It was so nice to meet with each of you for conferences. I so much enjoyed sharing your child's successes and discussing ways we can help them grow to their potential. I love your children, they are fantastic people and make me smile every day. I count myself very blessed to be their teacher.
Also, we had so much fun at our Smoothie Glow-in-the-Dark celebration! Thank you so much to all those who donated food and their time to help make it a great time for the kids.
Reading
In reading we are working on identifying main idea and supporting details in order to summarize. We are also learning about author's purpose, why an author writes (persuade, inform, entertain). Small groups who are working on using expression in their reading are doing Reader's Theater. They have been having so much fun with this, even going to far as to want to put it on for our class and possibly another class. This is definitely a very creative and expressive group of students. As a class, we are reading "Frindle," exploring character development and vocabulary. Ask your child about this fun book! Another great thing that we've tried is an online reading resource: Newsela. This is a current event news site which pares down the stories from the news to vocabulary that children can understand and relate to. The articles have different reading levels and after a student reads and answers 10 quizzes, the program custom fits to their reading level. I have selected "Elementary" as a filter, which prevents violent or very controversial topics to be available. Each student has a login, which they know, and can use at home. It is the same login that they use for Typing Agent. I'm excited about this resource because it is challenging nonfiction reading/comprehension and because it helps prepare students for Smarter Balance testing since it has a similar format.
Math
We are in our second round of math rotations. We finished our factors/multiples/prime and composite study and are now moving into multi-digit multiplication and division with remainders. Please continue to support your student's success with multiplication fact practice. We've also been doing some work in measurement, using metric units.
Writing
Our Veteran's Day essay turned out wonderful. I am working to get those corrected and returned, sorry for the delay. Currently we are finishing up our History of a Hobby research paper. They are excited about their topics and some great work is being done. They are in the drafting/editing phase and will soon be completing it with a graphic timeline. If you don't know already know your child's topic, be sure and talk with them about it.
Science
Magnetism and Electricity is finished. The kids loved this unit of study. So many cool experiments with exploring magnetism and building circuits. It was hard to pack up that kit and send it off. We will begin our Earth Materials unit after the Christmas break.
Social Studies
Even though Science is put on the back burner for now, students are happy to dig into Washington state history and geography. We are beginning our study with maps and globes and are moving into a project right after Thanksgiving break, creating a geographical term glossary. We will send home information about this soon.
Important dates coming up:
* November 25-27: Thanksgiving Holiday break - Enjoy family and recognizing your blessings
* December 2nd: Character Ed Assembly, 9:15am, gym
* December 4th: Stuff the Bus ends - be sure to donate to this important community outreach program that provides food to the less fortunate in our own community
* December 4th: Camas Youth Choir is performing at the Camas Hometown Holiday event, 6:45pm, downtown Camas
* December 21-Jan 1: Christmas break - see you back on January 4
Also, we had so much fun at our Smoothie Glow-in-the-Dark celebration! Thank you so much to all those who donated food and their time to help make it a great time for the kids.
Reading
In reading we are working on identifying main idea and supporting details in order to summarize. We are also learning about author's purpose, why an author writes (persuade, inform, entertain). Small groups who are working on using expression in their reading are doing Reader's Theater. They have been having so much fun with this, even going to far as to want to put it on for our class and possibly another class. This is definitely a very creative and expressive group of students. As a class, we are reading "Frindle," exploring character development and vocabulary. Ask your child about this fun book! Another great thing that we've tried is an online reading resource: Newsela. This is a current event news site which pares down the stories from the news to vocabulary that children can understand and relate to. The articles have different reading levels and after a student reads and answers 10 quizzes, the program custom fits to their reading level. I have selected "Elementary" as a filter, which prevents violent or very controversial topics to be available. Each student has a login, which they know, and can use at home. It is the same login that they use for Typing Agent. I'm excited about this resource because it is challenging nonfiction reading/comprehension and because it helps prepare students for Smarter Balance testing since it has a similar format.
Math
We are in our second round of math rotations. We finished our factors/multiples/prime and composite study and are now moving into multi-digit multiplication and division with remainders. Please continue to support your student's success with multiplication fact practice. We've also been doing some work in measurement, using metric units.
Writing
Our Veteran's Day essay turned out wonderful. I am working to get those corrected and returned, sorry for the delay. Currently we are finishing up our History of a Hobby research paper. They are excited about their topics and some great work is being done. They are in the drafting/editing phase and will soon be completing it with a graphic timeline. If you don't know already know your child's topic, be sure and talk with them about it.
Science
Magnetism and Electricity is finished. The kids loved this unit of study. So many cool experiments with exploring magnetism and building circuits. It was hard to pack up that kit and send it off. We will begin our Earth Materials unit after the Christmas break.
Social Studies
Even though Science is put on the back burner for now, students are happy to dig into Washington state history and geography. We are beginning our study with maps and globes and are moving into a project right after Thanksgiving break, creating a geographical term glossary. We will send home information about this soon.
Important dates coming up:
* November 25-27: Thanksgiving Holiday break - Enjoy family and recognizing your blessings
* December 2nd: Character Ed Assembly, 9:15am, gym
* December 4th: Stuff the Bus ends - be sure to donate to this important community outreach program that provides food to the less fortunate in our own community
* December 4th: Camas Youth Choir is performing at the Camas Hometown Holiday event, 6:45pm, downtown Camas
* December 21-Jan 1: Christmas break - see you back on January 4