topic!  Students get to keep these monthly magazines and can take them home to enjoy all the stories and activities.  Towards the end of the week, we started our Fiction Unit by discussing the characters, setting, and plot of fiction stories.  We will continue this unit next week as we review more story elements!  Also, students took home the October Scholastic Book Orders.  These will come out monthly, so please don't ever feel obligated to buy books.  Some students just like looking in them for independent reading book suggestions and classroom book additions.  Scholastic book orders are due next Friday, October 11th.  

Finding the main idea and supporting details with cloze reading

The article titled, "Surviving Hurricane Sandy" was a very popular read 

Writing 
We have started our realistic fiction pieces!  We brainstormed many realistic story ideas and are working on developing characters for our story.  We are doing a great job in describing more than just the external characteristics of our characters!  In Spelling, we began studying our new words.  Our Spelling Tests will be next Friday, October 11th.  

Science
We have started our Ecosystems Unit!  We extended our reading strategy of identifying the main idea and supporting details to our Science lessons by finding the main ideas of paragraphs explaining parts of an ecosystem and the many different types of ecosystems.  We have also learned how producers, consumers, and decomposes get their energy.  Students will take a quiz next Tuesday to show that they know the definitions of these three terms and that they can give examples of each.  Furthermore, as we explored a wetland ecosystem and a grassland ecosystem at the Gempp Property on Thursday, students played a fun food web game while we were there!  I have included some pictures of our trip, but students are working on a Google Doc to share with you next week!   

Our new, interactive Science books are so fun to use

This is what our Chapter 4 flashcards look like

Learning about the Gempp Property

Walking through the prairie ecosystem and enjoying the flowers and tall grasses 

Finding many living things in the wetland ecosystem

Creating a food web

                                   

Counselor's Lesson 
To add to our busy and exciting week, Mrs. Maddock came in on Monday for our monthly counselor's lesson.  We discussed the different types of bullying (including cyber bullying) and the effect bullying can have on our friends and classmates.  We all agreed that bullying is not something that we want our school to have and that we will work hard towards that goal.  


Important Info.

On Monday, you will receive an email invite from Sign Up Genius to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences on October 28th or 30th.  Follow the link in the email to sign up for your conference time slot.  Also, don't forget to return the permission slip for our first field trip that was sent home in Tuesday's Flyer Folder.  On October 21st, our class is going to Babler State Park for Missouri Heritage Days, where we will explore the pioneer times.  This is a fun field trip!  I also have room for more parent chaperons!  As always, please continue to go through Flyer Folders with your child every Tuesday and Friday as important notes and information come home.