A few items...

     Next week is a short week with our holiday celebration on Wednesday. The students would like to wear pajamas to school on Wednesday! Please keep in mind they will wear the pajamas out to recess, so they need to be appropriate for the weather. Wednesday is also Crazy Sock Day!

I wish you all the very best over the holiday break. Hopefully you have time to relax and enjoy time with your families!

A few photos from the past week...

Thank you to our Mystery Reader, Mr. Dievendorf!

Week of December 14th

This is our last full week of school in 2015!!

Reader's Workshop
      We will learn about the last nonfiction text structure this week, and continue to read nonfiction articles. When we return to school in January we will study Mystery as a genre.

Writer's Workshop
      As we begin our informational writing work we will be using what we know about text features and structures to make our writing stronger. This week we will develop a table of contents and an overview of what each chapter will contain.

Math
    Students should be practicing their multiplication facts at home each night. This week we will use what we know about multiplication to solve word problems. We will also practice facts in class by playing games. When we return to school in January we will begin Division!!!

Science
     We are making books about the constellation and studying the temperature of the stars in relation to their color. We will be going into Star Lab in January.

Word Work
     We will continue to investigate prefixes, suffixes and root words. We will also work on contractions.

Thank you to our Mystery Reader Mr. Kapczynski! 

Welcome December!

It is hard to believe that we are already a week into December! I am always amazed how fast the school year flies by.

Reader's Workshop
     We are still working on our nonfiction unit. We are examining different nonfiction text structures, and reading lots and lots of examples. This week we will learn about texts organized using cause and effect. We are also spending time in class reading independent chapter books and writing about our reading in weekly book letters.

Writer's Workshop
     We finished our personal narrative unit last week. This week we will begin an informational writing unit. This will compliment our nonfiction reading unit. Students will be asked to choose a topic they are experts on and write an informational piece.

Math
    Multiplication is going very well. We have learned x0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 10. This week we will learn x4, 6, 7, and 8. We will also learn how to multiply with three numbers. At the end of the week I will have introduced all of the facts. We will start working on using them in word problems, and more complex math assignments. It would be very helpful if students practiced their facts at home each night to help them become more automatic.

Science
    Hopefully your child came home this week excited about our new Science unit. We are learning about constellations in preparation for our visit to Star Lab in January. We are learning about the myths associated with the constellations, names of special stars, and star temperatures and color.

Word Work
   Last week we worked on homophones and the students' work was very impressive. This week we will work on prefixes, suffixes and root words.

Thank you to our mystery reader, Mr. Doherty!