January 24, 2017

On Friday report cards came home in your child's Friday folder. I asked each student to sit down with their parents and review their reports cards. I asked them to talk about all of the positive growth they made and to set at least one goal for the next quarter. I think this is a conversation that is beneficial for everyone by helping them learn how to set goals and working towards achieving those goals.  

Math
Last week the students completed the chapter 7 assessment in Math. We are moving on to Chapter 8 which includes multiplying and dividing by 6, 7, 8 and 9. We are continuing to work on earning the parts of our Banana Splits, practicing math facts can be used on the monthly math logs as math minutes. 

ELA
We have been studying the genre of historical fiction. We have read several historical fiction stories, as a complement to these stories we followed them up with some related informative texts. This week we will finish up with historical fiction and the skill of cause and effect. We will be moving into realistic fiction.

Science
We have been learning about the different states of matter and their properties. Last week we did an experiment using all three states of matter and we were able to visually see the results. We placed solid Pop Rocks into a balloon, then we fit the balloon on to the opening of a full soda bottle and finally we dumped the Pop Rocks from the balloon into the soda. We were able to see the gas that was released as the balloon expanded. We used this information to produce a scientific lab report that explained our findings. This week we will do another experiment with the three states of matter using ice cubes.

Writing
We just finished writing a multi-paragraph piece about friendship. We identified the qualities of a good friend that were displayed by characters in a variety of stories we read. We were able to compare and contrast the qualities of each friend. Next, we will tackle another multi-paragraph writing about Dog Heroes. The students began this assignment by watching a video by Kid President that talked about what heroes are and the qualities they possess. We then read two stories about dog heroes. The students are now moving on to identifying which dog they feel should be awarded the Dog Hero Award and why they should win this award. Finally, they will have to present the opposing point of view or why someone may choose the other dog for the Dog Hero Award. 

Just as a reminder please have your child keep up to date with their reading and math logs so that at the end of the month they simply have to total their minutes. Each night please check your student's agenda and homework before signing, your signature means that you have checked that they have completed the assigned homework. As a final reminder, if you are interested in purchasing books through the Scholastic Books order form I will submit the order on January 31. 

January 3, 2017

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a joyful and restful holiday break. As we return to school after the break there are two more weeks in the second grading period.

We will begin reading and learning the literature genre of folktales. We will learn about the different elements of folktales and be able to identify the lesson or main theme of each folktale. The students will work together cooperatively to identify common themes in a variety of folktales. We will be reviewing the vocabulary words for weeks 1-6 over the next two weeks and will have a final summative vocabulary test on Thursday, January 12.

This week we will have our spelling test on Friday, January 6 and next week we will have our spelling test on Thursday, January 12.

In writing we will be working on comparing two texts and writing about both of them. We will be reading passages about friendship and identifying character traits of a good friend. We will find text evidence to support how these character traits are displayed in each passage. The students will then identify the common traits in the passages that tie them together. 

We will continue to practice multiplication and division number patterns. We will work on the number patterns of 3, 4, 0, 1, and doubling facts to multiply and divide. We will have a summative test over these skills the week of January 17th. Please continue to practice multiplication facts at home, these activities can be used for Math minutes on the Math Log. 

We will be moving into our science unit about Matter. We will learn about the three states of matter and characteristics of each. We will be participating in several experiments to help us understand each state of matter. 

Upcoming Dates:

January 13 & 16-No School

January 25-COSI visits the school

February 20-No School

Interesting Fact:

Did you know that our local Cuyahoga County Public Library branch offers free after-school homework help to students in grades K-8?  Students can receive homework assistance from a trained tutor in Language Arts, Math, Reading, Science, Social Studies and other subjects.  Homework help is available at no cost on a drop-in basis at the Brecksville Branch from 4:00-6:00 p.m., Monday-Thursday when school is in session.