As many may recall, there was a young girl who passed away last year at one of the elementary schools. The school is working on creating a bench/seat in her memory. In order to make this happen they are asking for the following items to be collected (all listed in the flyer below). If you have any of these items, please feel free to send them in with your child. There are collection boxes placed in the main hallway outside the office. Thank you!
Good morning!
Here is a look at our week:
Math- We will be finishing up Module 2 this week. This module only had 5 lessons, and the students are doing well with the concepts of measurement. To review at home, make sure your child knows the basic metric measurement conversions. For example, they should know there are 100 cm in 1 meter, there are 1,000 meters in 1 kilometer, there are 1,000 milliliters in 1 liter, and so on. We will begin reviewing on Wednesday, and plan on taking our end of module assessment on Friday. You can look for the review to come home both Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Social Studies- The students received an extra credit option for social studies last week! They can make a map of the 5 United States regions using any materials they choose. I would like to have this turned in by November 15, so they have plenty of time to get creative! We also are going to plan on taking a Social Studies test next Tuesday, October 29. We will begin a review for that later this week.
Spelling- We are back to doing Flocabulary this week with regular vocabulary words. Students will need to know both the spelling and definition of each word. The list is: advantage, avoid, bold, coward, fierce, harsh, opponent, struggle, triumph, and wit.
Reading/Writing- We continue to work in our reading groups on chapter books at your student’s level. We are also working on editing and revising narrative stories to make them even better.
Science- We will continue to study Earth Science, and fast/slow changes to the Earth including weathering, erosion, landslides, earthquakes, and more.
Here are a few pictures from a Buddies activity we did last week on the 3 states of matter! Have a great week. 🙂
Parents, please use the following link to sign up to volunteer for Howard’s Halloween Bash on October 25.
https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/409054baeaf2ea6fc1-howardeen1
Hi everyone,
Important dates for this week–
Friday, October 18 is Picture Day!
Please return your DTE Survey by no later than Thursday, October 17.
Thank you to everyone who has donated money for our classroom parties so far! The homeroom parents will be handling all of the supplies and goodies for each of our parties throughout the year. 🙂
Math- We just finished Module 1! You can expect your student’s test to be brought home tomorrow with the rubric attached. Please sign and return to me. Module 2 is much shorter, and will deal with measurement.
Social studies/spelling words for the week are on Flocabulary, and are all related to regions. The words are: region, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, West, industry, climate, belt, and landform. Your student received an extra credit project for social studies today. It must be turned in by November 15, but it is optional.
We had a great time learning about energy with DTE last week! Here are some pictures from the presentation.
Have a great week!
Good morning!
Important upcoming dates:
Friday, October 11 is a half day (11:45 dismissal)
Thursday, October 18 is Picture Day! 🙂
This week, we are finishing up Module 1. The end of module assessment will be next Monday or Tuesday, and will cover all of Module 1’s concepts including rounding, writing numbers in word form, expanded form, and standard form, as well as using the standard algorithm to add and subtract big numbers within word problems. We will be reviewing Wednesday/Thursday/Friday this week. (We would be ready for the test Friday, but since it is a half day, I decided to wait until Monday this time.)
Your students should have brought home a map of the Midwest region last night. This is their study tool for spelling this week. Their job is to spell all 12 states in the Midwest correctly, as well as being able to label each state in its correct location.
Reading groups are off to a good start. We are working on inferencing skills. This is something we will continue to work on throughout the year.
Finally, we have our science DTE presentation on Thursday! Your student will be bringing home a DTE Think Energy Kit, unless you opted out of the program. The kit will come with a survey for you to fill out and return as soon as possible.
Have a great week!
Hi everyone,
I let the students know this already, but this week students will only be responsible for their spelling words- they will not need to know the definitions. Our school Flocabulary subscription is being renewed, but since it did not work this week, students were unable to complete the practice activities for the vocabulary portion of the quiz, so we will stick with just being able to spell the words.
Here are some pictures from our Peace Assembly yesterday. The students made “Pinwheels for Peace” and sang a Peace Song outside, combining art, music, and even their math skills as they worked to make the pinwheel using patterns and symmetry. It was a great morning!
Today we met our second grade buddies in Mrs. Cehanowicz’s class and we made a ‘rainbow connection’ with them. 🙂 It was so fun getting to know each other! Pictures of each buddy pair or trio will be added below.
A couple quick announcements- Math tests are coming home today. This assessment was graded using the Eureka Math rubric, which is something all classrooms will be doing this year. Each question is graded separately based on the standards it covers. If your child got 8 points correct on a question, that correlates to a 1 on the report card. 7 points is a 2, 6 points is a 3, and 5 points is a 4. Remember- 1 is exceeding expectations, and 2 is right where they should be. I explained all of this to the students as well, so they should be able to walk you through the rubric. 🙂 Please sign and return the tests to me on Monday!
Finally, the class code for ordering books through Scholastic is QCXD3. If your student would like to order from the flyers I sent home, please go to scholastic.com/bookclubs and enter the code above. I plan to place the class orders this weekend, so thank you to those families who purchased already! Your books should be here in the next week.
Enjoy your weekend and enjoy these cute pictures!
Hi everyone, happy Monday! We are looking forward to the first week of fall bringing cooler weather to the classroom. 🙂
In math this week, I plan on giving the Mid-Module Assessment on Thursday, September 26. I will give the students a review tomorrow so that they have two nights to study both in class, and at home. This assessment will cover rounding, ordering numbers, and being able to write numbers in standard form, word form, and expanded form. A great way to practice is by keeping up on Zearn– thank you to all the students who have stayed caught up so far!
Our spelling/vocabulary words for the week are available on Flocabulary, but here is the list for your convenience: brilliant, capture, continent, crew, doze, perform, plunge, predator, primary, and wander.
I have been very impressed with the students’ use of their vocabulary words these past couple weeks! They have written some wonderful sentences using their vocabulary cards, and really are trying to use the words in context. I am excited to see how this helps their vocabulary progress over the school year, and it should also help them in those sections related to vocabulary on standardized tests.
This week in science, we are talking about changes to the Earth– volcanoes, landslides, weathering, erosion, storms, etc. This connects well to our social studies work on landforms, and will continue to support our learning as we begin to study the different geography of each United States region.
Finally, in reading, we are FINALLY able to begin groups! I am looking forward to working more closely with each student during this time.
As always, feel free to email me with any questions. 🙂 Have a great week!
Thank you to everyone who attended Open House and our Parent Meeting last night! It was so nice to meet some new faces and visit with old ones. 🙂
I have uploaded the Parent Meeting presentation to the Class Info page on my blog, along with our Specials Schedule. I will also attach it below.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We are ready for the first full week of school. 🙂
Reminder: Our 4th grade informational parent meeting will be this Thursday, September 12 at 5:30 in Room 14 (our classroom). Students are welcome to join and attend Howard’s Open House afterwards, from 6:00 to 7:30.
We are finishing up our first round of NWEA testing- yay! I am also working on getting an individual DRA reading level for each of the students.
In math this week, our focus will be on place value understanding and multiplying by 10s to get to the next place value. Something helpful to work on at home would be practicing multiplication facts. Flash cards are an excellent idea. Students will need to be fluent in their multiplication facts to be successful in math this year.
A note about spelling: We will be incorporating vocabulary into our spelling lists this year. Rather than having students simply memorize a spelling list, we are also going to have students learn the definitions of each word. I will be working on this in class, but they should practice at home, as well. Students will be logging onto Flocabulary.com using their Google accounts. Each week, they will be responsible for vocabulary assignments using this website. Activities will include working with synonyms and antonyms, parts of speech, using the words in context, and so on. On Friday, students will be asked to spell the words, as well as being able to match the definitions to each word. Please encourage your child to practice not just spelling the word, but also telling you what the word means, and using the word in a sentence. Here is the list for this week: act, certain, clever, explore, habit, locate, opposite, starve, talent, and treasure. *The words will also be written in the student planners, and they have access to the vocabulary cards on Flocabulary.com.
That’s all for now! I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.