Post date: Jan 14, 2012 11:32:32 PM
Happy New Year! Well, at least this is the first classroom update for the new year. Thank you for the gift cards from the class. They will be put to good use. We hope that you had a restful winter recess. In talking with the students as they returned, some sure were busy!
We are in full swing of school mode, just a week back from break. The School Play practice has started. Winter enrichment sign ups are currently ongoing. Our School's Geography Bee was just held and Spelling Bee will be forthcoming later on this month. PTA' s Spellathon test is underway and the test will be on Thursday, 1/19. We appreciate your support!
Math
Within math, we have wrapped up chapter 17 where we have learned about fractions. We have worked with fractional parts of numbers, equivalent fractions, and adding and subtracting fractions. Quizzes the last few weeks have tested the students on prime numbers as well as their understanding of fractions.
Language Arts
Theme 3 of our HM Language Arts series only has three stories and we have finished reading the third story. We will brush up upon some of the grammar skills of the story before taking the theme skills test. We have continued to stress the importance of reading comprehension.
As stated in last week's update, there is now an improved Accelerated Reader program where he have access to all the quizzes produced by the company (currently around 131,000). Thanks to the PTA for providing the students with this new resource. More information will come home soon about how you can track student progress from home. You can even be notified via email when your child takes tests and will be able to see as to points earned for the trimester and for the year.
Writing
In class, we continue to work on different writing skills. Students worked early on in the week writing summaries for the current reading story, Heat Wave!. With the narrative style of prompt, we have worked on organization, show/not tell writing, and using dialogue these few weeks. Students will have weekly writing assignments leading up to the STAR writing test on March 6. A copy of our first prompt was attached to this past week's update. Again, it should be an edited and revised first draft that is turned in on Friday.
Science
In lab, we have continued to learn about different concepts including loads, voltage, parallel circuits, and fuses through hands on labs. Students should continue to work on their science vocabulary and outline sheets in preparation for the science test on January 26.
We will be building a quizboard which will also help students solidify their understanding of chapter 6.
Student science proposals have been returned to them with comments as to how they might improve their project or what they might also consider. There are some interesting projects and we look forward to seeing the projects. Do not that the projects are due in class by February 6 and that students will be responsible to deliver a speech about their project.
Social Studies
We have continued to learn about early European explorers and what Alta California looked like under Spanish rule In computer lab, we did a scavenger hunt learning even more about the 21 California missions. Soon, students will be choosing a particular mission where we will work on learning how to write an information report.