Wow!

So glad I was sitting when I openned the super generous class gift! I was already enjoying the fun, thoughful gifts from the children and the lovely messages in the cards. The gift card was a show stopper! Thank you all for making my year much more merry!

The Answer is...

40 millimeters is also known as 0.040 meters or 4 centimeters. Great job for those children who voted for the second choice!

Wednesday Before the Break

The last day before the holiday will be packed! We will have a unit math test on decimals in the morning and our holiday celebration in the afternoon. On that day, please send your child with a small treat to share with the class. Each child should have a his/her own drink. If one family can send in paper plates, that would be most welcomed!

Holiday Homework

Your child received the Winter Break Homework packet today. Please take a moment to review the packet and let me know if there are any questions. The Winter Recess is a time for family and enjoying the festivities of the holiday season so every effort was made to make the assignments manageable. It is important to do a little bit of school work each just to keep sharp and start 2010 without a lag.

Mobile Library

We are having our visit to the Mobile Library tomorrow at 11:00. Please make sure your child has a recent library card (green colored) or a library application turned in to me so that s/he may borrow books. The books will have to be returned to your local branch of the library.

Cheers!

Many thanks to our dedicated chaperones, Mrs. McClintock, Mrs. Castillo, Mrs. Tortorelli, Mrs. Wojno, Ms. Manzano and Mr. Salfarlie. We had a productive workshop at the Brookyln Museum. We will return to the Museum for a second session in January and each child has received a family pass for free admission to the Museum. Please enjoy!

I'll be out tomorrow due to illness. The class is aware of this. There will be review work for the day along with some reading about the Dutch Colonist that will be helpful for our Brooklyn Museum Workshop. The substitute will give out notes to the trip chaperones tomorrow.

Brooklyn Museum Session 1

We have five chaperones for this Wednesday's trip to the Brooklyn Museum. Our workshop is scheduled from 10- 11:20. Chaperones are asked to meet the class by the security desk at 9:35. We will be back at the school before lunch.

The Poll Answer is...

...choice three! The series ordered from least to greatest is 1.3 (one and three tenths), 3.0 (three), 13.0 (thirteen) and 30.0 (thirty) . Congratulations to the children who picked the correct answer!

Decimal Games

Please check out the new link in the Useful Website list. When you get on the site, click on the Interactive Games link. It may require you to download the free Shockwave Plug In but the games are fun! Some games are advance (ex. Decimal Speedway asks children to perform multistep calculations with decimals) but most reflect the work we do in class. Many of the games can be played with two players. Try the Decimal Darts and Decimal Concentration games!

Kids Mobile Schedule

Very early on in the year it was mentioned that there will be a Mobile Library visit to our school in December. We have just received our schedule and our class will visit the library on Thursday the 17th at 11:00. Please make sure your child has his/her library card that day. For children who don't have library cards, there was an application sent home initially so that children may borrow books. If you have not already done so please send in the application so that your child may participate. Thank You!

And the answer is...

Three thousand ninety eight and sixteen thousandths is written as ...3098.016! Congratulations to all the students who voted correctly!

Friday PE

We will have grade level Physical Education once again this Friday in addition to our regular session on Wednesday morning. With the temperature becoming more frigid, please encourage your child to dress in layers. At times, children want to take off heavy down coats as they run around in the yard, so it would be helpful to have a light hoodie/ cardigan to wear as they exercise.

Museum of the City of New York

With the brisk weather and slow holiday traffic, it was such a comfort to have such terrific helpers, Ms. Carmody, Mrs. Castillo, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Klot, Mrs. McClintock, Mrs. Noda, Mrs. Rodriguez, and Mrs. Tortorelli, on our field trip today. Thank you kindly for all your help! The trip to the Museum was very educational and our children received so many compliments on their smart responses. Each child also received a family pass for the museum. Please do enjoy!

Monday's Trip

The class will be going to the Museum of the City of New York this Monday. There are nine chaperones who signed up for the trip. My apologies that I was unable to get the usual letter out to you. Your child was told you were confirmed.
Please meet us at the front desk at 9:15.
We are expected at the Museum at 10:00 for a 90 minute workshop called Leave it to Beaver. The children will be asked to check their lunches. We will be eating in Central Park afterwards (weather permitting) before returning to the school. The class knows they should bring a towel to sit on for lunchtime.
Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for an outdoor lunch.
Thank you for your support!

December Units of Study

Literacy
Students will continue to read Nonfiction Texts and work on a genre of their choice for their independent reading. In the middle of the month we will introduce Fantasy and immerse ourselves in reading this genre so that we can better write Fantasy next month.
In Writer’s Workshop, children will continue their work on Essays. Children are challenging themselves to write Essays that require content knowledge. Some have been incorporating the reading they've been doing in Social Studies in the writing they are doing!
In Word Study/ Grammar, we will focus on writing paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting evidence. We will continue our spelling work with -er, double consonants and other spelling patterns.

Math
We will work with decimals and metric measurements. Decimals present a challenge to most children as they shift from whole numbers to numbers that show parts of a unit. Whenever there is a chance, please point out how decimals appear in our world (money, measurements, small containers, etc) .

Social Studies
We will continue our study of Europeans, Africans and Native Americans during Colonial America. We will work on a explorers till we take our trip to the Museum of the City of New York. Then we will learn about some of the early establishments in New Amsterdam and determine the reasons people came to settle in this New World.