Reading Oh, the places we'll go! Our ACTIVE (Asking Questions, Making Connections, Retelling, Inferring, Visualizing and Evaluating) reading strategies are helping us to read with purpose and understanding. February was all about determining importance and visualizing. This month we will focus on SYNTHESIZING all of our previous learning of our ACTIVE strategies and use those strategies in all facets of our lives. Synthesizing is like an onion, layers of learning or like a puzzle, our learning/understanding is not complete without using all of our skills. Reflection is a big piece of that. Reflecting on how a strategy helps me understand, moves our thinking forward.
Writing In library students are working on researching a particular explorer (5th grade will research US History explorers, 4th grade will research WA state explorers). Their new found skill in DETERMINING IMPORTANCE will aid them in this. They will be creating a poster with well-written informative paragraphs. We are also writing about something we are an expert on. We have written long about what we know. We are adding research to beef up our expository piece and are now organizing to write a rough draft. You can look forward to their finished piece around report card time.
Math January through March brings fractions and decimals. We are exploring fractions in many ways: using money, geometrical shapes on a grid, clock/time, ordering on a number line, adding/subtracting/multiplying and dividing, and decomposing.
Science The 5th graders are exploring matter. The 4th graders will soon begin their unit on bones and muscles.
Spelling Keep studying those spelling words! You will continue to see many of them resurface again. I will try to send the spelling list out at the beginning of the week for practice.
This week's words are:
5th - their, first, called, children, usually, remember, American, early, learned, town, person, common, instead, themselves, quite, least, government, history, record, copy, forest, especially, necessary
4th - wouldn't, its, too, world's, Earth, second, it's, United States, really, among, hundred, probably, beautiful, systems, fact, third, quite, carry, distance, although, they're
Things to be aware of:
* 20/20 READING: Six kids joined me last Friday during lunch to celebrate that they read at least 20 minutes for 20 days. We ate in the classroom, played a game and enjoyed root beer floats. Each month a 20/20 page goes home. When your student reads 20 minutes you can sign a paw print. Once they have filled in all 20 paw prints, that page comes to school and they will get to celebrate with me April 3rd. They also are put into a drawing for a spencil with Mrs. Mueller. Remember... READERS ARE LEADERS!
* Juggling Team meets every Monday at 3:30-4:30 in the small gym.
* AR Store is coming March 17th. READ, READ, READ and then take those AR tests to earn points for prizes!
* 5th Grade Human Development videos shown March 27th
* Jungle Week starts March 30!
Writing In library students are working on researching a particular explorer (5th grade will research US History explorers, 4th grade will research WA state explorers). Their new found skill in DETERMINING IMPORTANCE will aid them in this. They will be creating a poster with well-written informative paragraphs. We are also writing about something we are an expert on. We have written long about what we know. We are adding research to beef up our expository piece and are now organizing to write a rough draft. You can look forward to their finished piece around report card time.
Math January through March brings fractions and decimals. We are exploring fractions in many ways: using money, geometrical shapes on a grid, clock/time, ordering on a number line, adding/subtracting/multiplying and dividing, and decomposing.
Science The 5th graders are exploring matter. The 4th graders will soon begin their unit on bones and muscles.
Spelling Keep studying those spelling words! You will continue to see many of them resurface again. I will try to send the spelling list out at the beginning of the week for practice.
This week's words are:
5th - their, first, called, children, usually, remember, American, early, learned, town, person, common, instead, themselves, quite, least, government, history, record, copy, forest, especially, necessary
4th - wouldn't, its, too, world's, Earth, second, it's, United States, really, among, hundred, probably, beautiful, systems, fact, third, quite, carry, distance, although, they're
Things to be aware of:
* 20/20 READING: Six kids joined me last Friday during lunch to celebrate that they read at least 20 minutes for 20 days. We ate in the classroom, played a game and enjoyed root beer floats. Each month a 20/20 page goes home. When your student reads 20 minutes you can sign a paw print. Once they have filled in all 20 paw prints, that page comes to school and they will get to celebrate with me April 3rd. They also are put into a drawing for a spencil with Mrs. Mueller. Remember... READERS ARE LEADERS!
* Juggling Team meets every Monday at 3:30-4:30 in the small gym.
* AR Store is coming March 17th. READ, READ, READ and then take those AR tests to earn points for prizes!
* 5th Grade Human Development videos shown March 27th
* Jungle Week starts March 30!