March 4th - March 8th

Next Friday is the beginning of Spring conferences, so students will be out at 1:00 for those six days. Please remember that they need to be picked up by 1:00. Thank you. I will be sending out those that will be having conferences this week. Progress reports went out a few weeks ago, and this conference will be a quick update on the current grades and to share any concerns or improvements that have occurred since the Fall.

MATH

Monday - District Envision Math Test

Tuesday: 12-1 Time to the Half Hour and Quarter Hour

Wednesday: 12-2 Time to the Minute

Thursday: 12-3 Elapsed Time

Friday: Problem Solving - Work Backwards

READING/WRITING
We will be having our Unit 8 - Benchmark Advance online test. The students have been working on weather in reading and in science the last few weeks. They will be doing a writing activity on weather and presenting this week in reading as well. We will continue to work on our Lexia usage, and spend some time with the Typing program this week.

SCIENCE
The students will have a science weather test this week to show what they have learned. They will be able to use their weather lapbook during the test. They may take it home after.

STEM Activity
Students are working in groups to make a structure that would stand up to hazardous weather. Some items they can bring in to create a structure are:

• Cardboard (flatten cereal boxes)
  
• Styrofoam
  
• Glue
  
• Craft sticks (large and small)
  
• Cardboard tubes (paper towel, toilet paper)
  
• Water bottles
  
• Paperclips (large and small)
  
• Skewers
  
• Clothespins
  
• Rubber bands
  
• Plastic spoons
  
• Paper and plastic cups
  
• Tape (any type)
  
• Index cards
  
• String
  
• Paper plates
  
• Aluminum foil
  
• Pie tins 
  

This Thursday is a spirit day for wear your favorite color day!

February 4th - Feb. 8th

Welcome to February! Spring conferences are in about a month from now and I will be sending home progress reports this week. As always if you have any questions regarding the progress report send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thursday, February 7th is Multicultural spirit day!

MATH - Currently the students are working on fractions. We have been doing a lot of enrichment assignments with fractions on paper and online with our new program Class Hero. The students are focused only on fractions when using Class Hero.

Monday: 10 -3 Using Fractions
Tuesday: 10-4 Comparing Fractions on the Number Line
Wednesday: 10-5 Finding Equivalent Fractions
Thursday: 10-6 Equivalent Fractions and the Number Line
Friday: 10-7 Whole Numbers and Fractions

READING - Monday will be the Unit 5 Advancements in Technology reading test online. They will be doing the Benchmark assessment program on Clever. Then on Tuesday we will be starting Unit 8. We have jumped from five to eight in order to connect our new science unit with reading.

Unit 8 - Weather Climate

“Fairweather Clouds” 
“Earth’s Weather and Climate”

Essential Question: How can we predict the unknown?

Close Reading

✓ Read and Respond to a Poem
✓ Use Text Features: Footnotes
✓ Distinguish Literal from Nonliteral Language: Metaphors 
✓ Identify Key Details and Main Idea
✓ Use Context Clues to Define Domain- Specific Vocabulary 
✓ Identify Genre Features: Descriptive Texts
✓ Compare and Contrast a Poem and a Descriptive Text


WRITING

Introduce the Unit 8 Research Project

1. Use Print Sources to Choose Research Topics
   
2. Use Online Sources to Choose Research Topics
   
3. Formulate and Evaluate Guiding Research Questions
   
4. Categorize Information and Identify
   Possible Sources
   

VOCABULARY WORDS

billowing 
climate 
cumulus 
elevation 
factors

measure 
nimbus 
splay 
surface 
temperature

weather 

SCIENCE
We will be doing a weather unit in science this month. The students will also be working on a weather related project. 

January 14 - 18th

MATH

Monday- 9-1 Dividing Regions into Equal Parts
Tuesday- 9-2 Fractions and Regions
Wednesday- 9-3 Fractions and Sets
Thursday- 9-4 Fractional Parts of a Set
Friday- 9-5 Fraction Number Line

READING
Unit 5 - Advancements in Technology
What is the value of innovation?
Story "Thomas Edison "It Sings"
---- Reading Skills ----

✓ Identify Key Details and Determine Main Idea
✓ Analyze Sequential Text Connections
✓ Analyze Author’s Purpose
Identify Real-Life Connections Between Words and Their
Use
✓ Compare and Contrast Sequential Texts 

Irregular Verbs
A regular verb ends in -ed or –d in the past tense. Irregular verbs, however, don’t follow this rule. 

----Vocabulary----

device 
innovative 
obtained 
curious 
experiment


SCIENCE
Students are working on the solar system. In partners they have been given a planet, Pluto, the sun, moon, or stars. This week they will be working on creating a Google Slide presentation. They will be using class time and can work on it at home as well if they would like. 

December 3rd - December 7th

Thursday, December 6th is Pajama day. Students are encouraged to wear their pajamas to school but wear regular shoes. No slippers allowed.

MATH

Monday: 7-3 Finding the Missing Number in a Multiplication Table
Tuesday: 7-4 Problem Solving: Choose an Appropriate Equation
Wednesday: 7-5 Writing Division Stories
Thursday: 7-6 Problem Solving: Use Objects and Draw a Picture
Friday: Chapter 7 Practice Test and Review in Class

The month of December will have a lot of writing, reading, and art projects. We will be doing some science, but social studies is off until we return from break.

Unit 4 - Point of View
Students will be working in partners to be doing a project on character point of view. For example they will read about The Three Little Pigs and The Wolf to hear both sides of the story. They will be in partners and each group with have a different story. Ask your child which story they picked! :)

Book Report
The students will be doing an in class book report. They will only need to read the book at home and are able to take parts home if they need more time. The majority of the project is during class time after lunch. They will be creating a scrapbook based on their story selection.

Holidays Around the World
For the next few weeks we will be learning how Countries celebrate the winter holidays. This will include some art projects, writing assignments, and a reading comprehension packet.

Science - Weather
Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.

Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.

November 26th - November 30th

Welcome back! Hope everyone had a nice and relaxing week away from school. I enjoyed reading through the student's animal research projects. There were some really fantastic projects. I am pleased to see students spent a lot of time and put in great effort to completing this assignment.

MATH

Monday: 6-9 Problem Solving: Multiple-Step Problems
Tuesday: Alternative Test in class and review
Wednesday: Enhanced Topic 6 Test in class
Thursday: 7-1 Division as Sharing
Friday: 7-2 Division as Repeated Subtraction


READING - REVIEW Week for Unit 3 
         Unit 3 Topic test Wednesday-Friday

Animal Adaptations - How do living things adapt to change?

✓ Identify key details and main idea 

✓ Identify reasons and evidence

✓ Make inferences about causes and effects

✓ Identify key details and main idea
✓ Analyze text connections: Compare and contrast
✓ Use information from photographs 
✓ Analyze graphic features: charts

✓ Compare and contrast two texts on the same topic

WRITING

Research for writing

1. Analyze a guiding research question 
2. Evaluate print sources: copyright and 
   author 
3. Evaluate online sources 
4. Use key words to search 
5. Take notes on index cards 

Dialogue is a conversation between characters.
Quotation marks show the exact words a character says.
Adjectives are describing words.
Adverbs describe or tell more about verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. 

WORD STUDY/SPELLING
Closed syllable pattern
R-controlled vowels (er, ir, ur)

LANGUAGE

Review: coordinating and subordinating conjunctions

A coordinating conjunction combines two simple sentences to form a compound sentence. Some coordinating conjunctions are and, or, but, and so. Always use a comma before a coordinating conjunction.

A subordinating conjunction connects a simple sentence and a fragment. The words although, because, when, unless, while, and after are subordinating conjunctions.

SCIENCE:
The students will be working on the changes that happen to environments whether they are natural disasters or man made issues.

THANK YOU!

I just wanted to say that I am so thankful to have had such wonderful conferences with you all. It was a pleasure to meet you all and spend some quality time going over your child's education. I hope that this break treats you all well. Some reminders to the students that they are encouraged to do two or more reading journals. The introduction to the reading journal was given on Thursday and Friday. Students are still to read for 20 + minutes and then write a Thinking Map "Circle Map" and then summarize with 4-5 sentences. They should not include their opinion on the story in their summary. Only the main idea and key details from the section that they read. In January the students will have a specific weekly skill that they will be focusing their reading journal readings on, but until then we will stick with the summary. Below is an example of the circle map with some ideas for the summary.

November 13th - November 16th

This is the final week of conferences. I have been enjoying our meetings as we go over student progress. Reminder this week students are still getting out at 1 o'clock. The week of Monday November 19th through Friday November 23rd is no school. There is no assigned work for that week. 

MATH

Tuesday: 6-5 8 as a Factor

Wednesday: 6-6 Multiplying with 3 Factors
Thursday: 6-7 Multiplication Facts

Friday: 6-8 Multiplying to Find Combinations

READING

Story: 

“One Body, Many Adaptations”

CLOSE READ TASKS
✓ Identify key details and main idea ✓ Identify reasons and evidence
✓ Make inferences about causes and effects
✓ Compare and contrast texts on the same topic

WRITING
Research for writing

1. Analyze a guiding research question
   
2. Evaluate print sources
   
3. Evaluate online sources
   
4. Use key words to search
   
5. Take notes on index cards
   

WORD STUDY/SPELLING
Closed syllable pattern

better black blended munching

predators quickly sticky suddenly

LANGUAGE
Review: coordinating and subordinating conjunctions
A coordinating conjunction combines two simple sentences to form a compound sentence. Some coordinating conjunctions are and, or, but, and so. Always use a comma before a coordinating conjunction.
A subordinating conjunction connects a simple sentence and a fragment. The words although, because, when, unless, while, and after are subordinating conjunctions.

SCIENCE/WRITING
We will continue to work on multiple paragraphs and informational writing. The students will be working on a written project of a assigned habitat. They will be editing and revising before presenting them. DUE this Friday is their animal project.