Happy Thursday!! For the kids it is the end of the week!!! Teachers will be participating in a Professional Development day at the High School with surrounding schools. It is called 21st Century Learner. It is an all day event about bringing technology into our classrooms. I find this day very interesting because it is "real" teachers who put o the seminars showing what they are doing in their classrooms with technology. It is very informational. Sometimes there are great things we bring back and attempt to implement. A lot of things require more research before we attempt them. It is also a great day for us to interact with other teachers from other schools. I hope your kids enjoy a long weekend!!
Book It!!! - Yeah, Book It is back!!! This program went away for a few years but now we are bringing it back. I am very excited about it and so are a lot of the students. The parents I have talked to about it are happy it is back also. If you are wondering what it is or how it works, here you go: Book It is a program for reading that Pizza Hut sponsors. The teachers in each classroom set a reasonable goal for kids to reach. They spend the month keeping track of their minutes or books they read they help them reach whatever the goal is. At the end of the month they turn their calendars in and the teacher keeps track if they met the goal. if they meet the goal they get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. In my classroom I give them a certain amount of minutes to read in a month. They have a calendar that they will write down their minutes on. They keep track of any reading they do in school or outside school. I collect calendars at the beginning of the next month. I will add up the minutes and keep a chart in classroom so students can keep track of how they are doing. In my classroom you have a choice between the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza or a coupon for $4.00 off a buffet at Pizza Ranch. Pizza Ranch also supports kids in their reading. The students must make a choice and mark the box of the prize they want. I tally the reading minutes for the 6 months we do this program. I give a prize to the people who meet my goal for all 6 months and I give a prize to the top three reader's in my classroom. Meaning the three students who read the most minutes. I read all the time, so I am also on the reading chart and I will also keep track of my minutes. The kids are pumped to be competing with me. I will give an even bigger prize to the student who reads more than I do at the end of 6 months!! It's quite a challenge and they love it! Please help your student keep track of their calendars so they can turn them in. A lost calendar is lost minutes. Here are the goals I have set for the 6 months:
October 350 min.
November 400 min.
December 450 min.
January 500 min.
February 550 min.
March 600 min.
Language Arts: This week we read a Tall Tale called Stormalong. It is about Alfred Bulltop Stormalong. He is a sailor. He is a giant of a man and can't find a place to call home because he is so big. This is about his journey to find a place where he fits in and friends. The spelling list was on Homophones this week. This is words that sound the same but are spelled differently. This is always a fun list. They learn a few new words like feat, and vain. They also begin to learn that the meanings of the words are very important to the spelling. Examples would be sent, cent, and scent and vain, vane, and vein. Grammar focused on capitalization. We talked about capitalizing historical documents, historical events, titles, nationalities, and languages. This was a short week so I felt like we really whipped through some of this, but I also feel it was a good week to push through quickly. Capitalization should be review. This was the last story of Unit 1 so next week will be a test week. During this week they will also begin a writing project and get their first book report assigned to them!!! It will still be a busy week!
Math - In math this week we have been reviewing whole number addition with numbers in the hundred thousands and subtracting whole numbers in the hundred thousands. These subtraction problems also require you to regroup. Both of these lesson are a review except they have probably not used numbers this large. Next week we will work on problem-solving and then gear up for our chapter 1 test. This chapter focuses on number sense and can tend to be difficult for some. I feel the students have grasped the main ideas in this lesson and we are going to be ready to move forward.
Social Studies - We have finished the first lesson in chapter 2 and moving into lesson 2. We are doing a great job on vocabulary words. I am enjoying their illustrations and examples. I love this new way of doing the vocabulary because it really makes them understand the meaning of the word in order to complete the model. I hope that means less studying for them at the end of the chapter because they will all ready understand the meaning of the words and not just memorize them. Next lesson will focus on Government. We will have a brief overview of each branch in the government and what their job requires. We will talk about the three levels of government also.
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I hope everyone has a great weekend. Reminder: Students are allowed to wear shorts through October but please, just because they can doesn't always mean they should. Pay attention to the weather and if a cold day please dress appropriately. We all ready have sicknesses going around. My house has had strep and mono like symptoms. Let's be as safe as we can.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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