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Spelling:  None today due to extra time reviewing factors during the warmup.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 48-50 are available and due on Monday.

Reading: The final three groups presented their Literature Circles projects with the class. Students also completed an informational reading test.

Writing: Today was a work day in writer’s workshop. Many students completed their revising conference.

The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Friday, December 18. Students should be revising by now.

Math: None today.

Science: We added some notes to our minibooks about how magnets stick to iron and steel, magnets can attract and repel other magnets, magnets can attract through thin materials, magnets cannot attract easily through iron or steel, permanent magnets last a long time, and the force of temporary magnets doesn’t last a long time.

Social Studies: None on Fridays.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 1

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

Notes:

• Our Mexican Fiesta party is Friday, December 18. Family members are needed to help with food preparations, set up, cleanup, and with the piñata. We also need help with food donations. Click here to see our volunteer list and add your name to the bottom if you are attending.
• Friends in Service Here (FISH) donations for our six-year old boy are due before December 15 (new date). Thanks for your generosity!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  Today was a preview of upcoming spelling words.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 48-50 are available and due on Monday.

Reading: Three groups presented their Literature Circles projects with the class; the final three groups will present tomorrow.

Writing: None today due to technology.

The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Friday, December 18. Students should be revising by now.

Math: Students turned in their factor forest projects and completed a MiniQuiz about factors and multiples.

Science: None today due to the holiday shop.

Social Studies: We learned about the Flint Sit Down Strike and how it helped people to get fair jobs through unions, collective bargaining and the threat of striking.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 1

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

Notes:

• Our Mexican Fiesta party is Friday, December 18. Family members are needed to help with food preparations, set up, cleanup, and with the piñata. We also need help with food donations. Click here to see our volunteer list and add your name to the bottom if you are attending.
• Friends in Service Here (FISH) donations for our six-year old boy are due before December 15 (new date). Thanks for your generosity!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  Students completed a spelling and skill test today.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 48-50 are available and due on Monday.

Reading: Groups continued to work on Literature Circles projects in order to share their book with the class. The projects presented on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Writing: We talked about writing with fresh language, which is writing in a new, creative and interesting way. Here are some examples of fresh language from a poem we looked at in class:

• mournful lost voices of a foghorn;
• lazy lapping waves;
• gray-wrapped rocks;
• the fog hung, wet and dripping, from the clothesline with the bathing suits.

Students also starting revising their draft. The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Friday, December 18. Students should be revising by now.

Math: We continued to review factors, products, multiples and prime numbers. Students made a construction paper “factor forest” consisting of two factor trees listing the factors below the product, three multiples in boxes below the tree, and a smaller factor tree with a prime number. Homework is to finish the factor forest if not completed in class. Here is an example of a factor tree for ideas.

Science: None today due to library.

Social Studies: We reviewed changes in the automobile industry over time, and discussed how life has changes for people in Michigan from the days of the pioneers in the 1800s, through the 1900s and to today.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 1
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 1

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

Notes:

• Our Mexican Fiesta party is Friday, December 18. Family members are needed to help with food preparations, set up, cleanup, and with the piñata. We also need help with food donations. Click here to see our volunteer list and add your name to the bottom if you are attending.
• Friends in Service Here (FISH) donations for our six-year old boy are due before December 11. Thanks for your generosity!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling: None today due to finishing up our Nacimiento showcase scene.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 48-50 are available and due on Monday.

Reading: Groups continued to work on Literature Circles projects in order to share their book with the class. The projects presented on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Writing: We talked about including details (sights, smells) about the setting of a story in order to make the places seem real.

Students also worked on their draft. The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Friday, December 18. Students should be drafting by now.

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 two factor trees listing 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: Students completed an experiment to test if the force of a magnet can go through different materials. Homework is to finish the experiment if not done in class.

Social Studies: Ahead of our field trip tomorrow to the Capitol, we reviewed the branches of government and how laws are made.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 0

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

Notes:

• Our trip to Michigan’s Capitol and Historical Museum is tomorrow, December 8. Get more details.
• Friends in Service Here (FISH) donations for our six-year old boy are due before December 11. Thanks for your generosity!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.

Spelling:  We reviewed common /s/ spelling patterns: s, ss, sc, ci, ce, cy. This will be the skill tested on next week’s spelling test.

Cursive: Cursive worksheet pp. 27, 28 and 47 are available and due on Monday.

Reading: Groups continued to work on Literature Circles projects in order to share their book with the class.

Writing: Today was a work day; students worked on their draft. The next piece of writing will be a fiction piece, due Friday, December 18. Students should be drafting by now.

Math: None today due to making a class decoration (see below).

Science: We reviewed the magnet experiment from yesterday and students noted that magnets only stick to certain, special metals (stay tuned for the “reveal” of which metal that is!).

Social Studies: None on Fridays.

El Nacimiento: This December, we will be looking at how Esperanza, the Mexican girl from our shared reading story, Esperanza Rising, would have celebrated holidays in December. Mexico has many more days of significance during December, January and even into the beginning of February, than we have in the US. Today, we learned about the primary holiday decoration in Mexico: the Nacimiento (the birth or the nativity).

This scene is usually placed in a prominent location, and can be as large as an entire room. The Nacimiento contains various people, animals, cacti, mountains, lights, cellophane waterfalls, mirror ponds, houses, and Spanish moss. There could be as many as 200 different figures in the display. Ours is in our showcase; Esperanza’s was in her hallway. Visit MexConnect for other holiday traditions in Mexico.

Behavior Update:

• Yellow magnets: 0
• Orange magnets: 0
• Red magnets: 0
• STAR Awards: 0
• Magnets moved this week (goal: 10): 3

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

Notes:

• Our trip to Michigan’s Capitol and Historical Museum is Tuesday, December 8. We need chaperones for the trip. Get more details.
• Friends in Service Here (FISH) donations for our six-year old boy are due before December 11. Thanks for your generosity!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 5th grade.