Dates to Remember:

Monday, March 21 - Spirit Day   - Cubs/ Sox Day- Wear your favorite team's colors, shirts etc.  We will win a pizza party if we have 100% participation every day this week for the different spirit days.  

• Fri, March 25th - Sunday, April 3rd - No School (Spring Break)
• Mon, April 4th - classes resume
• Wed, April 13th - Early dismissal 11:35am
• Thurs, April 28th - Spring Open House & Book Fair 6:30-8:00pm 

Mrs. Cushing, the PE teacher, is looking for some help with her  indoor tennis unit come April.  Parents can just come in for their child's 25 min. PE class or come for the grade level time.  Students need help getting the fundamentals down.  Students would benefit from having extra people to help toss balls to them so they can practice their skills.  Please let her know if you are available at all to help out.  Please email Mrs. Cushing at  tcushing@ccsd66.org  Thank you!

 We will have our in-school field trip on Tuesday of this week. The DuPage Children's Museum is coming to help the students understand about Wheels, levers, and pulleys this week 

Math- We will have a test on Wednesday of this week over Unit 5 in math.  The students will have a pretest to complete on Monday that will help them review.  We will be reviewing the concepts on Monday and Tuesday.  The students should also, go back in their folders to review the different worksheets and check pts. they have completed.  They should bring their workbooks home as well to look back and review.  

Spelling- This week will be a review week. The students will be responsible for workbook pages 163-165.  There will be a test on Thursday of this week.

Reading-  We will complete the story of Edward Tulane. We will then read The Velveteen Rabbit and compare and contrast the two stories. 

Science -    I will  introduce our "Invention Convention" project. The students will be asked to identify a problem in their lives and come up with an invention that helps to solve this problem. Think simply...this does not have to be a complex invention. An informational letter, project timeline/calendar, rubric and contract will be handed out in science class on Monday, March 21st. All students are expected to complete this assignment. The contract, or plan, for the invention is due in class on Thursday, March 24th. I will then review each contract with students, to make sure they are on the right track. Once I confirm that they are moving in the right direction, students will be free to begin constructing their inventions. Inventions aren't due until after spring break; April 28th. The construction of the invention will be done at home. 

Social Studies-The students will finish their Just Look Books.  They will understand the early culture of the Ojibway Native Americans and how their life has changed.

News from Mrs. Cavoto's Room March 14-18

Remember: 
Tuesday, March 15- No School - Election Day

Mrs. Cushing, the PE teacher, is looking for some help with her  indoor tennis unit come April.  Parents can just come in for their child's 25 min. PE class or come for the grade level time.  Students need help getting the fundamentals down.  Students would benefit from having extra people to help toss balls to them so they can practice their skills.  Please let her know if you are available at all to help out.  Please email Mrs. Cushing at tcushing@ccsd66.org  Thank you!


Math - We will review the concepts related to measuring  area and perimeter this week.  They will have opportunities to apply the formulas as they solve problems involving areas and perimeters of complex figures.  There will be a check point review on Thursday of this week.  
The students will need to be able to:

• write a definition and sketch a picture of an acute angle, obtuse angle, parallel lines, and perpendicular lines.  
•  identify polygons specifically and know how many lines of symmetry the shape has and be able to draw the lines of symmetry in.  
•  understand and describe triangles by their sides and angles. 
•  identify parallelograms. 

Spelling - This week in spelling the students will work with more homophones.  They will be responsible for workbook pages 199-201. 

ELA - We  will continue to read The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane.  The students are completing journal response questions as we read through the chapters. The focus is making sure text evidence is provided in their response as well as answering the question completely.

Science-This week in science the students will understand how the circulatory system gets oxygen to each cell.  They will also understand what happens when a blood vessel is cut

Social Studies - The test over chapter 8 will be on Thursday of this week.  The students should study the main ideas of each lesson in the text and all the sheets in their folders.

They should know:
all vocabulary
understand how glaciers formed the Great Lakes
what connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean
understand the flow of the Chicago River and why it was changed
advantages and disadvantages of shipping by barge
describe the Badlands of long ago and how they have changed
why did the Badlands become cooler and less humid
describe erosion
describe a prairie
why is the Midwest an important agricultural region
describe the Central Plains
crops that grow in the Midwest
understand irrigation
products of Wisconsin

We will have our "Taste of the Midwest" Resource Day on Friday of this week. I will ask the students what they would like to bring in.  If you approve, please just send me a little note or e-mail letting me know that this is okay with you.  We will need 2 people for popcorn each person would send in 12 individual baggies of popcorn.   We will also need, crackers, butter, 2 people to bring in little ice cream cups (12 each) blueberries, strawberries, cheese, ham,

News from Mrs. Cavoto's Room March 7-March 11

Mrs. Cushing, the PE teacher, is looking for some help with her  indoor tennis unit come April.  Parents can just come in for their child's 25 min. PE class or come for the grade level time.  Students need help getting the fundamentals down.  Students would benefit from having extra people to help toss balls to them so they can practice their skills.  Please let her know if you are available at all to help out.  Please email Mrs. Cushing at tcushing@ccsd66.org  Thank you!

Math -The students will continue their work with geometry this week.  The students will continue to work with measuring and drawing angles using a protractor.  There will be a checkpoint quiz on Tuesday over angles.  They should be able to identify and describe the following terms.  rays, points, acute angles, right angles, obtuse angles, and straight angles.  They should also know how to sketch pattern block figures  that are described to them such as sketch a pattern block that has 4 right angles.  They should know how to measure angles using a protractor.

The students will understand parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines along with understanding lines of symmetry.

Spelling - The students will work with more words that have the VCV spelling pattern.  They will be responsible for pages175-177 unless they pass out of the pretest. Then they will have an alternate list of words and activities to accomplish.


Reading- In reading this week the students will continue to read The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane.  They will respond to their reading in their journal using a rubric to help guide them. They will complete a vocabulary quiz on Thursday in which they will use the context of the story to determine word meaning.  This will come from chapters 7-10.

English-The students will be assessed on their knowledge of adjectives on Tuesday.  They will need to identify an adjective and the noun in the sentence that it describes.

Science-This week the students will learn about the respiratory system and the circulatory systems.

Social Studies- This week the students will describe the landscape and climate of the Badlands 67 million years ago.  They will define erosion and describe the way it changes the land.  They will understand why the climate of the Badlands changed.