MrHowd.com

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 13-15 are available and due on Friday.

Reading: Students received new Literature Circles books today.

Writing: We talked about our final personal narrative of the year. Personal narratives are usually true memories of an event. This time, though, I asked students to make some part of the narrative fictional, but still realistic. A student can change the place, add a character, change the dialogue, make the action different. It just needs to be realistic and sound like a personal narrative.

Today was also a prewriting day. Students started making a list of ideas or events in their personal narrative. This personal narrative is due Friday, November 6. Your student should be making a prewriting list at this point.

Math: We used Khan Academy and MobyMax to practice math skills today.

Here’s a skill we’ve been working on lately that your student could work on at home:

• Math patterns 2

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: Students completed a science experiment today to test how the strength of a magnet’s force changes as distance grows. Homework is to finish the Breaking the Force experiment if not done in class.

Social Studies: We made economics minibooks today and started to write down important ideas we’ve learned. There will be a MiniQuiz about the features of a market economy on Wednesday.

Notes:

• Wear Western/Cowboy duds on Thursday for a class photo!
• Fall conferences are November 8-10. Make, view, or edit your fall conference time.
• Our school is asking parents to please complete this brief parent survey.
• Our Hawaiian Beach Bash Halloween party is Friday, October 30, from 9-noon. We need help with food, donations, games, and clean up. View or sign up on our volunteer list.
• Students should be working 40 minutes each school night during their Daily Homework Time, even if there is no official “homework” from class that day.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue and StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 10-12 are available and due on Friday.

Reading: Today was an AR and reading skills practice day.  You can check your student’s AR progress by logging in to ParentVue or StudentVue.

Writing: We talked about using choice adjectives in writing. Adjectives answer the question, “what kind?” What kind of car? A fast car. What kind of building? A tall building.

Today was also the final publishing day. This piece of writing, a personal narrative, is due Monday, October 26 (new date). Your student should be nearly done with their writing and have about a page typed.

Math: We practiced special quotients today:

• 4 / 1 = 4
• 4 / 4 = 1
• 0 / 4 = 0
• 4 / 0 = undefined

Students also practiced math skills at Khan Academy. Here’s a skill we’ve been working on lately that your student could work on at home:

• Math patterns 2

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: None today.

Social Studies: Students work in teams to read an article about what a market economy is like. Students also write important ideas in a Google Document about the article. Homework is to finish the market economy notes if not done in class. Your student can get to their article and notes from docs.mrhowd.com.

Notes:

• Our Hawaiian Beach Bash Halloween party is Friday, October 30, from 9-noon. We need help with food, donations, games, and clean up. View or sign up on our volunteer list.
• Students should be working 40 minutes each school night during their Daily Homework Time, even if there is no official “homework” from class that day.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue and StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 10-12 are available and due on Friday.

Reading: We’ll be ready for a STAR Reading test soon. So we spent this time talking about our STAR goals for the year.

Writing: We talked about focusing on a short time for a piece of writing. For example, a student could write just about late lunch, describing the rubbery food, grumpy lunch ladies, and how the food is cold and almost gone (not a true story!).

Today was a publishing day. Students worked on making their writing look presentable, adding a title, and resolving partner comments. This piece of writing is a personal narrative, due Friday, October 23. Your student should be editing their their draft by now.

Math: We practiced solving multiplication and division fact families. Today was also a math practice day using MobyMax.

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: We reviewed our experiment from yesterday and learned that the force of a magnet can go through many different materials, as long as they are thin enough and not magnetic.

Social Studies: We reviewed important ideas about a market economy.

Notes:

• Our Hawaiian Beach Bash Halloween party is Friday, October 30, from 9-noon. We need help with food, donations, games, and clean up. View or sign up on our volunteer list.
• Students should be working 40 minutes each school night during their Daily Homework Time, even if there is no official “homework” from class that day.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue and StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: We reviewed long and short vowels today. We noticed that short vowel sounds usually are spelled with only one vowel, and long vowel sounds are usually spelled with two vowels.

• Short vowel sounds: cut, plan, hug, best, got
• Long vowel sounds: cute, plane, huge, beast, goat

Cursive: Cursive pp. 10-12 are available and due on Friday.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles. Students shared with their groups the responses they wrote in their notebooks, discussion questions, connections, illustrations, and interesting passages.

Writing: Today was an editing conference day in writing. Students helped edit their partner’s writing, looking for spelling, capitals, and sentence sense (does this sentence make sense?) mistakes.

Today was the final editing day. Our next piece of writing is a personal narrative, due Friday, October 23. Your student should be editing their their draft by now.

Math: We practiced solving division number stories by drawing pictures.

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: Students completed a science experiment today to test if the force of a magnet can go through different materials. Homework is to finish the Pulling Through experiment if not done in class.

Social Studies: We started to learn what a market economy is like.

Notes:

• Students should be working 40 minutes each school night during their Daily Homework Time, even if there is no official “homework” from class that day.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue and StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.

Spelling: None today.

Cursive: Cursive pp. 10-12 are available and due on Friday.

Reading: Students continued to practice the skill of determining important passages today. We’ve practiced reviewing four important reading strategies:

• Asking questions
• Making connections
• Visualizing
• Determining importance

Soon, students will be placed in book groups to continue to practice these strategies.

Writing: We talked about what makes quality writing:

1. Ideas: writing with enough details and examples to explain
2. Organization: writing a beginning, middle, and ending, with everything in the right spot
3. Style: writing with fresh, interesting words and sentences
4. Conventions: editing for spelling, capitals, periods, paragraphs, and other things that make the writing easier to read.

Today was also an editing day; students started editing their writing to make it more readable. Our next piece of writing is a personal narrative, due Friday, October 23. Your student should be editing their their draft by now.

Math: Students completed a STAR Math test today.

Homework is to practice MobyMax Math or Khan Academy for at least 15 minutes.

Science: None today due to extra time with reading and writing.

Social Studies: We reviewed the homework from yesterday about scarcity and making choices.

Notes:

• Students should be working 40 minutes each school night during their Daily Homework Time, even if there is no official “homework” from class that day.
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at ParentVue and StudentVue.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.