Hi,
We had a great week. The kids worked hard and most of them are putting forth a good amount of effort. Good for them and let’s keep it up! We enjoyed having the Austin Jazz Group here for an assembly this afternoon! Ask your child about his/her favorite part/song/instrument and why they liked that part.
We will have a math test on Monday on place value (up to hundred millions, expanded form, standard form, word form, ordering large numbers, estimation, rounding) as well as addition and subtraction with regrouping. We did a review today in class and your child should have it in the back pack to bring home to study. Subtraction with regrouping is especially hard for many students. They all need to add to check their work every time they subtract large numbers. (points will be deducted on the test) Here is a website that could help with the understanding that the strategy isn’t to randomly cross out digits and replace with a 10 or a 9 but to regroup the number. 1 thousand =10 hundreds, 1 hundred =10 tens, 1 ten =10 ones. When you regroup, you aren’t changing the number, you are rearranging the number in each place. Go to this website: http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/activity.jsp?sid=nlvm&cid=1_1&lid=155
At this site, your child can practice with virtual base ten blocks.
We will also have a science quiz on safety and tools. Your child will bring home pictures of tools and their uses today as well.
Service Club will begin on Monday, September 23 in our classroom from 2:45-3:45. We will meet every other Monday. Service Club facilitates activities for the school such as writing letters to soldiers, collecting food for families from our school, collecting books for the Round Rock Serving Center, and many other service opportunities. We also go to the Round Rock Serving Center on the first Saturday of each month from 9-10 to volunteer. Come and help us help others! Pick up in front of the school at 3:45. All fourth and fifth graders are welcome!
Writing Club will begin on Thursday, October 3 in Mrs. Arnold’s room from 2:45-3:45. We will meet every other Thursday. In writing club, the second, third, fourth, and fifth graders write and share their work. We have a short mini-lesson or talk about a strategy to try to improve writing, then the kids write! Teachers are there to conference about their writing and we encourage the kids to talk to each other about their work. Then we have a sharing time at the end of the session.
Research Club is led by Mrs. Washburn and is starting on Tuesdays. Applications are outside the computer lab. This group will work on independent research ideas. Email her for more information. Julie_Washburn@roundrockisd.org
Math Pentathlon will begin on Thursday, September 19. Everyone is encouraged to come and have fun with math puzzles and games. Applications are outside the computer lab. Email Julie_Washburn@roundrockisd.org for more info.
Robotics will be starting soon. More information will be coming.
Read about our week!
Reading-In reading this week, we began some book club book groups. Your child is reading Mudshark, Chocolate Fever, or The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. They are reading independently and then answering questions about the chapter. Then we meet as a group to discuss it and talk about it in greater depth. We also read some articles and a book called 14 Cows for America about September 11. I am in the process of individually testing each child to determine their independent and instructional reading levels. We also read and compared a fire poem and an article about wildfires. Next week we will continue with book club books and read some articles from Time for Kids.
Writing-We are drafting personal narratives and will be revising and editing next week for publication by Friday. We read several books to use as mentor texts to model quality writing and talk about the techniques that the author uses. Zooming in on details, strong word choice, telling the story with details, not giving a summary of what happened, expressing thoughts and feelings, describing the setting, and slowing down the most important parts are some of the strategies on which we are working.
Math-Place value games and activities have been fun this week. We discussed opposing viewpoints of Charlie Brown and Lucy and use estimating and mathematics to decide who was correct. We ordered numbers on a large number line on the chalkboard and practiced rounding on the number line also. We even chose a dream vacation and had to use estimation to see how much it would cost. We will have an assessment on Monday and then will begin practicing multiplication and division concepts.
Social Studies-We completed our bus trip through the regions of Texas and are completing activities to go with each region.
Science-We examined shells using tools in the science lab and watched some demonstrations (using the tools) using vinegar, salt, and pennies. We discussed the scientific process as we determined which container cleaned the pennies best. We also watched what happened when mixing baking soda, soap, and vinegar and wrote about our observations. On Monday, we will do explore whether the mass of a matchbox car has an impact on the distance it will travel using a ramp. Then we will take the quick quiz on safety and tools. Next we will learn about matter.
Let me know if you have any concerns or questions. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
No comments:
Post a Comment