September 30, 2013 September 30, 2013- October 4, 2013

Reading: We are continuing the basal stories with this week’s selection, Raise the Flag High. Students will have a spelling worksheet, comprehension page, and reading test as usual. Students will continue with stations and book clubs. Our skill and strategy this week are sequencing and inferring.

Writing: Students are continuing to work on a nonfiction piece. They will focus on taking what they have brainstormed and start to work on transforming it to a piece of writing.

Math: Students will start Unit 4 on Monday. Unit 4 focuses on division and different algorithms. The Everyday Math website is a great tool for understanding the division algorithms that we will be using.

Physical Science: Students will be introduced to simple machines and will work in groups to complete a project that demonstrates how a specific simple machine works. The students will have class time to work on this project.

Social Studies: Please contact your child's Social Studies teacher for an update on this subject.

Bully Lesson: This week will challenge the students to each reach their personal best. The goal of the week is for students to not compare how they are with others but see how they can improve and be the best person that they can be.

Special Announcements: There is a convocation on Wednesday afternoon about fire safety. If you have not signed up for a parent/teacher conference yet, please contact Mrs. Pfahler and Miss Scott. We have called those who have not signed up and would love to get everyone scheduled. Parent/teacher conferences are on October 9 and 10. Do not forget that the grading period ends on Friday.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us!
We hope you have a great week.
Mrs. Pfahler and Miss Scott

September 23-27

Reading: We are resuming a normal basal week with our story, At the Beach.  Students will have the regular spelling worksheet, comprehension page, and reading test this week. Students will participate in regular stations and book clubs this week. We will also work on visualizing, comparing and contrasting, and Greek and Latin derivatives.
Number the Stars recap: Miss Scott and Mrs. Pfahler were VERY PLEASED with the students during our first novel study, Number the Stars. The content in this book is very difficult, and the students worked hard to understand the text and the time period in which it took place. They demonstrated great maturity when learning about World War II.
Writing: Students will focus on adverbs and finding errors in sentences for the grammar section of our study this week. Students are working this week on nonfiction writing this week for a self-chosen topic.

Math: Students will complete unit 3 this week. We will have our test on Friday and will begin Unit 4 on Monday.

Physical Science: Students will be learning about Newton's Laws and reviewing for our science test over chemical changes, physical changes, and Newton's Laws.

Social Studies: Please contact your child's Social Studies teacher for an update on this subject.

Bully Lesson: Students will participate in a team building activity focusing again on cooperation and communication. They will be doing a trust activity that we are sure they will enjoy. They are really embraced these team building activities!

Special Events:
K Buddies: The class will be very excited to find out that we will be spending some time with our buddies on Friday!

Acuity: Students took the Math Acuity test on Monday and will take the Language Arts Acuity test next Monday.

Parent/Teacher Conferences: If you have not yet signed up for your conference, please let us know!

Have a wonderful week!

September 16-20 in Review

Here is a quick overview of our packed week!

Reading: We do not have a basal story this week, so we will not have a spelling list, spelling workbook page, comprehension page, reading test, etc. Even though we do not have those requirements, you should see your child still have a fair amount of homework to complete our Number the Stars book study. Students have been very engaged in this complex novel! In addition to the book study, we will continue to work on making inferences and will begin introducing Greek and Latin roots. Students will participate in regular stations and book clubs this week.

Writing: Students will focus on adverbs and finding errors in sentences for the grammar section of our study this week. We will begin discussing our first major writing piece for the year.

Math: Students will have 5 lessons in unit 3 this week focusing on measuring angles, drawing angles, identifying relationships between angles, and sorting polygons into categories.

Physical Science: Students will be learning about chemical changes this week and will have an opportunity to complete an inquiry project at the end of the week.

Social Studies: Please contact your child's Social Studies teacher for an update on this subject.

Bully Lesson: Students will participate in a fun activity to help them see how communication can be diminished when passed through multiple people. We will discuss rumors and hearing information "second hand" and accepting it as fact.

Special Events:
Step-a-thon convo: On Friday at 3:00, students will have a celebration for the Step-a-thon fundraiser. Parents are welcome to attend if they have a background check on file. To be eligible for prizes, students had to bring in their money by today (Monday), but they can still bring in their donations for the rest of this week. Thank you for supporting our awesome PSG in this fundraiser!

Donuts with Dad forms: Donuts with Dads forms are due by FRIDAY. If your child has a concern with an allergy, please contact me. I will send on the information to the person in charge of the event.

Parent/Teacher Conferences: If you have not yet signed up for your conference, please let us know!

Have a wonderful week!

September 9-13 in Review

Math: Students will be tested over Chapter 2 on Tuesday. Monday will be the review for the test. The students will then move onto Chapter 3. The first few lessons will focus on looking at text, tables, graphs and more and interpreting those with math skills. On Friday we will get into exploring angles.

 

Science: Students will be tested over Chapter 1 on Tuesday. Monday will be spent reviewing for the test. Chapter 2 will be introduced on Thursday. Both Thursday and Friday will be spent taking notes and discovering new terms that relate to chemistry.

 

Reading: We are taking a break from our main reading texts and are exploring a book called Number the Stars. We will be doing a book club with this text. We will have this week and next to read the book. During that time there will be no spelling tests or regular worksheets regarding spelling or vocabulary.  The students will be able to choose a track to be on for completing the book. The students will also learn some background information about Denmark and WWII.

 

Writing: As a continuation from each week, we will focus on reviewing and improving our 6+1 traits. This week we will focus on grammar, adverbs, continuing ideas in writing, and organization. The students will take a grammar quiz on Wednesday.  

 

Bully: We will be doing a teambuilding activity this week. It is important for students to be able to work together and to build positive relationships. This type of activity helps students grow and think about how teamwork affects schoolwork.

 

Social Studies: Please ask your child's social studies teacher for an update of this subject.

 Special Announcements!

As mentioned above, we will have no spelling tests for this week and next. We sent out midterms on Friday. If you did not receive one, then your student has all grades above a “D”  in each subject. We highly encourage you to look up your child’s grades so that you have an idea of how they are doing. If you would like a midterm to be printed for you, then please let us know!

We had a great day at Step-a-Thon on Friday. Our class worked very hard and several students had a couple thousand steps. Please remember that the pledges are due on September 16. We need to have the envelopes back at school that day.

September 30^th marks the last day for students to have 20 points towards Reading Counts. Encourage your child to read daily, which they should be doing already, and have them read for more points.

On Friday, we had our student council elections! We had a strong group of students run and a close race! We were very proud of all of our candidates!

 

As always, please let us know if you have any questions!!!

Mrs. Pfahler and Miss Scott

Week of September 2-6

Here is our update for September 2-6

 

Math: Students will continue to work on Unit 2 this week. They will focus on multiplication of whole numbers and decimals, review The Lattice Method of multiplication, compare millions, billions, and trillions and end the week by working on fractions and finding the area of irregular shapes. On Friday, the students will be given the Unit 2 study guide to review over the weekend.   

Science: Students will be able to participate in two inquiries this week. They will be working on separating oxygen and hydrogen from water and finding the saturation level of water. The inquiries will combine ideas that we have been reading about these past two weeks. We will not have science on Friday due to Step-A-Thon. 

Reading: The skill for the week is cause and effect. The strategy for the week is text structure. The reading story for the week is Ten Mile Day.  We will continue to work on reading our Book Club books and tying those discussions into our skill and strategy. We will also be focusing on responding to our main text using the APE strategy. This week we will start the spelling test again, so make sure your student knows the words.  

Writing: As a continuation from each week, we will focus on reviewing and improving our 6+1 traits. This week we will focus on writing a variety of entries on the same topic, adverbs, and we will end the week by having an opportunity to free write.  

Bully: We will be watching a bully video this week. As the students are watching the video, they will be thinking about what characters play certain roles. We will have the students get into groups and discuss what roles were in the video and how they could have responded to the situation.  

Social Studies: Please ask your child's social studies teacher for an update of this subject. 

IMPORTANT:

 Friday is our Step-A-Thon fundraiser. The students must wear appropriate gym shoes in order to participate. All of the students received a manila envelope to put their fundraiser money into.

  

 

 

Thursday is our Student Council election day. We will be electing three representatives to represent our class. Please note that students are not allowed to bring in items to bribe other classmates into voting. We will make them take home these items. Please check last week’s post below about the requirements for running.  

 

Parent/Teacher Conferences: If you have not yet signed up for your child's Parent/Teacher Conference, please contact Mrs. Pfahler as soon as possible! 

As always, feel free to contact us with any questions! We hope that you enjoyed Labor Day weekend.  

Mrs. Pfahler and Miss Scott