Monday Updates

Welcome back!
*Please return the Saturday Test Prep form as soon as possible. The sessions start this weekend and will last until the State tests are given in the first weeks of May.

* For First Friday this week, we will participate in a planting activity with a parent who works with the school's garden. Please join us at our classroom if you can.

* There will be a math unit test this Friday. It will focus on long division, angle measurements and coordinate geometry.

* The answer to the poll question is: 20 minutes. If Tom walks 50 minutes each way to and from school during the school week, he walks a total of 100 minutes in the week. Therefore he walks a total of 20 minutes each day.

Have a great week!

Week 23

What awesome weather we're having! Fingers crossed that this will hold for a few days this recess.
The class was given a packet with some reading goals and some optional math work to do.

* Boys received a green progress report this week. Please review and sign your son's report.

* When we return we will begin a new reading unit around the content area of Social Studies. We will review nonfiction reading skills to start our research into topics in around the Colonial America theme. The goal is to have children become experts on a topic like colonial jobs or colonial schools.

* We will also begin a new writing unit, Feature articles, that ties in with our reading work. As children research a topic, they will write to present their knowledge and view points to an audience.

* We will have our Spelling test on Monday for the sort 5 words.

* We will soon be finished with unit 6 in Math. The test is tentatively scheduled for Friday.
Have a wonderful Mid Winter Break!

Poll Answer

Two hundred forty seats p[laced in 15 rows would result in there being 16 seats in each row. Everyone who voted on the poll chose correctly! Super job!

Monday Notes

Thanks to everyone for sending the supplies for our first colonial activity. Butter churning is hard work but we were able to enjoy the rewards of our labor. Every child took home their jar with the remaining butter in it along with some corn muffin. Please make sure your child has taken out their jar and given it to you. They've been warn about leaving dairy unrefrigerated for too long. We made the butter at 2:30 pm. 

We will repeat this activity with our buddies class in March so please hang on to the jars.

* We are headed to the Armory tomorrow. Please make sure your child is wearing comfortable shoes and layers as the weather this week promises to be warmer than what we've come to expect.

* We will play an impromptu concert for the third graders on our ukuleles this Thursday and will also have Buddy Physical Education with Ms. Hanson's class afterwards.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Week 22

We've had an exciting week. Our district superintendent visited our classroom this Tuesday and was very impressed with our class. After chatting with us and reading our essays on poetry, she thought our students were smart and that they have "done us proud". But then again, we already knew that :)

Here's what's up for next week:
*Our young ladies went home with their green behavior reports this Friday. Please look over and sign your daughter's report.

*We will have our butter making activity on Monday. Please send in your supplies. Each child received a short letter requesting donations of either bread, heavy cream or muffins. Thank you for your generosity!

* We will visit the Armory again on Tuesday.

* We have a Physical Education session with our kindergarten buddies on Thursday. We will also perform on the ukulele for Mr. Greller's third grade class.

This is the week prior to Mid Winter's Break. We will have an optional homework packet to help keep certain math and reading skills sharp during the break.
Have a great weekend!

Poll Answer

Six hundred thirty divide by 9 equals 70! Everyone who voted was correct! Great job!

Monday Notes

Thanks for signing the green progress reports for the boys!

Final drafts for fantasy stories are due on Wednesday.

Please make sure your child has a glass jar for Friday's butter churning activity. A 10-14 oz. jar with a lid is ideal. We will also need donations of heavy cream and bread. There will be a letter coming home with more details.

We will also meet with our Kindergarten buddies on Friday.

Test folders went home today with last week's Unit 5 Math test and spelling test. Please look over the tests with your child. Most errors were in calculations but there were some due to miscopying. Please encourage your child to check over his/ her work more carefully if that is the case with your child's work.

Have a great week!

Week 21

Our thanks go to our great chaperones: Mrs. Darneilles, Mr. Naimoli and Mrs. Gurl for their assistance today. The kids really enjoyed the zoo!

Boys received their green progress report this week. Please review and sign.

Here's what's happening next week:
*We will launch our mystery book clubs. The routine will be very similar to the fantasy book clubs from last month with the children determining their reading pace as a group and jotting post its to bring to the book talk. Our reading goal is to strengthen our reading of details and putting those details together to create a larger meaning.
We are in our second week of the school readathon.

* Our writing work will shift from writing poetry to writing about poetry and other short text. We will begin Literary Essays. This is a great way to strengthen our skills in determining the themes of texts and how those themes become big ideas that connect to our real life.
Our fantasy stories are essentially completed with the final draft due on Wednesday. Please help your child go over the spelling, grammar and punctuation of the piece. Many children have stories in excess of fifteen pages, which is amazing but can also be daunting to edit. We've discussed portioning the work as we have been doing all this week and making the task more managable. There are some children who are finished already and we will no longer work on this in class.

* We will also begin our unit on the Settlers of New York. The Dutch of New Amsterdam will be the focus of the first half of this unit, then we'll look at the English takeover. We will examine the legacy of both cultures on our city and state.

* There will be a Buddies meeting with the kindergarten class on Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Prospect Park Zoo

We will head to Prospect Park tomorrow for our science trip. Due to this, we will not have First Friday this month.
If there is anyone who would like to present during March's First Friday, please contact me.
Thanks.

More Notes

* The last poll answer is 7,000,000,000 can be written as all of the following: 7 billion, 7 x 1,000,000,000 or 70 x 100,000,000.

* We will begin Unit 6 in math which focuses on extending our multiplication skills to long division. This unit will focus on strategies like the partial quotients method which is very different than the traditional method most adults learned but it is just as effective when done right.
Please help your child by reviewing multiplication facts and reversing them to make them into division facts. Try the Division Game website under the Math links.

Keep warm and take care!