Weekly Update: Oct. 8-12

Weekly Update

Important Reminders:

• PLEASE practice multiplication facts!  The students need to really know them quickly, and without having to use strategies to solve them.  We will be starting multi-digit multiplication and long division soon, and having those multiplication facts memorized will be a HUGE help!  On Google Classroom (just log in with your child's username and password, then save that to your computer, and you will then have access whenever) I put some multiplication websites and game directions under the "classwork" tab and then under the "Websites" topic.  Thanks for your help with practicing these facts!

• Please remember to check, and initial, your child's planner every night.  Homework and important notes are written in the planner daily.  Thanks for your help with this!
• Please send a snack with your child that is NUT FREE every day, as we do not eat lunch until 12:10.  Thanks!

Important Dates to Remember:

• Oct. 8-12 - Leader of the Week = Rose
• Oct. 8 - I am out in the afternoon for a Words Their Way (spelling) training.
• Oct. 11 - Michael's Birthday
• Oct. 15-19 - Leader of the Week = Caroline
• Oct. 19 - End of First Quarter
• Oct. 19 - Half Day of School (Dismissal is 11:40), Buddies, and Ability Awareness activity.
• Oct. 19 - I will be taking a personal day to go out of town for my daughter's soccer tournament.  
• Oct. 22 - Rose's Birthday
• Oct. 22-26 - Leader of the Week = Alen
• Oct. 26 - No School 
• Oct. 27 - Noah's Birthday
• Oct. 29- Nov. 2 - Leader of the Week = Alex
• Oct. 31 - Fall Festival (includes the Pumpkin Run, Class Parties, and more..)

Check Out What We Are Learning This Week:

Writing:  
We will finish drafting our Mystery Pieces by Tuesday.  We are using our Super Sleuth Editing pages we completed with our partners last week to put the finishing touches on our pieces.  We will celebrate on Wednesday.  

Our next Writing Unit is Personal and Persuasive Essays.  The students will write their On Demand on Thursday (it's like a "pretest" for writing), and I will introduce the unit on Friday with an Essay Boot Camp.  
Reading:  
 We will continue to focus on Theme until Wednesday this week.  The students will be able to identify the theme of a text, as well as use evidence from the text to support the theme they chose.  The students will also be able to explain the difference between Theme and Main Idea.  I added the anchor charts for all of Reading Unit 1 (characters and theme) to the Google Classroom.  You will find them under the "Classwork" tab, and then under the "Reading" topic. 

On Thursday, we will begin our next Reading Unit: Reading Informational Books.  We will start with reviewing what text features are, and how they are important to readers of information. 

Read Aloud:

We are still finishing Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn.  We are loving this book!  We are identifying some clues the author leaves for us as we read, and some are even making predictions about the "mystery" in the book.  They never want me to stop reading when it is time!  We can't wait to finish this book and solve the "mystery" of the unknown character that we now know is "Theresa."

Math:  
We are continuing to work through Ch. 4: Multiply with One Digit Numbers.  I sent home the vocabulary cards for this chapter on Friday.  Use them at home as needed.  I will update the Classroom with the study guide as soon as the 4th grade teachers review it for any corrections or changes needed.  I will email to let you know when it is there.  

This week the students will be exploring multiplying a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number.  We will have some hands-on lessons for this skill as well.  Place value and rounding will be skills that will be used during this chapter too.  
Spelling:  
Our second spelling test will be on Tuesday, Oct. 9.  New words will be coming home on Wednesday.  The 3rd test will be Thursday, Oct. 25.

Science:

 We began our first Science unit: Energy Conversions this week.  In the first chapter we will be answering the question How does the electrical system work?  We will be learning about the electrical system while trying to solve a real world problem (in a fictitious town) of what happened to the electrical system the night of the blackout? The students will be able to explain what a system is, what can electrical energy in a system be used for, and what the different forms of energy (light, motion, sound, and thermal) are.  We will finish the chapter on Tuesday, but will continue to explore this topic with a Mystery Science lesson and investigation for the remainder of the week.  Our problem is still not solved for Ergstown.  We have only just begun exploring energy, as we have 3 more chapters until the Unit: Energy Conversions is complete. 

Have a great week!