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Spelling: Today we reviewed suffixes by removing suffixes  from base words. We will have a spelling test tomorrow and suffixes will be the skill assessed.

Cursive: Cursive pages 59-61 are available and due Friday.

Reading: Students practiced today reading their picture books selected from class or brought from home. Students will read the books to Children’s Garden students starting tomorrow and continuing into next week. Homework is to read the picture book twice to someone at home, focusing on good fluency, voice and expression.

Writing: None today due to the Career Fair.

Students should be revising at this point. The next piece of writing is due February 8. This piece should be some type of fiction not including any student from our class as a character.

Math: None today due to the Career Fair.

Science: None today due to library.

Social Studies: Students completed a test today over these concepts:

• Michigan’s land
• Great Lakes
• glaciers
• weather and climate
• features of the upper and lower peninsula

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 1
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Current Hours with No Orange Magnets: 0

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

Notes:

• View grades, assignments, attendance 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: Today we finished discussing suffixes by learning to drop the y and add the suffix (if the y follows a consonant and the suffix isn’t –ing) and when to use –es (words ending in ch, x, z, s).

Cursive: Cursive pages 59-61 are available and due Friday.

Reading: We listened to and watched one last story from the Storyline Online site and then practiced reading picture books selected from class or brought from home. Students will read the books to Children’s Garden students late this week and early next week. Homework is to read the picture book twice to someone at home.

Writing: Today we learned about four kinds of leads: talking (using dialogue), thinking (using the character’s thoughts), snapshot (describing what the character or setting looks like) and “big potato” (starting with some action).

Students also started revising conferences. The next piece of writing is due February 8. This piece should be some type of fiction not including any student from our class as a character.

Math: We practiced adding and subtracting decimals. Homework is to finish Journal pp. 88-90.

Science: We reviewed the “What is White Light Made of?” experiment today and took notes in our minibooks.

Social Studies: We played a game to review for the test tomorrow. These concepts will be assessed:

• Michigan’s land
• Great Lakes
• glaciers
• weather and climate
• features of the upper and lower peninsula

Homework is to finish review worksheet pp. 4 and 6.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 2
• Orange magnets: 2
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Current Hours with No Orange Magnets: 0

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

Notes:

• View grades, assignments, attendance 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: Today we discussed prefixes and suffixes that can be added onto a base word to change its meaning. We looked at rules involving dropping a silent e and doubling the final consonant of a single syllable word when adding a suffix (bugging, running, tripping).

Cursive: Cursive pages 59-61 are available and due Friday.

Reading: We listened to and watched three stories from the Storyline Online site to learn from the fluency of professional actors. Students were asked to bring in a picture book suitable to read to a three or four-year old. We will practice reading these books with voice and expression, and then read them to Children’s Garden students late this week and early next week. Books with about three to five lines of text per page would be great.

Writing: Today was the final planned drafting day. The next piece of writing is due February 8. This piece should be some type of fiction not including any student from our class as a character. Students should be ready to start revising tomorrow.

Math: We reviewed fractions and decimals by playing a game to compare and order decimals. Homework is to finish a decimals review worksheet. I allowed students to skip one problem from each section of three or more problems.

Science: We completed the “What is White Light Made of?” experiment today. We used a prism to separate the white light of a flashlight into colors. Students will have some time to complete this experiment tomorrow.

Social Studies: Students rewrote or cut out their “I’m Talking Michigan” poems, placed them on a piece of  construction paper, and decorated their poems with illustrations to match the words of the poem. Homework is to finish the illustrated poem. We will have a test over Michigan’s land and water on Thursday.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 3
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Current Hours with No Orange Magnets: 35

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

Notes:

• View grades, assignments, attendance 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: Today we reviewed the VCE spelling pattern (words that have a vowel-consonant-e), such as pine, made, bike. We noticed that this pattern creates a long vowel sound, and also that these words include a silent letter.

Cursive: Cursive pages 59-61 are available and due Friday.

Reading: Students finished up performing their Literature Circles plays today. We also started a project this week to continue working on fluency, voice and expression. Students will practice reading a picture book and then will read to Children’s Garden students later in the week. We watched a few movies from this website to listen to students read with good voice, expression and fluency.

Writing: None due to technology. We made practice movies today using Microsoft Photo Story 3 (get it free here). Next time we will start making our own motivational movie.

The next piece of writing is due February 8. This piece should be some type of fiction not including any student from our class as a character. Students should be nearing the completion of their drafts by now.

Math: Students completed a MiniQuiz today over fractions and decimals (check SnapGrades) and we reviewed some assignments from last week.

Science: We discussed the “What is Light?” experiment from last week.

Social Studies: We took notes in our minibooks about Michigan’s regions and also starting writing “I’m Talking Michigan” poems. Homework is to finish the poem.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 1
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Current Hours with No Orange Magnets: 28

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

Notes:

• View grades, assignments, attendance 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!

***A guest teacher was with us yesterday afternoon, so those activities are included in today’s post.*** 

Spelling: None yesterday due to looking at parhelia in the eastern sky. Suspended ice crystals created a rare sight, and we even spotted a 46 degree halo and a tangent arc.  This was good timing, as next week we will learn about creating colored light from white light.

Today we reviewed common spelling patterns for the /ou/ sound: ou, ow.

Cursive: Cursive pages 56-58 are available and due Friday. Sadly, only six students had their cursive completed, and the rest will have to give up their recess on Monday.

Reading: Students performed their Literature Circles plays today; two groups will finish up on Monday.

Writing: Today was a drafting day. The next piece of writing is due February 8. This piece should be some type of fiction not including any student from our class as a character. Students started their drafts yesterday.

Math: Today was Math Skills; we used Study Island. Your student can access Study Island anywhere with an internet connection. Yesterday, students reviewed comparing decimals. Puzzle pages 9 and 11 are homework if not finished in class.

Science: Today was the Energy Fair!

Social Studies: We took a “field trip” through Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, seeing the sights. We’ll have a test of Michigan’s land and water next week.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 1
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Current Hours with No Orange Magnets: 14

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

Notes:

• Report cards went home today! Dog ate your copy? Check SnapGrades!
• View grades, assignments, attendance 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!