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Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Students received a double-sided cursive page, which is due on Friday.

Reading: Today we reviewed different genres of books: historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, informational, and mystery/action. We looked at the characteristics of each genre, and how our class library is organized.

Writing: Students were asked to use all the writing “tricks” we have learned to write a piece to the prompt of “believing in yourself.” They planned today and started the piece, and it will be finished on Thursday. This piece will be turned in for the first writing grade of the marking period.

Math: We continued our opening review of math concepts by playing a game to work on multiplication, division and fractions today.

Science: We reviewed yesterday’s experiment about magnets, and students used pens to improve their answers. The papers were collected for a grade.

Social Studies: Students began reading pp. 88-93 about coal, and continued to work on their “Fact or Fiction” quiz. Homework is to finish reading about coal, and complete the Fact or Fiction quiz, including writing two sentences at the bottom of the page.

Behavior Update:

• Yellows: 7 magnets
• Oranges: 3 magnet
• Reds: none

Ask your student what kind of choices they made.

Notes:

• We are looking for donations of paper grocery bags, one for each student, and cardboard tubes (toilet tissue, paper towel, wrapping paper) for class projects. The tubes can be sent in any time during the year; this project will be on-going. Thanks for any help you can give! 
• A few students still need poly envelopes (I have them for $0.50 each) to store math and science work. See the schools supplies page for more information.
• Students are welcome to bring to or keep at school a water bottle, to keep from having to ask frequently to go get a drink.
• Our Room 130 Pride board is about half full. Some students have yet to bring in three “objects” that show who they are, and that can be put on display for all to see. We are looking for things like photos, postcards, papers, medals, or little trickets that can be put in bags and hung on the board. The only limitation is size, and being able to be attached somehow to a bulletin board. These objects can remain with us the whole year, or rotated out whenever the student wants.

Our class is looking for paper grocery bags and cardboard tubes for upcoming class projects. We just need 29 paper grocery bags, enough for each student. We will use these on Friday to make treasure maps.

The cardboard tubes can be any size, from toilet tissue, to paper towel, to wrapping paper tubes. We will cut these in half and use them to build ramps for a “ramps and rollers” experiment.

Thanks for any donations you can make! 

Spelling: Today we reviewed long and short vowel sounds, and sorted words into categories according to their vowel sound. Students have received pratice worksheets and can continue to work on these; they will be collected at the time of the next spelling test. View the spelling words for this year, and well as the first spelling practice worksheets, on the Spelling page.

Cursive: None today. Students will receive practice worksheets tomorrow, and they will be due on Friday.

Reading: Today we reviewed categorizing questions into “book” questions and “brain” questions, based on if the answer is one that has to be thought about, or if the answer is in the reading. Students read a selection on bears and answered some corresponding questions.

Technology: Students got their “Web License” by reviewing how to stay safe on the Internet. Topics included passwords, personal information, downloading, cookies, meeting people, “netiquette”, and surf time. 

Math: We continued our opening review of math concepts by playing a game to work on multiplication and division today.

Science: First, we discovered that students do the same things that scientists do:

Kids are scientists! And these kids will have an opportunity to act like scientists during our weekly Science Inquiry and Discovery period. Look for more information about this soon.

Next, we conducted our first science experiment, testing to see what materials a magnet is attracted to. Homework is for students to complete the science experiment paper, including the analyze and conclude questions.

Social Studies: Students took a “Fact or Fiction” quiz about the Southeast’s coal and long growing season. They buddy read about the long growing season, pp. 82-85. Homework is to finish reading pp. 82-85, if it wasn’t finished in class. Tomorrow we will finish the Fact or Fiction quiz and complete it for a grade.

A few students also recited the Preamble to the Constitution. Here is the song we sang.   

Behavior Update:

• Yellows: 2 magnets
• Oranges: 1 magnet
• Reds: none

Ask your student what kind of choices they made.

Notes:

• School notes went home today.
• A few students still need poly envelopes (I have them for $0.50 each) to store math and science work. See the schools supplies page for more information.
• Students are welcome to bring to or keep at school a water bottle, to keep from having to ask frequently to go get a drink.
• Our Room 130 Pride board is about half full. Some students have yet to bring in three “objects” that show who they are, and that can be put on display for all to see. We are looking for things like photos, postcards, papers, medals, or little trickets that can be put in bags and hung on the board. The only limitation is size, and being able to be attached somehow to a bulletin board. These objects can remain with us the whole year, or rotated out whenever the student wants.

Spelling: Today was a word preview of upcoming spelling words. Students spelled the preview words on their whiteboards. View the spelling words for this year, and well as the first spelling practice worksheets, on the Spelling page.

Cursive: None today. We will start reviewing cursive letters next week.

Reading: Today we learned that tests have two kinds of questions: ones where the answer is “in your brain” and others where the answer is “in the book.” We practiced looking at questions and deciding where the answer could be found.

Writing: Students began a rough draft of their “solving problems” story.

Math: We reviewed “expanded notation” during a warmup.

Mission Statement: We wrote our class mission statement:

The mission of the Brainy Bandits of Room 130 is to be the best we can be and be STAR students, so we can get a good education, improve our grades, and go to good colleges that we want.

Students were asked to bring in “cowboy/cowgirl” gear on Monday for our class photo for the mission statement.

Science: None due to art.

Social Studies: Sunday is Constitution Day. We watched a SchoolHouse Rock music video about the Preamble to the Constitution, sang the Preamble, and watched a movie about what America would be like without the Constitution. Click here to watch the video. Or here to listen to the song. Students were challenged to memorize the song and say it on Monday! The lyrics are below:

The Preamble
We the people
In order to form a more perfect union,
Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
Provide for the common defense,
Promote the general welfare and
Secure the blessings of liberty
To ourselves and our posterity
Do ordain and establish this Constitution
For the United States of America.

Behavior Update:

• Yellows: 7 magnets
• Oranges: 2 magnets 
• Reds: none

Today was an improvement, although several students did move their magnets. Ask your student what kind of choices they made.

Notes:

• Don’t forget these suppies students will need: dry erase markers and three poly envelopes (I have them for $0.50 each), and a mug for our “paper and coffee” Fridays. See the schools supplies page for more information.
• Students are welcome to bring to or keep at school a water bottle, to keep from having to ask frequently to go get a drink.
• Help! Our Room 130 Pride board is looking a little sparse! Your student can help by bringing in three “objects” that show who they are, and that can be put on display for all to see. These could be photos, postcards, papers, medals, or little trickets that can be put in bags and hung on the board. The only limitation is size, and being able to be attached somehow to a bulletin board. These objects can remain with us the whole year, or rotated out whenever the student wants.

Spelling: Students corrected words they missed on yesterday’s spelling pretest, and made a list of corrected words. Look for this Words to Learn list of corrected words. It is your students “spelling list” for the next spelling test. Your student also brought home a list of the Level Four Core Words. These 500 words include all the words that might appear on spelling tests this year. View the spelling words for this year, and well as the first spelling practice worksheets, on the Spelling page.

Cursive: None today. We will start reviewing cursive letters next week.

Reading: Today, we learned that tests often use strange wording for questions and directions. The trick we learned was to read the question and try to put it in “your own words.”

Writing: We learned to stay focused on the topic, and to select different moments of the story to be in the beginning, middle and end of the piece. Students started making beginning, middle, and end planning charts, and will use them in the future to write a story.

Math: We played “Battle Peeps” to review more math problems. You’ll just have to ask your student what our game involved!

Science: Students showed their magnet posters to the class, and we came up with ideas for experiments we could try with magnets.

Social Studies: We finished reading about the Mississippi River, wetlands, and rivers in the southeast, pp. 71-77. Homework is for students to complete the Southeast WordSplash worksheet, including revising their preview sentence, and writing three new sentences in the bottom section. Each sentence should include at least two of the wordbank words. The sentences and the worksheet will be due on Monday.

Behavior Update:

• Yellows: 8 magnets
• Oranges: 2 magnets 
• Reds: none

Today was not our best day. Ask your student what kind of choices they made.

Notes:

• Don’t forget these suppies students will need: dry erase markers and three poly envelopes (I have them for $0.50 each), and a mug for our “paper and coffee” Fridays. See the schools supplies page for more information.
• Students are welcome to bring to or keep at school a water bottle, to keep from having to ask frequently to go get a drink.
• Help! Our Room 130 Pride board is looking a little sparse! Your student can help by bringing in three “objects” that show who they are, and that can be put on display for all to see. These could be photos, postcards, papers, medals, or little trickets that can be put in bags and hung on the board. The only limitation is size, and being able to be attached somehow to a bulletin board. These objects can remain with us the whole year, or rotated out whenever the student wants.
• Don’t forget to return the Emergency Data Cards (still missing 3) and Student AUP form (still missing 3) sent home last week’s eagle folder!