December 16-20

Announcements:
 
Our class Christmas party will be on Friday, December 20. We will be crafting and playing games, followed by a taco lunch in the classroom at 11:45. I sent home stickers with what each student needs to bring, and if there are any problems PLEASE let me know so we can work something out. I will have a Crockpot to keep meat warm as well as access to a refrigerator that morning.
 
Friday is a 1:00 release.
 
 
In reading this week our story will be Night Letters, and we will be focusing on drawing conclusions and asking questions to help with comprehension.
 
In grammar we will be working on subject/ verb agreement.
 
Spelling words for this week are:
 
clock
large
page
mark
kitten
judge
crack
edge
pocket
brake
change
ridge
jacket
badge
orange
freckles
advantage
pledge
Kentucky
kingdom

 
In math we will finish up our graphing unit, and complete the chapter review. The chapter test will be on Thursday. Students will be expected to complete pages 254- 257 at home to prepare.
 
Have a great week, and a wonderful break!

Christmas WebQuest

With the holidays and Winter Break quickly approaching, we have been having some Christmas fun during our Friday science time! Inspired by our French pen pals and learning about their traditions/ teaching them about ours, I wanted to do a fun and quick research project to learn more about Christmas around the world.

Each group was given a set of questions, an iPad, and the links to three educational Christmas websites. They had a lot of fun finding out the history behind some of our traditions, and I was very impressed by the use of their research skills like skimming and using headings to find answers! I learned some things too- who knew that children in Great Britain throw their Santa letters into the fireplace so that they can float out the chimney and up to the North Pole!

Here are some pictures of the smart little researchers at work!

Math- Graphing!

In math the last couple of weeks we have been working on graphing. This included reading graphs, and even more fun- making our own graphs! I have been VERY impressed with everyone's ability to read graphs, and even more so with their neatness and accuracy in making graphs. I wanted to post a few so you can see what we have been up to!

 

For the bar graphs, each group was given a bag of skittles that they had to sort and count. From the data they got, they then had to make a bar graph. This included deciding on the scale (Would going up by 1 fit on their graph paper? If not, what number would be best?), labeling, and coloring the graph. Then they had to find the mode and range, and we talked about which colors occurred most/ least often. They turned out not only accurate, but beautiful!

 



 

 

We also made line plots. For this project we collected data as a class to see how many family members each student had. Then each group had to take the data and create a line plot with it. We talked about mode and range with these graphs as well. Once again, they turned out great- mathematically and artistically!

 

 

When we started learning to make graphs, we also learned how to make tally charts to organize our data and get it ready to turn into a graph. I let each group ask whatever question of the class they wanted to for their survey, and they recorded the responses. Then we talked about what we could tell from the tally chart (What category was most/ least popular, if any were the same, how many more people chose one category over another, etc.). It was really fun to see all the creative questions they came up with, and I think we all learned a few more things about each other along the way :) 

 

 

 

Graphing has always been my favorite part of math, and I LOVED this unit. Of course it helps that I discovered my class is full of brilliant graphers!

December 9-13

Announcements:

We have swimming on Thursday, December 12! Please remember you swimsuits and towels, and a hat for the chilly walk back!

Our class is going to the Santa Shop on Monday from 9- 9:20, an envelope was sent home if your child wishes to purchase anything.

We will also be having multiple rehearsals for the Holiday Concert this week, with the final performance at 6:30 on Thursday, December 12.

Our class holiday party will be next Friday. We will be having a taco lunch in the classroom, and doing some other Christmas activities. I will be sending a note home if you would like to volunteer to bring in food for our party, or to help serve!


In reading this week our main story will be Pushing Up the Sky, and we will be talking about the genre of myths. The focus will be on summarizing and determining the author's purpose.

Our spelling words are:

unhappy
recall
disappear
unload
mistake
misspell
dislike
replace
mislead
disagree
rewrite
unroll
unknown
dishonest
react
unfortunate
discourage
uncomfortable
recycle
mispronounce

In math we will continue learning about graphing, reading graphs, and making our own graphs.

December 2-6

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We are back to our normal routine this week! Thank you to those of you who have been encouraging your children to fill out the reading calendars and sending them back, it is so important that they are reading 20 minutes a night.

This week in reading our main story will be The Gardener. We will be focusing on cause and effect and the structure of sentences and stories that helps determine what the cause and effect are.

Our spelling words this week are:

let's
he'd
you'll
can't
I'd
you'd
haven't
hasn't
she'd
they'll
when's
we'd
they'd
wasn't
didn't
should've
would've
could've
needn't
you've

All of our words are contractions, so look for the patterns when studying!

In math this week we will be finishing up time and moving into graphing (my favorite!!). This week we will cover tally charts, line plots, and pictographs and bar graphs.
 
Looking into next week: I will be sending home notes to parents who have volunteered to help with our Christmas party, and will be looking for more volunteers :)

 Have a great week!