Mrs. Alabakoff's 4th/5th GradeDearborn Public Schools

Sep 22nd Week of September 22nd-26th

Reminders for the Week:

Tomorrow is the first day of Fall!

Pink Shirt Day is October 2nd.  Order forms are coming home today if you would like to order a pink shirt!

Superhero of the Week:  Giselle WronaGreen    Great Job, Giselle!

We are learning:

Spelling–This year spelling is a bit different,  as you may have noticed.  We will be working on a spelling sound and pattern each week and students will receive their words on Monday (much like last year).  This year,  students will also have content words from Language Arts, Math or Science/Social Studies.  These would be words we are using in their subject areas.  The test will be on Friday.  Students will also have 3 cold words on Friday’s test.  These are words that follow the spelling pattern but are not given to study.  We would like students to transfer their knowledge to new words and then be able to use them in their writing.

Daily 5/CAFE–This week we are continuing to set individual reading goals with strategies for each student.  Your child should be able to tell you their goal and strategy.  We will focus this week on character traits.  Students will identify traits of a character based on the actions of the character in the text.  We will also be working some informational text and identifying features.

Writer’s Workshop–Students have been identifying powerful language to use in their descriptive writing piece.  It is a narrative about their favorite place.  We will also be reviewing capitalization of proper nouns.   This week is also the district writing prompt so we may be finishing up with our narrative at the beginning of next week.

Math–Fourth graders just finished up with Unit One, which is a review of lines, line segments, angles and rays.  We will be moving on to place value and large numbers as well as some addition and subtraction of larger numbers.  Please keep practicing those facts!

Third graders are working on some money review and will be finishing up with elapsed time.  We will be working with some problem solving using elapsed time as well.  A unit assessment will be coming up.  Details to follow!

Social Studies–Third grade is working on Social Studies.  I usually do a couple weeks of Social Studies and will then switch to Science.  Third graders are working on the Geography of Michigan.  We are learning about the landforms and bodies of water of Michigan.  This week our focus will be natural resources of Michigan.  We will also learn about the positive and negative consequences of their use.

Fourth Graders are enjoying their Project Based Learning time with Mr. David with both Science and Social Studies!

We have also enjoyed our Michigan Made Fridays!  Students sample various Michigan Made products, identify the city and location where the product is made.  Thank you to Mrs. Brown for the delicious chips!  If you are interested in donating a product, just let me know.  We do this with Mrs. Morrison’s class as well.

Have a sunny week!

Sep 16th Just a test!

Finally have the blog working–I hope!  If you subscribed to the class blog, you should be receiving this automatically!

Jun 9th End of the Year Picnic

Parents,

We are still in need of the following items for the picnic:

Cut up fruit

Cut up veggies

More paper plates, napkins and plasticware

We will be leaving at about 9:15 tomorrow morning.   Drivers please make sure Ms. Cathy has your information in the office.

Thank you!

May 12th ABC Countdown

This is late notice and a note will go home tomorrow—but—we are going to end the year with a fun ABC countdown!

There will be different activities for each day related to the letter of the alphabet.

Tomorrow is F, so it is FAN DAY–Students should wear a shirt of their favorite team, rock group or place you are a big fan of.

May 8th Veteran’s Donations!

Please check the school blog for a list of accepted donations!

If you would like a paper copy, they are available in the office.

May 2nd Lansing trip

Thank you to all parents who volunteered to chaperone!!

Since we can only take 5 and we had more than 5 volunteer, I randomly drew names and the following parents were chosen:

Mrs. Pinch

Mr. Gonzalez

Mr. Brown

Mrs. Malone

Mrs. Sareini

Thanks again!

Apr 14th Picture Day!

Reminder:

Spring pictures tomorrow!!

Mar 30th Read-In tomorrow!

The whole school is able to wear pi’s tomorrow for the end of reading month!  We will be having a read-in in the afternoon, so students are also able to bring pillows, blankets, etc to sit on while they enjoy their books.  They can also bring a snack and a drink (No pop, but the snack can be an unhealthy one!).

Mar 24th Martian Marathon t-shirt forms

Martian Marathon t shirt orders are due this Friday!  No late orders will be accepted!  Order forms can be found outside the office.

Mar 24th March 24th-28th

Reminders this week:

Conferences on Thursday, March 27th.  Conferences slips are going home.  If you did not receive one, I do not need to schedule a conference with you.  If you would still like to meet with me, feel free to contact me and I would be happy to schedule a day and time to meet.

Jonathan Rand Assembly tomorrow–Tuesday, March 25th at 1:00.

Read-a-thon pledges due Friday, March 28th

We are learning:

Spelling:  Our focus this week is changing y to i and adding an ending to the base word.  Be sure to practice words each night.

Daily5/Cafe:  We are working on individual goals.  Our focus this week is folktales, including author’s purpose.  Students are also using their Science texts to read and locate information using the text features.

Writer’s Workshop:  We recently finished our explanatory paragraphs describing how to make our favorite sundaes, snacks and sandwiches.  We are now moving on to our public discourse papers.  Students will be examining an issue, taking a position and defending their position while using a core democratic value (WOW!).

Math:  Third grade finished up with Geometry–3-D shapes and Fourth grade finished up with long division.   Both grades will now move on to Fractions.

Science:  Third grade is identifying natural resources.  Students are now creating graphic organizers, describing Reduce, Reuse and Recycle–ways to conserve our resources.  Fourth grade is working on forms of energy and will be exploring magnetism and electricity.

Social Studies:  We are beginning our study of the Government in third grade to prepare for our upcoming Lansing trip.  We will begin by learning about the purpose of the government and then will examine the branches of the government.

Have a sunny week!  Keep your fingers crossed for a warm-up!