Monday, September 30th

Good evening everyone!  I was unable to be at school today, but I know that the Superstars worked extra hard and had a great day.

Tomorrow is picture day.  We are scheduled for pictures in the morning.
Communication folders will go home tomorrow as well.

Have a great evening!

Friday, September 27th

Happy Friday to all!!!  We had a great day!  Students worked with number riddles again today.  We used strategies to break each line down and pick out important clues.  They also took the summative portion for our standard on factors, multiples, prime, and composite numbers.

We reviewed for Science and our constellation study.  Students were given the summative portion for that standard today.  They finished and most have already submitted their presentations for their explorer.  Presentations will begin on Monday.

Students enjoyed the beautiful weather during bike safety and did a great job with their hand signals.

Please use the link to learnzillion.com.  It is a great way to support your child with Math and ELA standards.  It's free!!!!!  Sign up as a student and create your free log-in.  Search for skills that you would like to practice with your child.  Click on the short video clip of lessons and have your child watch or you can watch with them (be sure you pay close attention to the grade level listed under the bottom of each clip).  Once you have chosen a video lesson, more lessons for the same standard will appear on the left.  I will begin posting quick link codes for lessons that will be helpful for homework support.  Enjoy this wonderful resource!

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, spelling

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Thursday, September 27th

We had a great trip to Woodland Gardens today!  The students from Decatur High School led us through the garden and did several stations that worked on animal adaptations. Here are a few pictures from our day.  Ask your child to tell you more!

 Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Spelling

See you in the morning!

Wednesday, September 25th

What a busy, wonderful day!
We continued our exploration of factoring by discussing prime and composite numbers.  Students used color tiles to build arrays to determine if their number was prime or composite.

Then it was off to Math stations.  Student worked to complete the multiple patterns on hundreds charts, solved challenging number riddles, and played three different games to support their exploration of factoring.

We also continued our research for our Explorer presentations.  Students began creating their presentation on the Pages or Book Maker app.  Ask your child to tell you more!  

As always, Art with Ms. Dunbar was a blast!

Ask your child to tell you about and give you an example of Somebody...wanted...but....so...then...

Tomorrow is our field trip to Woodland Gardens.  We will load the busses at 12:00 and will be gone for the last part of the day.  Please be sure to bring a light jacket in case you feel chilly and wear comfortable shoes for walking.  We will be outside.

Homework:  Read for 30 minutes, Math practice

Students will receive their spelling words tomorrow.  The tests will be given on Friday, October 4th.

Tuesday, September 23rd

We had another wonderful day of learning!  Students were able to participate in their first bike safety training this week.  They enjoyed practicing, even though it was a little wet and chilly.  Our next day for bike safety is on Friday.  Students should bring their helmets and if they bring their bike they can park it by the basketball court.

Students began working on a living biography for one of our European explorers.  They were provided guidelines and are working on their research now.  Presentations will be on Friday or Monday.

We are continuing our use of evidence to support our parts of a story.  Students are working to provide descriptions and evidence to support their findings.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, math practice

Monday, September 23rd

Happy Monday!!!  This morning students began studying factors.  They explore factors using color tiles and arrays.  They created factor posters with factor rainbows.  This is a great strategy to use for finding factors.

As we completed our jigsaw, sharing information about our European explorers, we read the book Encounter.  This book opened our eyes to the perspectives of the explorers and natives.

We began discussing themes in reading and writing today.  Students learned that themes are the moral or lesson of the story.  We looked at our passage Eleven and students used evidence based terms to discuss the theme(s) of the passage.

Tomorrow:  We will have our bike safety training tomorrow at 11:45.  If you would like your child to have their bike with them, you can bring it to the field in the morning and chain it by the fence.  There should be someone to assist you.

Thursday:  We will be loading the busses for our field trip at 12:00.  If you are chaperoning please plan to meet us at the school and ride along.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, math practice - Spelling will be given next week.  

Have a great evening!!

Thursday, September 19th

I can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday!  We had a busy day today (as we do every day).  We worked a bit more with adding and subtracting multi-digit whole numbers.  Students spent time in stations today and got to practice new skills and skills from last term.  They will be given a short piece of the summative assessment for this term tomorrow.  It will only cover the standard that we have been practicing.

We were all excited to see Mr. Brooks' guitar today!  He played and we sang along.

We are working hard to describe the components of narrative texts (characters, setting, problem, etc...)  Students worked on revising their responses to the piece Eleven to add details.  They are realizing that one word will not provide enough details for description.

Homework:  Read for 30 minutes, spelling   Be sure that you are prepared for your spelling test tomorrow.

See you in the morning!!

Wednesday, September 18th

Students were very busy today!  We continued working with adding and subtracting multi-digit whole numbers.  Students are working to effectively regroup numbers to correctly solve the equations.  They will have a very short assessment over this standard on Friday.

Students used Discovery Education to complete short research on telescopes.  They were able to utilize and interactive task that allowed them to explore different telescopes on their iPads.

Students also analyzed a text today to explore the different traits of the text and what made it stand out.  We are working to describe things like characters, setting, problem, and solution in detail.  Rather than explaining that the story's setting was in a school, students are working to give a more specific description of the school.  This will also work well during writing, as students are working to write a personal narrative that focuses on a small moment.

Next Week:
I am already looking ahead because next week is a very packed week with lessons, field trips, and bike safety.
 Important Reminders:
Please send in field trip forms by Friday.  Our field trip will be next Thursday.  We will begin boarding the busses at 12:00 in order to arrive at Woodland Gardens at 12:30.
Bike safety training for our class will occur on Tuesday, and Friday next week from 11:45-12:45

Tuesday, September 17th

Another productive day!
We began studying addition with regrouping.  While many students know about "carrying the one," it is important that they know what that means.  We worked to explore adding with expanded form.  Students utilized manipulatives to solve math equations without writing.  This helped them to establish that "carrying the one" does not mean only one, but means groups of 10, 100, 1,000, and so on.  Students were given math practice homework to complete tonight and they should use the expanded form strategy to add the numbers.  An example is listed below.

We continued discussing traits of personal narratives and began locating important details in a text or movie.  Students watched a short clip from the movie Up and used it to describe the characters, setting, problem, solution, and events from the clip.

Field Trip:  I have only received about half of the permission slips for our field trip next week.  Please sign and return these tomorrow.

Chaperones:  Thank you to those who have volunteered to chaperone next week for our field trip to Woodland Gardens.  I am still in need of one or two more volunteers.  Please e-mail me if you are available. csanders@csdecatur.net

Reading Contracts:  Students received their Term 2 Reading contracts.  As discussed during curriculum night, students will be given class time to complete their contracts.  They will leave their contracts at school.  They are due October 23rd.  As we begin to approach the end of the term, I will be checking to see how far along students are with their contracts.  It is at this time that they will be sent home to be completed as homework.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, spelling, Math practice - expanded form.

See you in the morning!!

Monday, September 16th

Welcome back!!!  I am so happy to see everyone after a week off.

We started our day by getting new seats in the classroom and getting new class jobs.  We spent some time learning about our new Unit of Inquiry - How the world works.  Students put on their explorer caps and were asked to determine what objects were inside of their envelope without opening it.  It was a great way to talk about strategies, methods, purposes, and outcomes of exploration.

Students also enjoyed using their recorders in music.  If you have a recorder, please be sure to bring it to school on Mondays and Thursdays when we have Music.  You can also leave it in your numbered bin if you would like to.  If you purchased a recorder this school year, they have not arrived yet.  We are hoping that they will be here shortly.

We have a field trip next week.  Please be sure you sign and return your child's permission slip.  Also, if you are interested in being a chaperone next week, please send me an e-mail.

 csanders@csdecatur.net

Students received their new spelling contracts.  This Friday, and every Friday unless specified, students will be given a test over their list of spelling words.  It is important that they practice them daily.

Homework: Read for 30 minutes, Spelling, Food chain sequencing

See you in the morning!