February 9, 2018 Update...

Hi Parents,

Thank you for visiting the blog today.  Check out below to see what we've been learning this week...

Phonics/Grammar:  We focused on long and short /e/ sounds in two syllable words.  We also began working with commas and the correct usage of them when writing.  We look our spelling test Friday.

Reading:  We chose our book clubs and novels today.  We created journals for responding in.  We read several chapters in our new class read aloud, The  Magician's Elephant. We are learning about symbolism and how authors use this to help us find the deeper feelings and motivations of characters. We completed several close readings on sections of this book to deepen our vocabulary knowledge.  We  worked in small groups reading informational passages on the thirteen original colonies and our government, using the boxes and bullets strategy to help with comprehension.

Writing:  We continued our work on responding to constructed and extended responses to prepare for the type of writing we'll do on the Georgia Milestone Assessment.

Math: We completed our unit on Fractions. We used manipulatives to show our understanding of this concept, completed several online lessons using Conceptua, and then took a final assessment.  We began our unit on Measurement to the nearest quarter inch. We made our own larger version of a ruler and practiced accurately measuring objects in the classroom.

Social Studies: We began our unit on the original colonies with an informational packet.

Dinner Conversation Starters...
*ask your child who Vilna Lutz is and what character trait would describe him
*ask your child one new word or phrase he/she learned from our close reading of our new novel
*ask your child to tell you about what "Growth Mindset" is and what they've learned from Mrs. Stevens
*talk about the original colonies and ask your child to describe a challenge colonists would have faced

Class News...

Thank you to everyone who donated books to our classroom this week!  We love our new books!

Parents, remember to check your child's agenda nightly. As soon as I stopped giving dojo points for each night, I noticed many kids stopped taking it to parents to sign.  Also, I've spoken to any children who are forgetting to write their assignments in it. This is the first thing on the morning message that I put on the board, so there is no excuse for your child to not be using this to stay organized.

Thank you Mrs. Morling,  Mrs. Olson and Mrs. Allen for running small reading groups !  The students love this special time!

Congratulations to Ashley Harris for earning the Terrific Kid award this month!  Way to go!