Welcome Back!!

Welcome Back and Happy 2015!

A few updates....

Some dates to keep in mind for January:

Half Day for Students on Friday, January 16th

Martin Luther King Jr Day - no school on Monday, January 19th

As the weather (although off and and on lately!!) continues to get colder, please send your child to school with a coat.  Many of the students are coming in with very light weight hoodies rather than an actual warm coat.  We want them to be able to go out and enjoy recess and also not get sick!

Curriculum Update:

Math:

We are continuing to work on long division using the area model and partial quotients.  Students will be able to choose the method that they feel is best for them when we complete the unit.

Reading:

Our next unit will focus on nonfiction text.  We will be using a variety of materials to identify the text features and structure of this genre.

Language Arts:

Students are working on rough drafts of a creative writing assignment and working to incorporate all of the "Be a Better Writer" strategies that we have been working on in class.  

Prompt:  "You are finally old enough to baby-sit, and your first job is this afternoon!  You will be spending the entire afternoon with a one year old.  When you open the door you realize that instead of watching a one year old child, you will be watching a one year old elephant!  Write a story about spending your afternoon with a baby elephant."

We will be finishing rough drafts this week in class and as part of next week's homework, students will be typing or writing final copies at home.

I'm looking forward to reading all of their final drafts of their stories!

Social Studies:

We are wrapping up the Southeast region with a fun project consisting of making a "license plate" to represent the state of their choice from that region.  They are researching information about the state and then putting facts and pictures on the the license plate to display the information to present to the class.

Science:

Students will be learning about energy - potential and kinetic.   A fun activity with toy cars will help them to understand and recognize the difference between the two...

As always, any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!