Just as we were getting into the swing of things Illinois wrote a different story. We were off today, and we will be off tomorrow as well. Outside of that, the week was great. Even with the shortened week last week, we managed to take our map test, and learn about Martin Luther King Jr. If we are together on Friday, we will discuss the social studies project that involves them researching an important African American person in History. I hope you all are staying warm and enjoying the extra vacation time!
Math: We started a new topic of area which the students seem to like. They find the lessons fun, and easy, which is always a plus. It also makes class discussions a breeze as they are all excited and wanting to show what they known up front. However, the lessons are beginning to get challenging as the unit squares are now disappearing and the students are working strictly with numbers. Another thing they will work on doing is breaking big shapes into small shapes to that they can find the area. Reading: This week reading has a more historical base. The essential question is "How is events in history unique." We started off talking about Christopher Columbus, before moving into discussing the pioneers and their movement west. We are leaving the field of main idea, of the world of story sequencing. We learned that in order to tell the sequence they have to use time-order words. We were able to do some grammar work, which was on combining sentences with verbs and subject-verb agreement. It was almost review for us, so we managed to get through a lot of examples. Important Dates:
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It was not mentioned in last weeks newsletter that there would be MAP testing this week as the days had yet to be picked. So for that I do apologize. We had a test today on Language Usage. We will have our reading one tomorrow and our math one Friday. Please be sure that they get enough sleep and eat a good breakfast. Those two things are important for their test! This week will be kind of wacky for us, as Thursday is the only "normal" day that we will have. Science and Social Studies are sort of taking a back burner this week, however I do plan to have those two classes on Thursday.
We finally opened our VIP desk today! This desk is in the back of the room and is wrapped in colorful Christmas paper. It has special pencils, markers, crayons, coloring pages, sketch pad, a Rubik's cube, a squishy ball, and treats. They get to choose if they would like to sit in a regular chair, a bouncy ball chair or a wobbling chair. They have to earn their way to that desk. Dojo points is the number one way to get to that spot. Usually on a Friday the person who has the most points gets to sit back there. Since we did not do it Friday, we opened it up today. So, this week we will have two friends visit the VIP desk! Math: We took our math test Friday and today we looked at our scores. Some were very excited and some were a little down. As a class we discussed the issues with the math test. We came to a conclusion that I should make the math test from now on. The biggest issue that they had was the wording. The wording is very tricky and gives off the impression that more than one thing can be the answer. Sometimes the questions were very simple but the wording made the question very hard. So, as we looked over the test, there were a lot of "ahh" and "ohh" because hearing it explained in a way that they would understand made it that much easier. So, don't be alarmed when you see a different math test come home. Reading: We are staying in the field of science, however we are switching from space back down to earth. The essential questions is 'what ideas can we get from nature.' They've already given me some ideas, so hopefully those ideas continue to grow. We are still focusing on main idea and expository text. We finished r-controlled vowel sounds last week which is awesome. They were amazed at the many ways to make that sound. Our spelling words for the week contains only prefixes and roots words. We will focus heavily on those two things Thursday. Important Information: With February being Black History Month, I do plan to have the students do a project. In class they will all receive a list and from that list they will be able to choose the top 3 people they would like to research. From there I will assign them a person. Not everyone will get their top pick and that will be explained to them. However, that has occurred in many voting situations in class, so they should be okay with that. Once they receive their person, they will then do a research project and present what they learned to the class. I will provide an online resource, but going to the library and checking out books will help as well. Important Dates:
We are slowly but surely getting into the swing of things. We implemented our new behavior system and some of them like it and have big plans for all of their money. While other do not like it as much. We had another whole class discussion about why we switched and how this is to prevent them from losing points on assignments and hold them more accountable.
Math: We just wrapped up topic 5. We may revisit the last couple of chapters as they struggled with the explanation parts. Some also found this math test to be particularly challenging. However they powered through which is why I plan to revisit. This new topic, topic 6, should be fun as it is on area with a little mixture of perimeter. So we are not living the world of Multiplication just yet. Reading: we are now talking science related things three times a day. Our essential question is what do we know about earth and it’s neighbors. We started off learning about some tools that were used and some important accomplishments America made in its many trips to space. We then started learning some specific things involving earth, space, sun, moon, astroids, and planets. Along with that, we are focusing on main idea, details, suffixes, and more r-controlled vowel sounds. A bulk of those things are review so they shouldn't have any issues. We are approaching the end stages of our writing stories. The goal is to finish them by the end of the month. Some still would like to take them home and type them, so if you are alright with them brining it home, just let me know and I will make sure that they have. Science: We started our new chapter this week. We started off by learning about the water cycle. Before actually reading about the water cycle, we did an ice experiment. WE tried to see if we could melt ice without putting the ice inside the water. We also tried the process with water of different temperature. Today we tried to build our own anemometers but we all had different materials. We learned that when making our on anemometers we need to have the lightest cups, and we need to make sure we have two of them. I am excited to see what other fun things we are going to accomplish me with the rest of the chapter. Note from Mrs. Dennen: PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT RECORDER AND BOOKS COME TO SCHOOL EVERY TUESDAY. Important Dates:
Welcome Back! I hope everyone had a wonderful break. I heard many stories the last two days, and I'm sure there is more they have not told me. I am looking forward to hearing it all. With a new year, comes some changes. Previously we used Class Dojo in conjunction with our visual behavior chart on the board. That no longer worked for us so I am switching to a class economy behavior management idea.
They all will start with a bank that has $50. They will apply for a job, and have that job or job that is picked for them for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, they will get a new job, and their "paycheck." The paycheck will be $0-$25. Instead of losing points on assignments or constantly losing dojo points, they will have to pay a "fine" for certain things. As a class we decided on what times are for water, bathroom, pencil sharpening, and when they can shop for tickets. The tickets are rewards that they can purchase, similar to when they would shop at the dojo store. The tickets include things such as homework pass, munchies, reading buddy, job swap, and teachers chair. They can also receive special slips from me for random things that I see them doing around the room. For example, if they help a friend who is in need, I can give them a slip that rewards them $5 or $10. They can also receive ticket slips for not following directions, and being off task. They are really excited about starting, and I believe this will be a great help in the classroom. It is teaching them responsibility, accountability, and banking. Hopefully by the end of the year, we move to them receiving a paper check, and learning what checks are, and how to turn that piece of paper into cash. We will still use dojo, but it will be in conjunction with the economy. If you have any questions or concerns about that please let me know and I will answer it to the best of my ability. math: We wrapped up the last lesson for math yesterday and moved into review. Our math test will be either Friday or Monday. It is looking more like next week, as we struggled through the first day of review. I do not want to move on if a handful of them are not ready. I want them to be prepared, and confident when they take the test. Social studies: We are talking about communities and why they started and continued to grow in certain places. We will cover things such as the 5 regions (i.e., Mid west), ecosystems, and resources needed in a community. We will take a deep look at ecosystems, and the many different types of ecosystems that are around the world. We will look at the different parts of ecosystems and discuss how they all need each other in order to be successful. They will complete a small activity over the weekend where they observe a park, garden, or even their back yard, and describe that ecosystem. They seem to be excited so I am looking forward to starting this new chapter. Reading: The essential question for the week is how can one person change the way you think. The unit started off by having us discuss Jackie Robinson. Surprisingly that led to a very good discussion because it allowed us all to discuss the things we knew and the things we did not know. We will continue to talk about the essential question as we read different stories, and do different activities that have us focus on different people in history that changed the way people thought. We take another look at cause and effect, historical fiction, and idioms. We learned idioms right before Christmas break as it was part of our poetry work. It was fun to see them try to think back that far, but in the end we needed the refresher. We are still working on our stories in writing. The goal is to have those finished by the end of January. They asked to take them home, but I am not sure if that would be okay. If you would like for them to bring them home, feel free to let me know and I will make that arrangement. Science: We are starting a new chapter. We will focus on earth and weather. We will learn about evaporation, the water cycle, climate, minerals, rocks, soil, features of earth surface, weathering, and erosion. The unit also provides us with a lot of different hands on activities. I cannot wait to try some of them. More information will be provided once we get started on the chapter. Other Information:
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