February 8, 2013 Update...

Dear Parents,

We've had such an awesome week! I feel like the students did soooo much work for me this week and we really accomplished a lot of learning. Make sure they get out and PLAY lots this weekend!  There were several days we skipped recess. Remember, next week is dedicated to projects, spelling, and AR, AR, AR!!!  With our new AR program, there really aren't too many books that there is not a test for.  As a side note, the AR updates were meant to keep you informed about  where your child is as far as points and comprehension goes. If your child is choosing not to read and take AR tests to meet his/her goal, then I am fine with that. I just wanted to make sure you are informed. You know my philosophy...Let your children have consequences for their choices!

Here's what we've been doing in Terrific Room 216!
Grammar:  We learned how to decipher between plural nouns and possessive nouns. 

Reading:  We continued our novel study on James and the Giant Peach.  We looked at the characters and identified important traits.  We compared the main characters to each other.  We looked at the descriptive adjectives and nouns used in the book.  We answered comprehension questions.  We also read the book The Bat Boy and His Violin and compared this story to the life of Jackie Robinson.  We looked at how the main characters, Reginald and his Papa, change throughout the story.

Writing:  We wrote several papers this week. Our first paper was a paper encouraging others to read the book, The Bat Boy and His Violin.  The other paper was an informative paper on our choice of science topics, the moon or the sun. We reviewed important components of writing, such as hooking the reader's attention, writing a clearly stated topic sentence, and ending with a cool closing!

Science: This week, we learned all about our moon and its eight phases. We read several nonfiction books, took notes on an organizer, and watched several videos all about the moon. 

Math:  We completed our unit on geometric shapes. We made a geometric shape book with illustrations and specifications.  We created 3-d shapes using toothpicks as the edges and marshmallows as the vertices.  We took a unit test on what we learned. 

Class News and Announcements...

Valentine's Day is Thursday. Remember to send in a "mailbox" for your child's treats.  Also, send in 25 addressed valentines for all the classmates. 

Thank you, Allie and Luke,  for donating Sadako an the Thousand Paper Cranes  to our room.  Yay!

Thank you, Mrs. Meireles, for all her hard work on organizing the Kemp Dance! It's going to be a fabulous night.  I hope to see everyone tonight!  I'm wearing my dancing shoes!

The new words are posted on spelling city if your child wants to get a jump start on next week!

Next week will be a short week. No school on Friday or the following Monday.  Woohoo!

Remember the OSCARS...My assessment book is collecting dust.  Encourage your child to pick a skill to work on each week!  Am I going to have any Hall of Famers?

Geometric Shape Creatures are due Feb. 22. Please keep creatures at home until that day.  We will put them on display in the media center after your child presents them in class.