Good morning. I hope you all had a great weekend. As usual, I enjoyed seeing everyone at the auction. The costumes were amazing, and Mrs. Kroger and I brainstormed a new costume contest with a prize for the class! I know she would have won this year!
Here are our happenings for the week:
Science: We are going to move from food webs into plants. We will briefly touch on plants, since this unit was taught during container gardening earlier in the year, and then move to adaptations.
Math: We will review conversions and move into volume.
Spelling: We are back on track with spelling, and there will be a test this Friday. With this suffix unit, the students must learn what the prefixes mean and that will be part of the test. We begin lesson 11 in the vocabulary book today.
Writing: We will have a practice STAAR writing benchmark on Thursday.
Reading: To prepare for our next book club, we will take a look at biographies this week.
Social Studies: It is time for the Texas Revolution! We will begin looking at the causes of the Texas Revolution and then move into the first battles.
FYI: The Valentine's Party is tomorrow from 2-3. Please bring a decorated box or bag to hold Valentine's. I will send a class list today, sorry if I have forgotten before now.
Have a great week!
Google Calendar
Reading Log
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Tuesday, Feb. 7
Good morning,
I just realized that I never posted last week, I was so focused on getting caught back up! Many apologies. Here are our happenings for this week:
Science: We have begun looking at food chains and food webs, and will continue to study how organisms interact with one another and their environment and the flow of energy through an ecosystem.
Math: More and more measurement! We are converting weight, mass, length, time and capacity all week and some of next week. Ask your student if he or she can tell you the most important thing to remember when making conversions.
Spelling: New words today. We will be working with prefixes and suffixes for the next few spelling lessons. Vocabulary lesson 10 test is Friday.
Writing: We have begun a personal narrative unit. Our personal narratives for the test should be very concise and should have a lesson learned. To that end we will be studying proverbs and using proverbs to help focus our writing.
Reading: Our novel studies are wrapping up and we are moving into nonfiction structure and uses.
Social Studies: We will finish our "Old 300" newspapers this week, and will move into the Texas Revolution.
FYI: Third grade is selling chocolate on Feb. 9. The cost is $1.00 and there is a limit of 2 per student.
I will be at a technology conference in Austin Wednesday and Thursday. Mrs. Chambers will be my substitute. If your child has work that needs to be completed, he or she may work on it before school in Ms. Lindsay's room or during recess. Graded work cannot be completed at home, as per district guidelines.
Next week is our Valentine's Day party. I will send a list of student names home with kids. Students will need to bring some sort of container from home to hold their Valentines.
February 20th is a school holiday.
Have a great week!
I just realized that I never posted last week, I was so focused on getting caught back up! Many apologies. Here are our happenings for this week:
Science: We have begun looking at food chains and food webs, and will continue to study how organisms interact with one another and their environment and the flow of energy through an ecosystem.
Math: More and more measurement! We are converting weight, mass, length, time and capacity all week and some of next week. Ask your student if he or she can tell you the most important thing to remember when making conversions.
Spelling: New words today. We will be working with prefixes and suffixes for the next few spelling lessons. Vocabulary lesson 10 test is Friday.
Writing: We have begun a personal narrative unit. Our personal narratives for the test should be very concise and should have a lesson learned. To that end we will be studying proverbs and using proverbs to help focus our writing.
Reading: Our novel studies are wrapping up and we are moving into nonfiction structure and uses.
Social Studies: We will finish our "Old 300" newspapers this week, and will move into the Texas Revolution.
FYI: Third grade is selling chocolate on Feb. 9. The cost is $1.00 and there is a limit of 2 per student.
I will be at a technology conference in Austin Wednesday and Thursday. Mrs. Chambers will be my substitute. If your child has work that needs to be completed, he or she may work on it before school in Ms. Lindsay's room or during recess. Graded work cannot be completed at home, as per district guidelines.
Next week is our Valentine's Day party. I will send a list of student names home with kids. Students will need to bring some sort of container from home to hold their Valentines.
February 20th is a school holiday.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Coming to You Live from the Jury Room!
Good morning families! I was selected for jury duty yesterday, and expect to be out of the classroom for the next few days. Laura Chambers will be my substitute for the duration of my duty, and I feel totally confident in her ability to teach our little angels! Here is what will be covered this week:
Science: We continue our life science unit by discussing ecosystems, habitats and biomes.
Math: We are leaving fractions and decimals, and we are moving into measurement. Today and tomorrow will be working on temperature, and then moving into mass. The temperature skill we have the most trouble with is estimating the temperature, in Fahrenheit and Celsius. For example, if you are going to go swimming, what might the temperature be? Or, if you need to wear a light jacket, what might the temperature be. All of the fabulous apps available these days can help--have your student check the weather in the morning and in the evening and discuss the temperature and how to dress.
Spelling/Vocabulary: Spelling is the only place that we are really falling behind with me being out! We will continue to work with this list until I get back and can give the test. We will take the lesson 9 vocabulary test on Friday as scheduled.
Writing: The students are continuing to work on their expository essays. I hope to have them type their papers today in Google Docs and share the papers with me. Then tonight I can put in my revision comments! I'm actually really excited and hope it works like I plan.
Reading: The students will be using newspaper to work on writing nonfiction summaries. The lesson teaches the students to answer the "5 W and the H" in order to get to the gist of the article.
Social Studies: The students are working to create a newspaper from 1825! We have been studying the first colonists to Texas and the students are going to become colonists and create a newspaper that reflects their learning. This is such a fun and creative project, I especially love seeing the products that they create to sale during this time period.
FYI: No big events coming up for the next couple of weeks.
Have a great week!
Science: We continue our life science unit by discussing ecosystems, habitats and biomes.
Math: We are leaving fractions and decimals, and we are moving into measurement. Today and tomorrow will be working on temperature, and then moving into mass. The temperature skill we have the most trouble with is estimating the temperature, in Fahrenheit and Celsius. For example, if you are going to go swimming, what might the temperature be? Or, if you need to wear a light jacket, what might the temperature be. All of the fabulous apps available these days can help--have your student check the weather in the morning and in the evening and discuss the temperature and how to dress.
Spelling/Vocabulary: Spelling is the only place that we are really falling behind with me being out! We will continue to work with this list until I get back and can give the test. We will take the lesson 9 vocabulary test on Friday as scheduled.
Writing: The students are continuing to work on their expository essays. I hope to have them type their papers today in Google Docs and share the papers with me. Then tonight I can put in my revision comments! I'm actually really excited and hope it works like I plan.
Reading: The students will be using newspaper to work on writing nonfiction summaries. The lesson teaches the students to answer the "5 W and the H" in order to get to the gist of the article.
Social Studies: The students are working to create a newspaper from 1825! We have been studying the first colonists to Texas and the students are going to become colonists and create a newspaper that reflects their learning. This is such a fun and creative project, I especially love seeing the products that they create to sale during this time period.
FYI: No big events coming up for the next couple of weeks.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012
Good morning families. I hope that you had a restful long weekend. Ours was great, I think that I could get used to 4 day weeks. I have read that some districts go an hour or so later in the afternoons in order to have 4 day weeks. What do you think?
Here are our happenings for the week:
Science: We are beginning our life science unit with a study of ecosystems. This week we will focus on the parts of an ecosystem--what do all ecosystems have to have to be healthy, but how different ecosystems meet these needs.
Math: We continue decimals this week and will focus on adding and subtracting decimals, with a little multiplication thrown in for good measure. Students already know how to add and subtract money, but I have noticed that most of them do not carry this skill into decimals. This is a mystery of the kid brain! We will make that connection this week though.
Spelling/Vocabulary: Spelling test is on Friday. We begin lesson 9 in the vocabulary book this week.
Writing: We have finished pre-writing for the expository essay, and will draft early this week then move into revision strategies.
Reading: As we get ready to do mid-year reading assessments, we will review summarizing and how to pick the most important details to put in a summary. The students should be writing a summary every week for their homework, and that is great practice for them.
FYI: Museum field trip today. This field trip is organized by the district, and we did not get an updated calendar until mid-week last week. Sorry for all the confusion! Science enrichment is this Friday.
Have a great week!
Here are our happenings for the week:
Science: We are beginning our life science unit with a study of ecosystems. This week we will focus on the parts of an ecosystem--what do all ecosystems have to have to be healthy, but how different ecosystems meet these needs.
Math: We continue decimals this week and will focus on adding and subtracting decimals, with a little multiplication thrown in for good measure. Students already know how to add and subtract money, but I have noticed that most of them do not carry this skill into decimals. This is a mystery of the kid brain! We will make that connection this week though.
Spelling/Vocabulary: Spelling test is on Friday. We begin lesson 9 in the vocabulary book this week.
Writing: We have finished pre-writing for the expository essay, and will draft early this week then move into revision strategies.
Reading: As we get ready to do mid-year reading assessments, we will review summarizing and how to pick the most important details to put in a summary. The students should be writing a summary every week for their homework, and that is great practice for them.
FYI: Museum field trip today. This field trip is organized by the district, and we did not get an updated calendar until mid-week last week. Sorry for all the confusion! Science enrichment is this Friday.
Have a great week!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Monday, January 9
Happy 2012! I hope you are all finding a safe place to weather out the storm this morning, what a doozie!
Here are our happenings for the week:
Science: We are discussing natural resources and fossil fuels this week. Conservation is a big part of our discussion, and it would be great to discuss what you are already doing at home, and what else could be done. I think it is harder for students to come up with ideas these days, because most of the "easy" ideas are already part of our day to day routines. Let me know what you come up with!
Math: We are moving into decimals this week by relating fractions to decimals in the tenths and hundredths places. Students know all about decimals, they have been using decimals in money for years, but they have a hard time moving from money into these decimals. We will use lots of modeling to help them grasp this concept.
Spelling/Vocabulary: The lesson 8 vocabulary test is Friday. The students will get a new word list this week for spelling.
Writing/Reading: We are working on some essay writing for the first half of this 9 weeks. Right now we are looking at prompts and determining a central idea. This flows right into the main idea work we are doing in reading.
FYI: Monday, Jan. 16 is a holiday. On Wednesday, Jan. 18 the fourth grade will be visiting the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Permission slips will go home this week.
Have a great week!
Here are our happenings for the week:
Science: We are discussing natural resources and fossil fuels this week. Conservation is a big part of our discussion, and it would be great to discuss what you are already doing at home, and what else could be done. I think it is harder for students to come up with ideas these days, because most of the "easy" ideas are already part of our day to day routines. Let me know what you come up with!
Math: We are moving into decimals this week by relating fractions to decimals in the tenths and hundredths places. Students know all about decimals, they have been using decimals in money for years, but they have a hard time moving from money into these decimals. We will use lots of modeling to help them grasp this concept.
Spelling/Vocabulary: The lesson 8 vocabulary test is Friday. The students will get a new word list this week for spelling.
Writing/Reading: We are working on some essay writing for the first half of this 9 weeks. Right now we are looking at prompts and determining a central idea. This flows right into the main idea work we are doing in reading.
FYI: Monday, Jan. 16 is a holiday. On Wednesday, Jan. 18 the fourth grade will be visiting the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Permission slips will go home this week.
Have a great week!
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