MrHowd.com

Spelling: We reviewed homophones with an ie or ei spelling pattern: feint/faint, rein/rain, piece/peace. The McGrath Spelling Bee is on February 16. Here are some spelling bee resources to get ready or have your own bee at home!

• Spelling Bee practice lists and more
• Interactives Spelling Bee (spelling words in a story)
• Spelling Bee the Game (just like a real spelling bee!)
• BigIQKids.com Online Spelling Bee (play against other players)
• VisualThesaurus Spelling Bee (hard words!)

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: We started a new Letter to the Editor persuasive writing project today. Students will be asked to select a public policy issue and make an argument for or against it. Students in fourth grade typically choose a local issue; fifth graders will be asked to select a national issue. Here are a few websites showing public policy issues:

• ProCon.org – Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues
• Public Agenda for Citizens: Understanding the Issues
• Student Voices-News and Discussion on Current Events and Politics
• PollingReport.com Issues

This week, we will be reviewing core democratic values of our country. Students can also start to consider which public policy issue they would like to write about.

Here’s an overview of this persuasive letter project, and here’s a checklist to help with writing the letter. This piece will be due March 4.

Math: None today due to extra time with writing.

Science: We collected class data about our previous experiment from last week. Homework is to finish Analysis p. 40.

Social Studies: We discussed common controversial public policy issues in the United States and discussed which might be suitable topics of the persuasive letter project in writing.

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:

• Middle School Course Selection Forms are due Thursday, February 17 or earlier.
• Sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences at mrhowd.com/conferences
• View or edit the spring “Paper and Coffee” juice volunteer list.
• View our class calendar.
• Check grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Our Feb Factor Valentine’s party was so good, it was scary, literally! We sang some love songs (brotherly love songs!), passed out our cards and ate sloppy joes, chips, fruit and veggies.

Feb Factor games included sticking conversation hearts, slurping gummy hearts, munching fruit roll-ups and frosted shredded wheat, passing notes and cards, tossing bouncy balls and chowing cranberry jelly. Stay tuned for pictures!

Thanks to everyone who donated food and supplies; we had more than enough! A big thanks to all the family members that helped with serving food, cleanup and games!

Spelling: None today due to our Feb Factor party.

The McGrath Spelling Bee is on February 16. Here are some spelling bee resources to get ready or have your own bee at home!

• Spelling Bee practice lists and more
• Interactives Spelling Bee (spelling words in a story)
• Spelling Bee the Game (just like a real spelling bee!)
• BigIQKids.com Online Spelling Bee (play against other players)
• VisualThesaurus Spelling Bee (hard words!)

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: None today due to our Feb Factor party.

Writing: None today due to our Feb Factor party.

Math: We reviewed “fraction of” problems and multiplying fractions. Students also completed a MiniQuiz.

Science: None today due to our Feb Factor party.

Social Studies: None today due to our Feb Factor party.

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:

• Middle School Course Selection Forms are due Thursday, February 17 or earlier.
• Sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences at mrhowd.com/conferences
• View or edit the spring “Paper and Coffee” juice volunteer list.
• View our class calendar.
• Check grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: We reviewed common homophones today: it’s/its, your/you’re, there/their/they’re, two/to/too.

The McGrath Spelling Bee is on February 16. Here are some spelling bee resources to get ready or have your own bee at home!

• Spelling Bee practice lists and more
• Interactives Spelling Bee (spelling words in a story)
• Spelling Bee the Game (just like a real spelling bee!)
• BigIQKids.com Online Spelling Bee (play against other players)
• VisualThesaurus Spelling Bee (hard words!)

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on determining importance and inferring as reading strategies.

Writing: Students continued to work on their Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook, due Monday, February 14. Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. Students should be finalizing their story at this time.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: None on Fridays.

Science: Students completed a ball-tossing experiment to test if it is easier to catch with one or two hands.

Social Studies: None today. We did watch some live coverage of the celebration in Egypt of their president resigning after two weeks of protests.

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 Feb Factor Valentine’s Party is Monday, February 14 from 10:00-12:30 pm. See the volunteer list here if you would like to help or attend.
• Middle School Course Selection Forms are due Thursday, February 17 or earlier.
• Sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences at mrhowd.com/conferences
• View or edit the spring “Paper and Coffee” juice volunteer list.
• View our class calendar.
• Check grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: Today was our class spelling bee. Congratulations to Joel and Indira for winning our class be and representing our class at the McGrath Spelling Bee on February 16. Here are some spelling bee resources to get ready or have your own bee at home!

• Spelling Bee practice lists and more
• Interactives Spelling Bee (spelling words in a story)
• Spelling Bee the Game (just like a real spelling bee!)
• BigIQKids.com Online Spelling Bee (play against other players)
• VisualThesaurus Spelling Bee (hard words!)

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: None today due to our class spelling bee.

Writing: Students continued to work on their Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook, due Monday, February 14. Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. Students should be drafting, revising or editing at this time.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: We continued to review “fraction of” problems. Students learned a new method of solving “fraction of” problems by multiplying fractions. See the video below for an example. Homework is to finish StudyLink 7.1.

Science: We started a new experiment to see how scientists use a range of data to explain what is normal in a population.

Social Studies: We started learning about the New England, Middle and Southern Colonies.

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 Feb Factor Valentine’s Party is Monday, February 14 from 10:00-12:30 pm. See the volunteer list here if you would like to help or attend.
• Middle School Course Selection Forms are due Thursday, February 17 or earlier.
• Sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences at mrhowd.com/conferences
• View or edit the spring “Paper and Coffee” juice volunteer list.
• View our class calendar.
• Check grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.

Spelling: None today due to extra time with writing.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences of seven or more words each are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: Students continued to work on their Choose Your Own Adventure fiction gamebook, due Monday, February 14. Students will publish their adventure as a website at sites.mrhowd.com. Students should be drafting at this time.

Choose Your Own Adventure Resources

• See examples of Choose Your Own Adventure fiction websites here and here.
• Look at an Underground Railroad Choose Your Own Adventure website.
• Look through the Underground Railroad Interactive History Adventure book (hint: search for “the end” to see some of the endings of the book).
• Look at some examples of different kinds of endings in a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.
• View the titles of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books to get adventure topic ideas.
• Play Zork, a text-based computer game. Here is a list of commands and directions. Here is a map of the dungeon if you get stuck or lost.
• Find a complete list of resources here.

Math: We started a review of fractions, including mixed numbers, improper fractions and “fractions of” problems. Homework is to finish Journal pp. 122-123.

Science: None today due to library.

Social Studies: None today due to a guest lesson about physical education and nutrition.

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 Feb Factor Valentine’s Party is Monday, February 14 from 10:00-12:30 pm. See the volunteer list here if you would like to help or attend.
• Middle School Course Selection Forms are due Thursday, February 17 or earlier.
• Sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences at mrhowd.com/conferences
• View or edit the spring “Paper and Coffee” juice volunteer list.
• View our class calendar.
• Check grades, assignments, and attendance at SnapGrades.

Our Mission:
Every student in Room 130 leaves improved and prepared for 6th grade.