Tuesday, October 11th

Reading -- I finished reading John Brown and students completed their Reader's Responses.  Then I taught a short lesson about Proper and Common nouns and students analyzed whether certain words were Common Nouns, Proper Nouns, neither or a noun and something else (like the word "run").  After that students read silently.


Science - We had a video review on classification and plant parts.  We also watched a video on invertebrates and vertebrates.  Students took and shared notes on each video.  Students also recorded the observations for the lab they set up on Monday. 


Math - Students finished up the High Roller math activity and got to work on math games on the iPads.  Most students worked on multiplication facts while others worked on fractions.


Writing / Social Studies - Students continued to work on their Social Studies organizers and we went over this week's vocabulary words.  


Reminder:  Homework is due on Friday.

Monday, October 10

Reading - Students listened while I read John Brown:  His fight for freedom, by John Hendrix.  While I read students filled out a reader's response form where they had to identify the topic sentence and supporting details of selected paragraphs.

Writing/Social Studies - Students continued to work on their Civil War Battle & People organizers.  Students who finished both of those worked on their weekly reading questions.

Science - We corrected last week's Science homework and discussed Vascular/Non-Vascular plants.  After students took notes about vascular and non-vascular plants they started a lab using romaine lettuce, blue-colored control water, and green-colored variable water (it also contained liquid Miracle-Gro).  Students will be making daily observations about the changes (if any).

Math -- We discussed place value and decimal/fraction equivalents.  Then students did an activity called "High Roller."

Homework went home today and it is due on FRIDAY.  The packet contains more work so I want students to have enough time to complete everything and study their words.

Friday, October 7th

Social Studies / Writing -- Students worked on their battle and important people worksheets.


Science -- The BioBus was here and students participated in the first part of a special science activity.


Reading -- Students had their weekly library visit and took a vocabulary quiz.


Announcements -- The math quizzes from last Friday have been graded and recorded.  Your child will bring it home this weekend for you to review, sign, and send back.  As a reminder, this was a formative quiz and it does not count towards your child's grade.  I will continue to go over the standards students are required to learn and I fully expect that all students will progress towards meeting the standard (if they are not already there yet).

desperate plea....

We really need tissues... we're down to using paper towels and it's not a pleasant experience.  Oh, and we need more hand sanitizer too... 

Thursday, October 6th

Math -- We worked with base-ten blocks and graph paper to multiply and divide decimals.  


Math Mania -- We worked with Divisibility Rules (2,3 & 4) and took a multiplication speed test.


Reading -- Students read silently and received a short tutorial on this week's vocabulary words.  After that, we finished Jake & Minn.


Homework -- Study vocabulary - the quiz will be tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 5th

Reading - Students read silently and returned library books.

Social Studies - Students used their textbooks to find information to complete their Civil War battle organizers.  They also colored a map that showed the Union, Border, and Confederate states in addition to important battle locations.

Math - Mr. Withers taught a lesson about how to divide decimals using base-ten block arrays.  

Homework -- Homework is due tomorrow.  If you have not reviewed and/or signed the paperwork in your child's red communication folder please do so as soon as possible.

Announcements
--We desperately need facial tissues; many of us are quite sniffily.  
--Please return the field trip permission slip.

Tuesday, October 4th

Reading - Students finished up their "Nonfiction Feature Find" activity with Mrs. Bowden.

Science - During Science students reviewed plant parts.  They arranged certain items on paper plates and labeled the parts and their functions.  I brought in spinach to represent leaves (it wasn't in the best condition), carrots to represent roots, grapes to represent fruit, and popcorn colonels to represent seeds.  I forgot the lettuce at home so students drew their own stems and flowers.

Writing - I taught a brief lesson on writing topic sentences.  We discussed the things effective sentences should have (proper spelling/grammar, first letter of the first word capitalized, and focused details).

Math - During Math Mrs. Dennis gave students an introduction to the new iPads.  After the tutorial on how to use them properly students played multiplication math games.

A note about homework.... I attempted to do an impromptu vocabulary check at the end of the day and was slightly dismayed that none of my students knew the words.  Vocabulary should be studied every night.  The words are challenging; however, if a student does at least 10 minutes of vocab work every night they should do well on the vocabulary quiz.