Writing Camp was Wonderful! Author Celebration on Friday, March 28 at 2:00 in our classroom!

Hi,

Writing Camp was so much fun! The children completed a final copy of a personal narrative about a time when someone told them that they did a good job. They have rough drafts completed of expository writing explaining their favorite time of year and why it is their favorite. We sang camp songs, sat around our campfire, watched some videos about writing skills, played some games about writing, practiced some revising and editing, talked with each other and me about our writing, and wrote while in sleeping bags on the floor. We would love to have you come to our classroom for our Author's Celebration on Friday, March 28 at 2:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

Our science assessment on Weather is now going to be on Wednesday, March 26. Study guide is attached.

Pen Pals will come on Tuesday, March 25 from 10:00-11:30. We will play PE games with Coach Walker in the gym then will go to the library to perform our Voices of Texas Reader's Theater and play some games. Children are invited to bring in props or a costume for the reader's theater. It will be very fun and you are invited to come meet our pen pals and play with us!

Carnival is on Friday, March 28! Thank you for donating for our class raffle basket! Thank you also for volunteering to help at the carnival.

Service Club is working with Cedar Ridge High School's Interact Club to collect new and gently used books for the children at River Oaks Elementary School. Please drop off books in the box by the office. Our goal is to collect 100 books and we have 56 so far. Thanks for helping us spread the joy of reading!

This week in reading, we will explore books and articles that deal with World War II. We will practice inferencing, summarizing, using context clues, determining author's purpose, and determining text structure as we learn about events and people from World War II.

In writing, we will evaluate and continue to revise and edit our writing from writing camp. We will also work on writing another expository piece to refine those skills and practice doing revising and editing skills independently. Games and activities to help us practice the test format for revising and editing will also be a focus this week. We hope to see you on Friday at 2:00 pm for our Author's Celebration! It will be awesome and the children are excited to share their writing with you.

Here are some fun websites that your child can use to help with some writing/grammar skills. As always, Think Through Math, First in Math, and I-Station (reading and writing) also have great practice games.

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/homophones-games/homophones-game.html

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/homophones-games/homophone-definitions.html

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/homophones-games/homophones-word-o-rama.html


http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/homophones-games/pick-the-homophones.html

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/homophones-games/homophones.html

Pick the correct sentence! Super fun!!!!!!
http://www.savethecomma.com/game/

Have fun practicing grammar and escaping a haunted castle!!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/language_structure/play.shtml

Commas are cool!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-going-to-work-with-commas

Write contractions and beat the clock!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-beat-the-clock-apostrophes

Practice with possessives!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-who-owns-what

Blow away the correct punctuation and capitals!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-blown-away

Shoot at the correct ending punctuation!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-sentence-shooter

Is this a complete sentence? Play and practice!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en30stru-game-spot-the-sentence

These are also on our Bartholomew Bat Cave Blog from our class website. Have fun!
In math, we will be reviewing all of the concepts that we learned this year. We will play games and have activities that help us practice and expand our skills. We will be working hard and doing many multiple step problem solving as well as reviewing vocabulary. Using data from our CBA and other assessments, your child will practice and review ready for the next few weeks based on their individual needs. Your children will be working hard!!!!!

In Social Studies, we will continue to read and learn about the Texas Revolution. We will practice our Voices of Texas Reader's Theater on Monday and perform it on Tuesday for our Pen Pals after our PE games.

In Science, we will continue to learn about the weather and have our assessment on Wednesday. Then we will begin learning about the water cycle.

Thank you for your continued support! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew

Busy Week! Writing Camp 3/18-3/21, Read, Write, and do Math over spring break!

Hi,



We had a busy, but great week! Your children showed their ability to be flexible and adjust as needed this week. Because of practice for the Hoe Down, our specials and recess schedule was different. Because of the bad weather and late start on Tuesday, our pen pal visit was rescheduled for March 25. We even saw the maturation video today and still were able to focus on our work. I am proud of them for working hard this week!

Writing Camp is coming up on 3/18! Our classroom will be transformed into a campsite! Your child is encouraged to wear clothes as if they were going camping (not pajamas), bring in a sleeping bag and pillow, and get ready for an awesome week filled with writing activities! I need a few pieces (3 or 4) of firewood, and about 8 rocks to make our campfire. Let me know if you can let us use these items.

Camp Letters: You and your family members are encouraged to write camp letters to your camper. We will have mail call in the afternoon and it is always exciting to get letters from home when you are away at camp! :) You can email me letters or send them in with your child. You can write to them as if they are really away at camp and include camping stories or adventures to model good writing. You can write a letter each day and encourage family members to write as well. Thank you for making this week educational and fun for the kids. It is one of my favorite weeks of the school year!



Reading-We finished our book club books this week! We read Bud, Not Buddy, Walking the Bus-Rider Blues, and Watson’s go to Birmingham. They all were historical fiction and had some connections with the civil rights. Many of the kids decided to borrow one of the books from a different group to read over spring break! As we read these award winners, we wrote summaries and responses then met to discuss and answer each others’ questions. We talked about character changes and historical events that were in the books. They did an amazing job!
Writing-We worked on our pen pal books and will finish them up after spring break. We also worked on revising and editing our work as well as practicing the format of the STAAR test's multiple choice writing. We will do lots of writing practice after spring break during writing camp.
Math- This week we talked a lot about problem solving strategies while going over the curriculum based assessment. We also worked on division and multiplication of larger numbers.
Science- Weather is our focus and we will work more with weather after the break. We will have a test on Weather on Monday, March 24.
Social Studies- March 2 was the anniversary of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence and March was the anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo. We read about these events in a historical fiction novel, watched some videos about them and practiced for a reader's theater based on the book, Voices of the Alamo. We will talk more about the revolution in the upcoming weeks. We will act out the reader's theater on Tuesday, March 25. The kids are welcome to dress up for the performance. We will discuss this more after the break.

STAAR testing for writing is coming up on April 1 and 2. Go to the TEA website and you can view released STAAR tests and scored writing samples. Feel free to use this material to review with your child. There is a lot of information that could be helpful to you and your child. If you have any questions about the test, please let me know. Go to http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/testquestions/ and http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/parents/

Dates to remember:
Monday, March 10-Friday, March 14-Spring Break-Have fun, Be safe, Read!
Monday, March 17-Spring Break Reading Logs due, any homework packets or logs not turned in yet, are due
Monday, March 17-Service Club-2:45-3:45
Tuesday, March 18-Friday, March 21-Writing Camp-Send letters
Wednesday, March 19-Early Release Day 12:45
Monday, March 24-Science test on Weather, Rising Star Writing and Art due
Tuesday, March 25-Pen Pal Visit, Reader's Theater-Voices of Alamo
Thursday, March 27-Writing Club 2:45-3:45
Friday, March 28-Spring Carnival
Tuesday, April 1 and Wednesday, April 2-STAAR Writing Test
Thank you for sharing your child with me. Have a great spring break! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Pam