Important Dates:
Sat. 10/3 - Market Day pick-up
Tues. 10/6 - Progress reports
Mon. 10/12 - No School Columbus Day
Reading folders are due on Thursday, October 8. Our reading party will be on October 9th. The students who have 4 weeks of reading logged by Thursday will be able to participate. The students will eat their lunch in the room and watch a movie. I will provide popcorn and a drink.
***I will be sending home a poem every Monday for the children to practice reading each day. They should practice reading with expression and fluency. On Friday, they will be tested to see how fluently they can read the poem.
Math - This week we will begin a unit on algebra. The children will learn the commutative, identity, and associative properties. They will then learn the difference between expressions and equations and understand what variables are. Remember to look in their folders for papers that will explain what they have been learning in class if you are not sure how to help them. They can also take their math books home. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me.
Spelling: The words this week are contractions. An apostrophe takes the place of one or more letters that have been taken out. Homework each night is to write the words one time each. You might want to look over the words after your child has written them. Often times students are misspelling the words that they are writing.
Reading: We will continue our novel studies of Charlotte'sWeb and Because of Winn Dixie. We will be working on character studies, story mapping, and vocabulary.
English: The students will work on descriptive writing this week. They will learn about "colorful language '"(language that paints pictures in their minds as they are reading)
They should look for colorful language as they are reading and bring it in to share with the class.
On Tuesday the children should bring in something from home that is special to them. This should be something that can fit in a paper bag/jewel bag. They will bring it home when they are done, but it needs to be at school for awhile.
Science: We will move into the world of living things. The students will learn to classify and understand that scientists classify living things into 5 kingdoms. You should ask them what the kingdoms are by the end of the week.
They will learn that all living things are made of cells. They will make a model of an animal cell. We will be using raisins, malted milk balls and jellybeans in the model. If your child should not handle any of these things please let me know.
Social Studies: The map test is on Tuesday of this week. The students need to place the states correctly on the map. They also need to put the bodies of water Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and the Atlantic Ocean in the proper place on the map. I will give extra points of they know their capitals.
By the end of the week, you may review with your child how Niagara Falls was formed and why it so important: ( It was formed about 12,000 years ago when the earth was covered with glaciers. As the glaciers melted they carved out the Great Lakes and the Niagra Gorge. Then the Niagara River spilled into the Gorge and it created Niagara Falls.) It is so important because the running water turns the generators which create hydroelectricity. It is the largest supplier of electricity for New York State and it generates enough power to light 24 million 100 watt light bulbs.
