Post date: Sep 18, 2017 10:07:10 PM
Here is the latest news in Honors!
Field trip for ALL honors students- On October 4th, all 4th grade honors students will be going to see the Childsplay theater production of “The Phantom Tollbooth”. This is performed at the Tempe Center for the Arts. I will be sending a permission slip home next week. Please keep an eye out for this. Students will need to bring a sack lunch that day as they will not be eating lunch at school. In my 4th grade honors reading class, we will be reading this novel and comparing and contrasting the play and the novel.
ixL.com is down! The website is down right now. The front office is working with ixL.com to fix the issue. Please be patient. I am hopeful that it will be fixed by 9/25. Fingers crossed!
4th Grade Reading
In reading, we have begun the new William & Mary Curriculum and we are studying story structure, types of conflict, point of view, and types of characters in fiction stories. Students are also learning about making generalizations.
We have jumped into Latin & Greek stems. We have learned 10 stems, therefore, we had our first test today! Students can be using their flashcards that we make in class or their Quizlet account to practice those stems! Practice. Practice. Practice.
Lastly, we continue to work on the skills and concepts for the Reading Fair which is the Quarter 1 Book Project (ILR) in class. I wanted to clarify the tri-fold board. A 36 X 48 tri-fold board is acceptable. Reminder: The Reading Fair will be on October 12th from 5-6 pm at Sonoran Sky. Happy Reading!
4th Grade Math-In Math, we just had our first test over place value last week. We are continuing with Unit 1 by working on prime and composite numbers as well as prime factorization. We will then jump into multiplication and division. Don’t forget about the Math Quarterly Project due October 9th! Students should be working little by little on it. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!!
5th & 6th Grade Reading- In reading, we are have wrapped up our first unit on fiction story structures. We are about 4 lessons into our William & Mary curriculum. In this curriculum, we have been learning about making generalizations and analyzing literature. We have been focusing on plot diagrams, vocabulary, point of view, types of conflicts in literature as well as types of characters in literature. We will be starting our first literature circles novels next week.
Lastly, we have been relating all we are learning to our Independent Literature Requirement. Every time, we learn something new we relate it to the book we are reading to compete in the Reading Fair. Reminder: The Reading Fair will be on October 12th from 5-6pm at Sonoran Sky. Happy Reading!
5th Grade Math- In Math, we have wrapped up our first chapter on multiplication and division of decimals. This was a review chapter for most students. If your student is struggling with these skills, they can always use ixL.com to practice. Don’t forget about the Math Quarterly Project due October 9th! Students should be working little by little on it. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!!
6th Grade Math-In Math, we have wrapped up our first chapter covering all operations of integers. This is a key unit for pre-algebra. We are now working on Chapter 4 which will cover multiplying and dividing fractions. This should be a review unit for most students. Don’t forget about the Math Quarterly Project. Students should be working little by little on it. Don’t wait until the last minute!!!! It is due 10/9.
Math Books are online this year!!!- This year, students will not be carrying heavy Math workbooks around in their backpacks. Instead, your student has access to the online version to complete homework and practice. Please refer to the Connecting @ Home Directions to access the Math Workbook. All homework will be written in Math notebook.
Math Olympiads- Did you know you have a MATHLETE living in your house?
Math Olympiad is an international competition where students solve math logic word problems in a timed competition. They are competing against other students in their grade level around the world!!!! There are individual prizes and team prizes!
“Math Olympiads have been found to:
There are five competitions (NOV., DEC., JAN., FEB., & MAR.) We will be doing practice problems every week to prepare for our competitions. Math Olympiads are also a way to practice mathematical discussions which we do in class. I never grade Math Olympiad competitions or problems. We correct them in class and I give participation points for attempting the problems and participating in our in class discussions. These problems should not take hours. I tell them to spend 15 minutes on each problem and then move on. If you have any questions, let me know.
Dynamath & Scholastic Math Extra Credit- There is an option of checking out a Scholastic Math & Dynamath magazines for extra credit. The magazines come monthly. This extra credit will be added at the end of the quarter to help boost students who are close to the next letter grade.