December 4th, 2013
Class activities for Wednesday, December 4
***Our field trip to the Michigan Capitol and Historical Museum is this tomorrow, Thursday, December 5. Click the link to get one, or see the office. We are meeting at 7:15 am in the cafeteria. Students need a sack lunch with disposable containers.***
Spelling: We reviewed rules for using capital letters today. We’ll be having a spelling test soon.
Cursive: Cursive workbook pp. 49-51 are due on Monday.
Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on inferring and making connections as reading strategies.
Writing: We talked about how important it is for a fiction story to have a problem for the main character to solve. One way to think about this is to use the Somebody Wanted But So organizer: some character wanted something, but there was a problem, so the character solved it. For example, Dorothy wanted to get home to Kansas, but the Wizard wouldn’t help her unless she killed the witch, so she killed her and got help. Students practiced using this organizer to help think of their writing.
Today was also a drafting day for students.
Our current piece of writing is a fiction story, due Monday, December 16. Your student should be nearing the end of their draft by now.
Math: We practiced making organized lists to help solve problems. Journal P3-6 is the corresponding review page. Students also practiced math skills using Khan Academy. Many students practiced rounding and place value today.
Science: We reviewed our experiment with electromagnets and students completed a MiniQuiz about electrical conductors and insulators. Grades for the MiniQuiz were emailed to students. Have your student show you their results.
Social Studies: None today due to our reading skills practice today with MobyMax.
- Yellow magnets: 1
- Orange magnets: 0
- Red magnets: 0
- STAR Awards: 0
- Magnets moved this week (goal: 9): 4
- Hours with no magnets (Last time: 6): 0
Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade online to see if your student moved their magnet.
Notes:
- Our field trip to the Michigan Capitol and Historical Museum is this Thursday, December 5. Some students haven’t returned permission slips. Click the link to get one, or see the office.
- Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- View grades, report cards, behavior, assignments, and attendance online.
Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.
December 3rd, 2013
Class activities for Tuesday, December 3
***Our field trip to the Michigan Capitol and Historical Museum is this Thursday, December 5. Some students haven’t returned permission slips. Click the link to get one, or see the office. We are meeting at 7:15 am in the cafeteria. Students need a sack lunch with disposable containers.***
Spelling: We reviewed consonant digraphs today, which will be the skill tested on this week’s spelling test.
Cursive: Cursive workbook pp. 49-51 are due on Monday.
Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles. Students also received their November STAR Reading results:
As shown above, our class reading level dropped in November. The lass talked about some ideas to improve: reading 20 minutes each night, reading good fit books, thinking more in Literature Circles, writing more thoughts and notes during Literature Circles, and taking STAR tests more carefully. You can check your student’s STAR results in Student or ParentVue.
Writing: We talked about how a character can be “brought to life” by writing realistic dialogue, describing what the character looks like, and writing realistic actions for the character to do. We also started to learn about when to insert new paragraphs. A new paragraph should be used whenever something new is happening in the story: new time, new place, new speaker, new character, new idea, new action.
Today was also a drafting day for students.
Our next piece of writing is a fiction story, due Monday, December 16. Your student should be drafting by now.
Math: We practiced rounding numbers today. Journal P3-5 is the corresponding review page. Students also practiced math skills using MobyMax.
Science: Students completed an experiment to test if the number of winds in the coil of an electromagnet makes a difference to the magnetic force of the electromagnet.
Social Studies: We reviewed positive and negative incentives and wrote notes in our minibooks.
- Yellow magnets: 3
- Orange magnets: 0
- Red magnets: 0
- STAR Awards: 0
- Magnets moved this week (goal: 9): 3
- Hours with no magnets (Last time: 11): 0
Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade online to see if your student moved their magnet.
Notes:
- Our field trip to the Michigan Capitol and Historical Museum is this Thursday, December 5. Some students haven’t returned permission slips. Click the link to get one, or see the office.
- Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- View grades, report cards, behavior, assignments, and attendance online.
Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.
December 2nd, 2013
Class activities for Monday, December 2
Spelling: We practiced possessive pronouns today and learned that possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes.
Cursive: Cursive workbook pp. 46-48 are due tomorrow. Pages 49-51 are due on Friday.
Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles. Some groups worked on synthesizing and visualizing as a reading strategy.
Writing: Today was a drafting workday for students. We talked about how students would need to write over 100 words each day to finish their draft by Wednesday.
Our next piece of writing is another fiction story, due Monday, December 16. Your student should be drafting by now.
Math: We practiced ordering numbers today. Journal P3-4 is the corresponding review page. Students also practiced math skills using Khan Academy.
Science: We did an experiment to test if saltwater was a conductor and found out that it is. Since humans contain salt and water in their bodies, that means humans are conductors of electricity.
Social Studies: We continued to practice identifying positive and negative incentives. Homework is to finish the Identifying Incentive notes page if not done in class.
- Yellow magnets: 0
- Orange magnets: 0
- Red magnets: 0
- STAR Awards: 0
- Magnets moved this week (goal: 9): 0
- Hours with no magnets (Last time: 5): 11
Check your student’s Personal and Social Growth grade online to see if your student moved their magnet.
Notes:
- Our field trip to the Michigan Capitol and Historical Museum is this Thursday, December 5. At this time, we have filled our chaperone spaces. Some students haven’t returned permission slips. Click the link to get one, or see the office.
- Visit our Links page: keep track of all the websites we use for learning, or try something new.
- Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
- View grades, report cards, behavior, assignments, and attendance online.
Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 5th grade.
November 27th, 2013
Class activities for Wednesday, November 27
T
oday we focused on our Thanksgiving blessings. We then wrote down all of the things we are thankful for (our Thanksgiving blessings). We then created a class book of all the things we are thankful for:
I hope your family has a happy Thanksgiving holiday!
From the First Thanksgiving Observance signed by President George Washington in 1789:
