Newsletter

Hi,

We had a great week! We were very busy and had fun.

Wednesday was our first fire drill of the school year and our class did extremely well. On Friday we had a Mad Science Assembly which was very cool. Ask your child about their favorite parts.

Here's what we did:

Reading: We learned that readers ask lots of questions as they read. Some of them are answered as we continue reading but others are not. We read a very interesting book called The Mary Celeste: A Mystery from History by Jane Yolen. This book raised lots of questions and many were answered but some left us wondering. Asking questions is one skill that readers use to help monitor their comprehension and help with understanding. We also read some biographies and continued reading our read aloud book, Out of my Mind.

Writing: We wrote, edited, and revised letters to our pen pals introducing ourselves. We did some free writing while I had conferences with individual students to work on writing leads for the personal narratives that we are writing.

Math: Multiplication strategies! We practiced the "Using Tens" strategy. If you know the product of a number multiplied by ten then you can find out the answer to that number multiplied by five. Since five is half of ten, by halving the product of a x 10, you will get the product of a x 5. For example: 8 x 10 =80, 8x5= (half of 80 which is forty) 3x10=30 so 3x5= 15 (or half of 30). Practicing using place value to multiply by 10s and 100s was easier than we thought. We also practiced the doubling and halving strategy. If you have a difficult problem like 45 x 18, you can double one of the factors and half the other factor to make an easier problem. For example, 45 x 18 (double 45=90, half 18=9) new equation is 90 x 9. 9x9=81 so 90x9=810. We will continue practicing these and many more strategies for multiplication.

Science: We are working on Classifying Matter. We've been exploring ways to identify and classify matter and did an experiment using different items and magnets. We did another exploration using balloons filled with three different substances then tested to see which balloons were more dense by determining if the balloons would sink or float. The balloon filled with air was least dense and floated. The balloon filled with dish washing soap was most dense and sunk. The one filled with baby oil was in-between. It was suspended in the water. We also tested liquids for density using straws and dyed salt water. The water with the greatest concentration of salt was the densest and went to the bottom of the straw. The plain water was on the top layer and the one with some salt was in the middle. We explored some websites also to help us learn more about states of matter. There are some sites on our class website under science links that could be reviewed over the weekend to get ready for our test on Monday.

Social Studies: We worked on reading maps this week. We interpreted an elevation map of Texas and some natural resources and products maps.

Education Go Get it Week:
Don't forget to print out a pennant from the school website to decorate with your favorite college. We will have special guests in broadcast during the week and have a task for each day.

Monday-wear college t-shirts
Tuesday-wear sunglasses
Wednesday-wear tennis shoes and bring Dad to school (FYI-I will not be in class in the morning on Wednesday because I have a doctor's appointment, I will be back in the PM)
Thursday-wear an outfit to represent your future profession
Friday-wear a FCE shirt, purple shirt, or green shirt

Be sure to remember:
Monday, September 26-Science test on Classifying Matter
Tuesday,September 27-Service Club Meeting after school from 2:45-4:00
Monday, October 10-Student Holiday
Friday, October 14-Pen Pal Visit at FCE

Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew