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Spelling: We learned that the letter r following a vowel changes the vowel sound, as in the words girl, surprise and her.

Cursive: None this week.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on inferring as a reading strategy.

Writing: We talked about how it is easier for a reader to picture a character if the writer includes details about what the character looks like. Students should be near the end of their draft and ready to revise by Monday. The next piece of writing is due December 20.

Math: We learned that division facts are really just multiplication facts turned around. Students practiced identifying multiplication and division fact families, and practiced some division facts. Homework is to finish Journal pages 57-58.

Science: Students completed a science experiment to see what would happen if unsafe electrical equipment were used in a circuit. Students connected some steel wool to a circuit with three batteries and saw that the steel wool overheated and sparked.

Social Studies: None on Fridays. There will be a test on Monday over these concepts:

• Branches of government: legislative, executive, judicial
• Levels of government: local, state, national
• Services of government (fire and safety, hospitals, education, transportation, military) and how different levels pay for different services

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 3
• Current Hours with No Magnets: 113

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• New school day times start Monday: starting at 8:50, ending at 3:50
• View grades, assignments and even the report card at SnapGrades.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• This week’s juice volunteers: thanks to responsible and generous families, we have a juice backlog, so no juice volunteers needed for a few weeks!

Spelling: None due to visiting the book fair.

Cursive: None this week.

Reading: None due to Bring a Family Member to School Day.

Writing: Today was a drafting day; students should be nearing the end of their draft. We talked about how it’s important to write enough so that the reader doesn’t have questions about what is happening in the story. To do that, a writer should aim for a minimum of two pages.  The next piece of writing is due December 20.

Math: Students made factor forests to review these concepts:

• factors (numbers multiplied to get a product)
• products (the answer to a multiplication problem)
• multiples (more than one product, 2, 4, 6, or 5, 10, 15)
• prime numbers (numbers that have only two factors, one and itself)

Science: None due to library.

Social Studies: We graded and reviewed the government worksheets from Monday and played a game to review what we’ve learned about government. A test will be on Monday over these concepts:

• Branches of government: legislative, executive, judicial
• Levels of government: local, state, national
• Services of government (fire and safety, hospitals, education, transportation, military) and how different levels pay for different services

Bring a Family Member to School Day: Thanks to all the family members that visited our classroom today and helped us decorate our Arbol de Navidad with paper poinsettias, tin sun ornaments and popcorn garland!
Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 3
• Current Hours with No Magnets: 111

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• View grades, assignments and even the report card at SnapGrades.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• This week’s juice volunteers: thanks to responsible and generous families, we have a juice backlog, so no juice volunteers needed for a few weeks!

Spelling: We reviewed spelling patterns for the /s/ sound: s, ss, sc, ce, ci, cy

Cursive: None this week.

Reading: Today was a Literature Circles reading day. Some groups worked on inferring.

Writing: We talked about bringing characters to life using action, description, dialogue and the reaction of other characters. Today was also a drafting day. The next piece of writing is due December 20.

Math: We reviewed these concepts related to multiplication:

• factors (numbers multiplied to get a product)
• products (the answer to a multiplication problem)
• multiples (more than one product, 2, 4, 6, or 5, 10, 15)
• prime numbers (numbers that have only two factors, one and itself)

We planned a project to review these ideas. Students were to choose a product, make a factor tree to list the factors below the product, write three multiples in boxes below the tree, and make a smaller factor tree with a prime number. Homework is to finish the plan for this project. Here is an example project for ideas.

Science: We watched a movie to review being safe with electricity

Social Studies: None due to an extra science time.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 3
• Current Hours with No Magnets: 105

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• View grades, assignments and even the report card at SnapGrades.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• This week’s juice volunteers: thanks to responsible and generous families, we have a juice backlog, so no juice volunteers needed for a few weeks!

We spent today in Lansing, visiting the Capitol and Historical Museum. We started at the Capitol, taking a tour of the Rotunda, three floors, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. We saw the invocation and pledge in the Senate, and the beginning of their session, but they did not have a quorum to conduct any business.

The Historical Museum took us through Michigan history from Native Americans, to Europeans, to Americans arriving. We learned about Michigan’s natural resources, mining, lumbering, the fur trade, wars, agriculture and automobile manufacturing.

Below is a video of our day. Here are the pictures. View a slideshow after the jump (click below on “Read more”).

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Cursive pages 44-46 were reviewed today.

Reading: Today was a Literature Circles discussion day. Some groups worked on determining importance.

Writing: None due to technology. The next piece of writing is due December 19.

Math: Students played Beat the Calculator to review their multiplication facts. Homework is to finish Math Boxes 3.2 if not done in class.

Science: We viewed a website with games on electrical safety. Here are the links:

• Electrical Safety World
• Hazards of Voltageville

Social Studies: We reviewed the branches of the national government. Homework is to finish two worksheets to review government levels, branches and services. We will have a test over government later this week.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 3
• Current Hours with No Magnets: 93

Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade at SnapGrades to see if your student moved their magnet.

Notes:

• Capitol Field Trip on Tuesday, December 4. Click here for more information or a permission slip. Let me know if you would like to chaperone.
• View grades, assignments and even the report card at SnapGrades.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• This week’s juice volunteers: thanks to responsible and generous families, we have a juice backlog, so no juice volunteers needed for a few weeks!