This is a busy week in room 30. Friday is a half day for students due to the end of the marking period. Any work your student says they need to finish is due by Wednesday so I have time to grade it and get it in the gradebook by Friday. We are welcoming a new student to class so be sure to ask about our awesome new friend! NWEA testing is going to be happening almost daily for the next two weeks. We are really working hard on assuring all students have the time they need to be successful. We started reading today. Be sure to have your student get lots of rest, and have a healthy breakfast. We usually have LifeSaver mints during tests as there is a lot of research showing that mint can actually increase test performance because of the mint. If you would like to send in mints, or a test break snack for 30 students, please let me know. The students would be grateful for the extra snack and brain break.

This week: We are working on a spelling list but time will be limited in class to practice. https://quizlet.com/_5zytqw?x=1jqt&i=xp8qf

Math: We are working on reviewing the topics from the first half of the year and homework will be limited because of testing. I would rather students have unwinding time at home, rather than pages of Succeed work.

Reading: We still have our 20 minutes of reading each night to ensure we are prepped for the next test in reading. We are working on prefixes, suffixes, root words and sorting texts into genres.

Writing: we are launching a tall tale narrative. The students always enjoy being able to include lots of exaggeration and a theme in their writing.

Social Studies: We are finishing our unit and we will have a short activity in place of a test to wrap up the unit.

Science: We are wrapping up our sound unit and we will have a short quiz to wrap up the unit and we will be creating a model

Don’t forget extended day is happening on Thursday this week if your student is a participant.

Have a great week!

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy some of the last two weeks. This week we are jumping right back in. We have NWEA starting later in the week and it will be completed over the new few weeks. I am going to give the class as much time as possible to readjust back to classroom life before we start testing. Friday is the PTA Movie Night at 6:00 in the gym. This is a free event and all of the information is on the Class Dojo for the building. We start back up with STEAM Club and Extended Day tutoring this week if your student is in either/both of those things.

This week:

Spelling- https://quizlet.com/_4bltq7?x=1jqt&i=xp8qf

Social Studies- We are looking working on the environmental impact of immigration on the physical locations of major immigration and migration areas.

Science- We are going to be creating models of different types of waves with a focus on sound waves.

Math- We are continuing to look at long division and patterns in division.

Writing- We are focusing on regular and irregular plurals and looking at how they change our writing

Reading- We are focusing on prefixes and suffixes to determine the meaning of unknown words, and theme vs. main idea. Book clubs are starting back up today.

Have a great week.

It is hard to believe I am writing our last blog post of 2019! We have a jam packed week coming up. There is a late start on Wednesday. We will have holiday STEM activities on Friday. There is a Sign Up Genius on Dojo if you would like to send something in for the class.

This week:

Spelling: https://quizlet.com/_4alkpi?x=1jqt&i=xp8qf

Math: We are working on 3 digits by one digit long division. We are practicing the standard algorithm.

Writing: We are finishing our historical narratives and will be working on writing based on our plans for the break.

Daily 5: We are using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown works, deciding on the theme of a story and use evidence to prove it, and starting to examine how the tone of a text can be impacted by word choice.

Social Studies: We are continuing on our study of immigration and migration in the USA. We will be wrapping this unit up shortly after the break.

Science: We are finishing up our unit on wave types and students will have their test on Thursday. Study guides will be coming home on Wed.

Have a great week!

I hope everyone had a restful weekend. This week we start our extended day math program on Thursday. Students who received a permission slip last week need to bring it back to the classroom ASAP so they can be shared with the office before tutoring. Our week is as follows:

Spelling- We are focusing on /on/ and en/ ending chunks https://quizlet.com/_499j0v?x=1jqt&i=xp8qf

Math- We are working on determining factors for composite numbers under 1,000.

Writing- We are doing a historical fiction piece to tie into our social studies. We are writing letters to a friend while we travel on the orphan trains of the 1850-1920s. We will finish our planning and be drafting before the end of the week.

Science-We are still working on the wave types and we will begin to study which mediums/states of matter allow waves to travel through itself.

Social Studies- We have finished looking at the major migration patterns of US history and we will be beginning to look at the impact it has had on populations and metro areas of major cities.

Daily 5- We are focusing on using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words, determining the theme of a story, and determining the author’s purpose for writing a specific text.

We are also completing Hour of Code this week so look for updates on Class Dojo!

Have a great week.

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving with people you care about. The weekend flew by for me and I am ready to make the next month amazing in room 30. Santa Shop is going on this week. Our preview is today. Students will add our shopping time slot in their planners today.

Spelling: https://quizlet.com/_4689uh?x=1jqt&i=xp8qf

Math: We are focusing on long division and checking our answers with multiplication.

Science: We are digging deeper into waves and starting to look at the size and uses of wave types like x-rays, or sound waves.

Social Studies: We are working on writing a realistic fiction story based upon the orphan trains in the early 1920’s. Students will be writing from the point of view of a child on one of those trains and they will be incorporating true information from our unit.

Writing: We are reading and writing tall tales. Students will learn to use different types of creative writing types like personification, simile, and metaphors. We are getting our natural disaster writing published and ready for display.

Daily 5: We are focusing on using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words, determining theme of a narrative, and determining the point of view used by the author to tell a story. We must be able to pull out the keywords that tell us the point of view.

Have a great week!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. This week we have Book Bingo on Thursday from 6:00-7:00. It is $2.00 per player and every student leaves with a book. Concessions will also be available. Tonight is the last night for conferences so please check the sign-up if you need a reminder of your timeslot. STEAM Club is also back and meeting tomorrow after school. The school is part of a canned food drive until November 25th. If you would like to donate, please send in your canned food directly to the classroom and we will fill up our donation box.

This week:

Spelling: https://quizlet.com/_44ktag?x=1jqt&i=xp8qf

Math: We are working on solving 2 digits by one digit division problems using models such as arrays or area models.

Writing: We are finishing our natural disasters writing this week. Pieces will be published and turned on Friday. They will come home for homework on Thursday if your student has a few last-minute touches to complete.

Science: We are learning about the different types of waves and how we can measure them. We are also looking at what causes the different types of waves.

Social Studies: We are studying large migrations of people in US history and looking at the causes of these migrations. Our focus is on westward expansion.

Daily 5: We are focusing on locating and using adverbs, using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words and pulling out the theme from a text. Our next piece of writing will be a narrative and the students will have to have a theme included in their writing.

Have a great week!

I hope everyone is staying safe in the snow this morning. This is our last week of conferences. STEAM Club will start up again next week since conferences are ending. There will be a classroom sucker sale on Friday. Suckers will be $.50 each and the sale will benefit the kindergarten/ 1st split.

This week:

Spelling: https://quizlet.com/_434g6p

Math: We are taking our mid-module assessment for module 3 this week. Study guides will be coming home today and we will take the assessment tomorrow. Reviewing the difference between area and perimeter would be helpful for your student. We will then continue working on larger multiplication and we move into division.

Writing: We are finishing our building writing prompt today on comparing and contrasting two branches of government and will continue working on our natural disasters research writing tomorrow. We are working on correctly using prepositions in our writing and speech.

Daily 5: We are still focusing on the text structures of informational text, and using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown vocabulary. Book groups and daily reading at home continue.

Science: We are continuing our lessons on waves and the relationship between waves and energy.

Social Studies: We are going to look at 6 different immigration movements throughout US history and we will be looking at the push and pull factors involved in those large immigration and migration patterns.

Have a great week!

Happy November. There is no school tomorrow on Tuesday the 5th. This is for election day. The PTA is holding a bake sale and the sign-up for it can be found on Class Dojo. Conference time slot sheets will be coming home today stapled in your students’ planner. If you are unable to make the conference time on the paper, please let me know and we will find one that works. We have an assembly on Friday. Report cards will be coming home at conferences.

This week:

Spelling- https://quizlet.com/_413ygy -This week we will start focusing on the meaning of the spelling words, as much as the spelling. The Friday test will require students to understand the word and to know how to spell it.

Math: We are moving into multi-digit multiplication in Module 3. Students should be keeping up with module 3 on Khan Academy and should have completed all assignments up to quiz 3.

Writing: We are still working on the structures of informational text in both reading and writing. We are working on a piece of writing about a natural disaster that follows the “descriptive” text structure.

Reading: We are still covering text features, text structure of an informational text, and we using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words in any text. Book clubs and reading groups will continue, as well as 25 minutes of reading each and every night.

Science: Today we start our unit on waves. We are focusing on different types of waves and how you measure those waves.

Social Studies: We are beginning our unit on immigration in the United States. We will be learning about the settlements throughout the US and how people migrated or immigrated from one place to another.

Have a great week!

Happy Monday everyone. Our Halloween party will be the last 45 minutes of the day on Halloween. We will be having Halloween themed STEAM activities for each lesson during the day as well. A sign up for donations for the party is posted on Class Dojo.

This week:

Spelling- https://quizlet.com/_3zmql8

Math-We are working on patterns in multiplication and will be moving into double digit multiplication.

Science- We have a test on Wednesday to wrap up our energy unit and will be moving into waves by the end of the week.

Social Studies- We are starting research projects on the regions and will tie it into writing informational text.

Writing- We are beginning to work on the text types within informational writing. We will be working on our social studies topic within the writing. We are also having a writing share out of our Halloween opinion pieces.

Daily 5- We are focusing on compare and contrast, sequencing and working on understanding and applying commonly confused words.

Have a great week!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. This is a busy week in room 30 and at Nowlin. We have our Fall Fest coming up on Friday. Today the flyers and tickets for each student to enter Fall Fest will be coming home. Towards the end of the week, a Sign Up Genius will go out if anyone would like to donate to our Mad Scientist STEAM Halloween party. We don’t do a big party on Halloween but the day’s lessons will all be STEAM and Halloween related. Watch for that on Dojo. Here is a note about Fall Fest from the PTA:

Please take time to sign up for our Fall Fest!  We are in need of help with donations as well as physical help
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050845ACAD22A1F85-fall
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050845ACAD22A1F85-fall1
Areas of greatest need: Concessions from 6-7 and 7-7:45Ticket sales 7-8Games and clean-up  
Donations needed:candy for trick-or-treatingfood donations for selling
Older siblings can help as well!!  Many students in middle school and high school need service hours for different groups.  Sign them up!  The PTA will be happy to supply them with documented hours. 

This week:

Math- We are launching Module 3 of math. This focuses on area, perimeter and patterns in multiplication. Students recall of multiplication facts from 3rd grade will be very important during this unit. I encourage students to continue practicing their fact fluency on Mobymax fact practice or Freckle fact practice. Please check out the parent information sheet on Module 3- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SRRvKgfgWJKpaGNdkG6_c17OdtltX1rs/view?usp=sharing

Spelling: https://quizlet.com/_3y8qu3

Writing: we are publishing our Halloween Opinion pieces and will begin looking at the features of a tall tale and will be writing our own tall tales.

Reading: We are working on commonly confused words and the meaning of apostrophes to show ownership. We are also looking at the text features of informational text and working on a scavenger hunt. Lastly, book groups with individual reading strategies and 25 minutes each night of reading will continue.

Science: we are starting to look more at the types of waves and how energy from the first part of the unit can move or be transferred.

Social Studies: This week we are wrapping up our regions flapbook and will be starting to write an informational text about one specific region. The students will be collaborating with other students on a project that will include our text features from reading. This will be completed in class.

Have a great week!