February 5, 2016

This week we finished our Science unit on Matter. We celebrated by having a root beer float that contains all three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Next week we will be moving on to a Social Studies unit about Economics. Don't forget current events are due by March 11.

Originally I had scheduled a unit test for Math on Area and Perimeter for Monday, February 8, however, we needed to work on some topics for a little longer so that the students had a good understanding of the concepts. Using the Distributive Property to find Area and finding the Area of composite shapes were two challenging concepts. I am going to give the students homework in these two areas over the weekend to give them more practice and keep it fresh in their minds. That being said, I have rescheduled the assessment for this Math chapter on Area and Perimeter for Wednesday, February 10.

This week I sent home a Kick It sheet with each student so that they could practice their multiplication facts at home as well as at school. Becoming more proficient with their math facts and building their math fluency  will be helpful to them as we move on to additional math units and skills. So keep practicing at home. 

In ELA we will be moving on to the next chapter in this unit and we will be working on those skills for two weeks. Since we will have Friday off and Monday off I don't feel that one week (four days) would be enough time to concentrate on the concepts in this chapter so we will be working on this chapter for two weeks. So I have adjusted the spelling test and vocabulary test to reflect this. 

Our Valentine's Day party will be on February 11th in the afternoon. If your child is going to pass out Valentine's Day cards please make sure that they bring in one for every child in the class, we currently have 20 students in the class. They will also need to bring in something to put the Valentine's Day cards they receive in, this can be something they make or something as simple as a gift bag. Please have your child bring in both of these items on February 11th, the day of the party.

Important dates:
February 10-Math Assessment Area and Perimeter
February 11-Valentine's Day Party
February 11-Spelling Test, Spelling Packet and Reading Log due for the week.
February 12-No School
February 15-No School
February 18-Vocabulary Test
February 19-Reading Chapter Test
February 25th-COSI visits the school
March 11-Current Events Due

As evidence that your child read this newsletter if they bring in the words "Happy Valentine's Day" written on a small piece of paper with their name and quietly place it on my desk they will earn a small reward.