December 2, 2016
December is spoiling us with beautifully warm weather!
Our class is practicing for the Christmas concert, rapidly approaching us (December 12th, a Monday)! Please see the note from Mr. Krienke about the Christmas concert and another regarding phones at school. Your children are so excited to be ringing the bells with their pieces. The permission slips are due this coming Monday, December 5th for transportation arrangements for the rehearsal. There are just a few still needing to be returned to the office.
Math has your scholar bringing home the test with measurement. We went over the answers and stressed how important it is to "show your work"and to explain how you arrived at the answer. We learned how to write "equal groups" story problems. Look for more exposure to this next week. In multiplication we focused on our 3,9, and 11 families. To help us learn a speical "trick" for learning the 9's family, we traced our hands on green construction paper. Pretending they are the Grinch's hands, we are learing how to count in multiples of 9 and to recognize where the tens place is and the ones place is. Early next week, the hands will retire from math and be transformed into an Advent wreath to go on our door.
Reading has us focusing on extracting details from the text to support our answer in both fiction and nonficition pieces. We are getting more exposure to Newsela, an individualized reading program that holds the readers accountable for asking questions inthe margin, highlighting with differnt colors for various purposes. It is very engaging and the scholars love the articles so far.
Social studies had us researching about two famous immigrants and how they strengthened our country by joining us. They are Madeleine Albright and Carlos Santana.The scholars had a lively conversation as to which facts "wowed" them about these divers people, and what they wanted to learn more about this person. We finished of the unit with a test today.
In writing we are focusing on grammar;making sure our sentences begin and end with proper capitals. It is necessary for us to go back to address this in our writings. Also, we have a brand new rubric to guide us with excellence in our writing. Enjoy the weekend!