FYI

GREAT NEWS!!!

We will be moving back into the building soon! Yeah! We will be packing up and moving some of our things the week of March 7th. This is the same week of parent/teacher conferences. If you would like me to schedule you a conference, please let me know. I will be happy to schedule you one. If I don’t hear back from you, I will know things are fine. I know the children are as anxious as I am to move back into the building! Our room looks awesome. I will try to post some pictures, but you will have to try to stop by after Spring Break when we are finally settled in, to take a look for yourselves!

Week of February 22nd!

Hasn't the weather been awesome this last week?!!  Love it!  Can't wait for Spring!  The kids sure did awesome on their program!  I was so proud of them and all their hard work!  Here is the agenda for this 4 day week:

Reading - Leveled fiction dog themed books....many children have finished their stories and are now working on their climax project.  Their fiction dog books should be finished by Monday, February 28th and the climax report is due by March 2nd.   For those children done early, they may choose one of the dog picture books to read and do a picture book report.  This second book and report are due for everyone on March 4th.

Math - We will finish up fractions this week and begin division.  We will continue to review, review, review previously learned skills! I am so proud of how well they are doing in math!

Social Studies - We will finish up the Southeast region this week. The children did fabulous on their SE history presentations last week! They took notes over each other's information and we will test over that information on Thursday. 

Spelling - List 15 on spellingcity.com  I will announce spelling enrichment words on Tuesday.

English - We are going to spend a lot of time working on our stories this week.  Some children have completed their rough drafts and have started to type their stories online.  The goal this week is for everyone to complete their rough drafts! :)

Science - I have decided to postpone our geology unit for a few more weeks.  The unit is so fun, but our experiments will do better with more consistent temps. They won't do well in real cold temperatures and our portables can get so cold at night.  If the temperature stayed like it has been this past week, it would be great, but I don't look for that to happen!  We will wait until after Spring Break! In the meantime, we will be doing some weather related topics of study for science! 

The children have had wonderful behavior and integrity! Let's keep up the good work! I have not forgotten the space habitats! We will be doing them, but that too will be sometime in the Spring.

Week of February 14th

Happy Valentines Day!!  Hope you enjoyed the snow days!!  My family sure did! We did crafts, cuddled under warm, fuzzy blankets, played in the snow, read, and just enjoyed a slow down!  I am ready, however, for warm weather and a routine now.  The agenda for this week hasn't changed much from last week. :) 

On Monday, we will do lots of fun Valentine math activities.  These activities will cover the concepts: coordinates, bar graphs, fractions, median and mode, estimating, probability, and analogies.  We will also make our Valentine card holders and a special Valentine for our kindergarten buddies.  We will meet with them to share our Valentines right before our party.  Our Valentine party will be at 2:15.  Fun Day!!

The rest of the week will find us catching up from missing so much school.  We will finish up our SE partner projects and share our knowledge with the class as they take notes for social studies.  In math, we will continue to review previously learned skills and work on our new concept, fractions.  Did your child finish the math review sheet I sent home on Tuesday?  Hope so. :)  This might just be the miracle week to test on our List 14 in spelling that we started 2 weeks ago! LOL  In English, we will continue to work on our rough drafts of our stories.  I will give the children their codes this week, so they may begin to start working online.  We will continue reading our dog books and hope we haven't forgotten the storyline. Ha ha! Last week, I talked to the children about what the climax of a story means.  A few of the children have finished their dog books and have started on their dog project involving the climax of their story.

We will, I'm sure, be practicing a lot for our 4th grade program.  Remember, the program is on February 17th at 6:30. 

Also, don't forget that our SE states location test is on Wednesday, and our SE capitals test is on Friday.  If your child has misplaced the studyguide I sent home, he/she may take home a SS text book to study. 

The Ligers will get to have their victory reward for the Superbowl Reading Challenge this Wednesday.

Have a great week!!

Week of February 7th

Hi Families!!  Here is this week's agenda:

Reading - Leveled books with the theme being "Dogs".......We will work on finding the climax of a story with their books this time.  The children will also read a picture book on dogs and do a summary and illustrations page on it.

English - Creative writing ......The children have started writing their own story recently.  They are very excited about their stories!  The best part is that they will get to put their story together with an online publishing company and get their stories actually published!  Every child will get a free paperback of their published story!!  Last week the children simply brainstormed and started writing.  A few actually even finished their stories.  Towards the end of this week, the children can start typing their stories.  I will give you your child's password so that he/she can type at home as well.  You can download actual pictures for their stories or scan their artwork or they can illustrate by using the online web tools and clipart.  It is a really neat website and project!! 

Spelling - List 14  Because of the 2 snowdays, I decided to postpone this list until this week.  Enriched words will be "Q" and "V" words.

Math - The children did awesome with decimals!  We are ready to move on to fractions and relate the two concepts once again.  As far as morning math goes, I am very proud of how many children turned in their math review homework page!  We have 2 teams......Team A and Team Z.  As of this past week, Team Z is in the lead!  The children rocked the classroom with their math review test on place value!!  Wow!  Everyone of the children got a C or better!!! That is awesome!  This week, we will review multiplication and estimation.  Look for a homework review sheet to come home soon.  Please check over this page as your child works on it to check for understanding.  There are 24 of them and only 1 of me and sometimes a child will just need a little one on one help to boost them into understanding.

Social Studies - This week the children will finish up their SE partner projects and present their new found knowledge to the class.  ****Heads up****The SE locations and capitals tests will be coming up next week....locations on Wednesday and capitals on Friday. 

Science -  Our next unit will be geology..rocks and minerals!  We will begin this unit in a couple of weeks.  As for our space habitats, we will be doing them, but it will be awhile.  I will let you know when.  I am watching for consistent class and student integrity.  It's been pretty inconsistent lately.  They are really an awesome group of children.  I totally ADORE them.  But, between the weather, the portable, 4th grade boy/girl relationships (too young) and Valentine's Day coming up, many have been having a few issues.  They will have to rise above it, however, to do the extra fun stuff though!! INTEGRITY - that's a biggie to me!!

We are getting ready for our 4th grade program.  The program will be February 17th.  It will be about Oklahoma musicians.  Our class is in charge of decorating the front of the stage.  If anyone has any ideas or can offer any help to do this decorating, I would greatly appreciate it!  One idea could be to hang some pictures of Oklahoma singers like Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks, etc.  If anyone has any pictures to loan us, let me know.  I thought about the project we did in the Fall, 5 Pocket People.  Some of the kids did Oklahoma singers.  They were really cute.  I wondered about even using them.  Please think on it and get in touch with me.  Thanks!!

Week of January 31st

Moving into February!  Here is the agenda for this week:

Reading - Leveled Reading - Dog theme

Math -  Comparing and ordering decimals, decimals and mixed numbers, rounding decimals

Spelling - List 14 on spellingcity.com (suffixes: er and est)

English - Story writing

Science - Planets, Constellations, and Moon Phases

Social Studies - SE region partner projects

Spanish - Continue Unit 9 - plants and habitats

Wednesday will be the last day of our Super Bowl Reading Challenge.  The Ligers are still in the lead, but it's anyone's game until the last quarter!!!  Keep reading!! I will announce the winning team Wednesday afternoon. 

We have postponed our Space Habitat project for a few weeks.  The children have been lacking the self control needed to do such a huge project.  They are going to have to work really hard over the next few weeks to show me they have what it takes to handle this project.  I know they can do it!  Temperance!!

Don't forget to send clean, empty cans.

Week of January 24th

Hi Families!  Can't believe it's already the last week of January!  I don't know about you, but I am so ready for the Spring already.  This cold weather is not for me!  I think being in the portables makes it tougher! We are warm in our class, but traveling outside to go anywhere gets old!  Take a look at this week's agenda:

Reading - Last week on the genre, Mystery - Your child should have picked out a 2nd mystery book on his/her level by now.  This book needs to be read and an AR test taken by February 4th.  Skill focus - Cause and Effect

English - Daily English Review, Figurative Language

Spelling - List 13 on spellingcity.com (Suffixes) I will let the kids know Tuesday what the enriched list is for the week.

Math - 2 and 3 digit times 2 and 3 digit multiplication
We will also begin reading, saying, and writing decimals to the tenth place this week, as well as take another cumulative review test.

Science - Continuous study of the planets

Social Studies - Partner projects on important events, places, and people of the Southeast

Spanish - Test on Thursday over family member names.  Study guide will go home on Tuesday.  We will also begin a new unit this week over habitats and plant parts.

*******Things to note and remember************

Super Bowl Challenge - I have been so very proud of the kids on their reading!!  We have 3 teams:
     Ligers, Flaming Flamingos, and Grizzly Bucks.  The Grizzly Bucks started out way in the lead.  Then the Ligers came back with a vengeance, so they are now in the lead with the Flamingos in second.  Keep reading!!!  We will have a Super Bowl Party on February 4th to celebrate all the reading the children have been doing and to gear up for the Super Bowl on February 6th!  The winners of our challenge, however, will get to eat lunch in the classroom with me and get a prize!

We will be starting a new challenge this week that involves MATH!!  This challenge will last about 3 months!I will divide the class into 2 teams.  Our objective is math mastery of skills we have covered.  I try not to move too fast and work to mastery before we ever move to the next concept, but sometimes the kids will still forget unless they constantly see the old concepts.  We do math twice a day.  Our morning math is going to start being skills that we have already covered.  I will be testing them over old concepts periodically.  Before the test, I will send home a study guide to work on.  The contest will involve the completion of these study guides.  The children will earn 5 points for their team for the study guide being completed, and 10 points if it is signed by a parent.  The children will also earn 15 points for an A on the test, 10 points for a B, and 5 points for a C.  We will have a math celebration in May for all their hard work with an extra privilege for the winning team!

I need clean, empty, labels peeled off,  vegetable or fruit cans.  I need 25 by Friday.  If every child brought one, we will have enough.  Please remember. :)  If you could send more than one, that would be great, just in case!  I have a cool project planned!

I almost have enough to do our space habitats, but am missing several children's money.  I went ahead and purchased all the duct tape myself, but I need your help to purchase the expensive plastic.  If you have not sent your child's $2, please help us out.  Thank you.

Week of January 18th

Hope the kids are enjoying their 3 day weekend! :) Here is what's ahead:

Reading - We will continue our "mystery" month.  All the assignments for their first mystery are due this week by Friday.  Next, they are to choose a 2nd mystery on their reading level to have read by the end of the month.  The only grades for the 2nd mystery are their AR test result and a quick fluency check by me.

Spelling - List 12 on spellingcity.com  I will let the children know the enriched list tomorrow.

English - Daily English Review (I don't always list this, but we do this every week.) Skill focus: Contractions and Pen Pal Letters

Science - Planets  If you have not sent in your $2, please do so by Tuesday. 

Social Studies - SE Region of the USA  We will be looking at the landforms, resources, and location of the SE states on Tuesday and then dive right into the wonderful, rich history of the SE on Wednesday!  This is a fascinating unit, the children always enjoy.  I make a lot of the learning student-led with this unit.  I assign the kids each a partner to become experts on an important person, event, or place of the SE.  They will do 2 inclass projects on their topic and then teach the rest of the children about what they learned.  We then put all the events and people into a timeline, so that the children will understand the order of happenings...such as Pocahontas and Harriet Tubman living in different centuries!

Math - Double Digit Multiplication  We will be practicing for mastery of this important skill all week.  I taught the children 2 ways to get to the right answer.  I will let them now choose what way best fits them.

Week of January 10th

Hi Families!  It looks like this week will be a really cold one!  Make sure your kiddos are bundled up!  We will be doing lots of long distance walks to various classes such as computer, library, music, etc.

This week's agenda:

Reading - Mysteries -leveled readers - We have been working on vocabulary related to mysteries.  Ask your child what a red herring is. :)  The children are also doing an Ingredients to a Mystery checklist, a Suspect List, a Components to a Mystery Report, as well as a Surprise Window Book Report. 

Spelling - Contractions - List 11 on spellingcity.com  Enriched spelling will start back up this week.  I will let the children know what list.

English - Prepositions and Possessives

Math - Double Digit Multiplication - Practice at home with your child on this important skill.  It will be hard for some of them, especially if they do not know their multiplication facts.

Science - Space - We will be looking at comets, the zodiac, and will become detectives solving meteorite mysteries!   For the last couple of years my students have made space habitats.  This is the coolest project!  We not only relate science to it, but math as well!  The children have loved this project.  This year because of limited funding, Mr. Rainey will not be able to purchase the supplies for this project.  The children really want to do it and I want them to do it as well, so I am asking each child to contribute $2 towards this worthwhile project.  Please help us out by sending $2 to school by Friday.  My husband helps me purchase the materials at Lowes and cuts the pieces for me.  It is a pretty big undertaking and I want to give him time to do this.  Thanks in advance for your support.  I really appreciate having such involved and supportive families. 

Don't forget the Mitten homework assignment is due on Wednesday!