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This fundraiser is earmarked for the 4th grade Mackinaw trip and 5th grade camp. Look below for important information:

• Sales dates: January 5-19
• Money and sales form due date: January 23
• Product pick-up date: February 4

Please note that sales tax is not charged, and all checks are to be payable to McGrath Elementary. The profit margin for this fundraiser is 50%, and all profits go to reducing the $95 student cost of the Mackinaw trip. This is a key fundraiser for our trips.

***A guest teacher was with us today.***

Spelling: Students continued today with practicing adding prefixes onto base words. Visit the spelling page to download a copy of the unit 5 spelling worksheets.

Cursive: Cursive worksheets pp. 51-53 from the week before Christmas will be this week’s assignment, or alternately, 10 cursive sentences of seven or more words each. Cursive is due on Fridays.

Reading: Students continued to plan and develop their Literature Circles project with their group. Projects will be presented to the class on Monday.

Writing: Students made a rough draft of their monster for our class “make a monster” book. The next piece of writing will be due January 19, and will consist of each student’s contribution to our class book.

Math: Today was a refresher on fractions, including representation with numbers and pictures, comparing fractions, making equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, and number stories with fractions. The worksheets started in class are homework if not finished.

Science: Today was an introduction to forms of energy:

Social Studies: Students completed worksheets for chapters one and two in the social studies book. This is homework if not finished in class.

Behavior Update:

Ask your student what kind of choices they made.

Notes:

• Juice Volunteers for Friday, January 5: Erin and DeMario. Click here for a full list of juice volunteers.
• Upcoming Events: Spelling Bee (January 5), writing piece due (January 19). See the class calendar for more information.
• We are looking for donations of medium and short cardboard tubes (have plenty of short ones, thanks!) 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!

Spelling: It was the Room 130 Spelling Bee. Congratulations Brandon and Kayla! They will represent our room this Friday at the McGrath Spelling Bee. Visit the spelling page to download a copy of the unit 5 spelling worksheets.

Cursive: Cursive worksheets pp. 51-53 from the week before Christmas will be this week’s assignment, or alternately, 10 cursive sentences of seven or more words each. Cursive will be due Friday. 

Reading: Students began planning their Literature Circles project to share their book with the class.

Writing: Today we brainstormed a list of ideas for a class book. The three finalists: athletes, what I want to be when I grow up, make a monster. We will vote on the final theme next time, as well as decide the genre. The next piece of writing will be due January 19, and will consist of each student’s contribution to our class book.

Math: Students finished their math test today over the following concepts:

• multiplication facts
• number sentences (true, false, can’t tell)
• solving a number sentence using parentheses
• solving for a variable in a number sentence
• solving number stories
• logic problems

Early finishers worked on math puzzles. Want more math and logic puzzles? Look here, here and here.

Science: Students have learned about weather safety, now they are learning about spotting severe weather. This is a two-hour National Weather Service (NWS) Skywarn Weather Spotter training, focusing on identifying thunderstorms and tornados. Students (and adults) who have an interest in becoming trained weather spotters can attend an additional training from the NWS, provided free at different times during the year. Visit the NWS for more information and training times.

Social Studies: It’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Fourth Grade! We’re taking a “private jet tour” of Michigan, with each group of students tasked with writing a tour guide script of important Michigan features: farming, rivers, factors, cities, Straits of Mackinaw, Mackinaw Bridge, Pictured Rocks, Soo Locks, Porcupine Mountains, waterfalls, minerals, etc. Our trip departs from Room 130 Regional Airport on Thursday!

Behavior Update:

Ask your student what kind of choices they made.

Notes:

• Juice Volunteers for Friday, January 5: Erin and DeMario. Click here for a full list of juice volunteers.
• Upcoming Events: Spelling Bee (January 5), writing piece due (January 19). See the class calendar for more information.
• We are looking for donations of medium and short cardboard tubes (have plenty of short ones, thanks!) 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!