I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable break. It has been wonderful to hear about all the exciting places your families visited. Today we said goodbye to another classmate :( , John, who is moving back to China. We will now be at 26 students! Things have begun to return to normalcy with our first full week back at school. We finally have gotten the chance to put together our data binders. These are binders where students log their weekly reflection goals, their math pre-test and posttests, and their word study test scores. The reason behind the data binders is to help students to take more pride and ownership of their work. They are allowed to bring them home to show them off but please do not remove any of the papers from them. After this report card, I hope we can also use them for goal setting within specific content areas. There are studies that have shown self-reflection and goal setting are directly correlated to student achievement; as it strengthens student’s abilities to become more “self regulated” learners.
Side notes:
Just as a heads up there have been a lot of sicknesses going around the classroom lately.
I am going to need some volunteers to help me out with our classroom basket for the silent auction. As I am new to King, I would love some help and guidance from a parent or group of parents. Please let me know if you have any ideas or would be willing to help.
March 5th the Saline Fiddlers will be coming to our school to perform for us from 1:30-2:30
Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Math: Unit 7 math tests were passed back and we reviewed common mistakes seen through out the test. We also finished up Unit 7 touching upon probability and multiplying fractions by whole numbers. Both of these are skills that students will encounter in 5th grade. We also began Unit 8, related to area and perimeter, for which we took a pre-test.
Next week, we will be diving deeper into Unit 8 as we start to explore area and introduce formulas for finding the area of a rectangle, a parallelogram and a triangle.
Reading: We have been finishing up our informative unit. This week, we looked at how to determine the main idea and supporting detail of a non-fiction text, introductions of non-fiction texts and their purpose, why certain non-fiction text features are helpful to us as readers, and the different types of conclusions found in non-fiction pieces. We also have been practicing reading non-fiction and answering comprehension questions.
Next week, I will start benchmark testing students. This time around students will be tested using a non-fiction reading piece. Hence why we’ve been doing so much with non-fiction :) . We will also begin to study poetry.
Writing: We are almost ready to publish our informative texts. This week we have been drafting our paragraphs adding supporting detail, writing grabbing introductions and memorable conclusions, editing and revising ourselves and with a peer.
Next week: We will be typing our final drafts and publishing our informative pieces. I have been extremely impressed with the hard work that the students have put into this piece of writing and I think all of you will be impressed too! Once we had typed and published our pieces, adding in appropriate non-fiction text features, we will begin exploring writing poetry.
Social Studies: This week we finished talking about the southeast region. We looked at the effects geography has on our lives and how that is different from the southeast. We also summed up our conversation about the southeast region by reflecting on what we thought were the “big ideas” we should take away from this region. The next region we are focusing on is the Southwest. We have brainstormed what we know and what we want to know about the region and will jump into it next week.
Science: Last week we did a few experiments to discover the different properties of solids, liquids, and gases. This week, we discussed these different properties comparing and contrasting them in a venn diagram. We also watched a short video about these different phases. Next week, we will be digging deeper into solids, liquids, and gases looking at their weights and volume.
Side notes:
Just as a heads up there have been a lot of sicknesses going around the classroom lately.
I am going to need some volunteers to help me out with our classroom basket for the silent auction. As I am new to King, I would love some help and guidance from a parent or group of parents. Please let me know if you have any ideas or would be willing to help.
March 5th the Saline Fiddlers will be coming to our school to perform for us from 1:30-2:30
Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Math: Unit 7 math tests were passed back and we reviewed common mistakes seen through out the test. We also finished up Unit 7 touching upon probability and multiplying fractions by whole numbers. Both of these are skills that students will encounter in 5th grade. We also began Unit 8, related to area and perimeter, for which we took a pre-test.
Next week, we will be diving deeper into Unit 8 as we start to explore area and introduce formulas for finding the area of a rectangle, a parallelogram and a triangle.
Reading: We have been finishing up our informative unit. This week, we looked at how to determine the main idea and supporting detail of a non-fiction text, introductions of non-fiction texts and their purpose, why certain non-fiction text features are helpful to us as readers, and the different types of conclusions found in non-fiction pieces. We also have been practicing reading non-fiction and answering comprehension questions.
Next week, I will start benchmark testing students. This time around students will be tested using a non-fiction reading piece. Hence why we’ve been doing so much with non-fiction :) . We will also begin to study poetry.
Writing: We are almost ready to publish our informative texts. This week we have been drafting our paragraphs adding supporting detail, writing grabbing introductions and memorable conclusions, editing and revising ourselves and with a peer.
Next week: We will be typing our final drafts and publishing our informative pieces. I have been extremely impressed with the hard work that the students have put into this piece of writing and I think all of you will be impressed too! Once we had typed and published our pieces, adding in appropriate non-fiction text features, we will begin exploring writing poetry.
Social Studies: This week we finished talking about the southeast region. We looked at the effects geography has on our lives and how that is different from the southeast. We also summed up our conversation about the southeast region by reflecting on what we thought were the “big ideas” we should take away from this region. The next region we are focusing on is the Southwest. We have brainstormed what we know and what we want to know about the region and will jump into it next week.
Science: Last week we did a few experiments to discover the different properties of solids, liquids, and gases. This week, we discussed these different properties comparing and contrasting them in a venn diagram. We also watched a short video about these different phases. Next week, we will be digging deeper into solids, liquids, and gases looking at their weights and volume.