Newsletter for March 11, 2011

Dear Families,

Here is what's been happening over the past week and what is planned for this coming week.

What's Up!

·          Reading:   This week we read Yunmi and Halmoni’s Trip.  The students really enjoyed seeing my pictures about South Korea.  They also liked looking at the Korean money I brought in.  It made the story come alive to the students.  We focused on predicting and making inferences with this story.  We continued to practice these skills with our own books during Read to Self time and during Read to Someone.   Next week we will be reading the story Trapped by the Ice.  This tells the story of Ernest Shackelton and the crew of the Endurance during their heroic Antarctic adventure.

·         Writing: This week we worked on writing good conclusion paragraphs that tell the reader the importance of this paper and advice to follow in a natural disaster.  We will be typing and editing these reports in the week to come.  Students have also been working hard on their tic-tac-toe writing boards during work on writing.  These boards have 9 writing activities that the students get to choose from to complete during work on writing. 

·         Spelling:

1. Monday
2. sudden
3. until
4. forget
5. happen
6. follow
7. dollar
8. window
9. hello
10. market
11. pretty
12. order
13. stubborn
14. expect

·         Vocabulary:

1. barren:  having little plant or animal life
2. crevasse:  deep hole or crack
3. deserted:  empty; not lived in, or having few or no people
4. floes:  large sheets of floating ice
5. grueling:  very tiring
6. impassable:  not able to be crossed or traveled through
7. perilous:  very dangerous
8. terrain:  land, ground, or earth

·         Math:   We began chapter 7 on Monday.  This chapter is all about division.  However, it is imperative that MULTIPLICATION practice still takes place each evening as it is directly related to division.  We will continue to focus on multiplication fact power in the class with the use of Rocket Math.  This will take place a few days of week where the kids will work on multiplication facts at their level.  Each time they beat that level they move up.  Remember www.multplication.com is a GREAT website for fact power and don’t forget you can view the text book online by going to www.pearsonsuccessnet.com.

·         Science: We continue to focus on water and weather.  Several cool water/weather experiments were conducted throughout the week.  On Friday, we did discuss the earthquake and tsunami as part of learning about current events and severe weather.

·         Social Studies: We have been learning about the differences between urban, rural and suburban this week.  The students created a group picture to depict one of the topics then shared their information to the whole class.  Please practice the states located in the east.  If you need worksheets or ideas, please contact me as I'd be happy to help!  Online resources are www.sheppardsoftware.com (USA) & http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/maps/usa-numbers.pdf

·         Cursive: Students are having a lot of fun learning their new letters. We now know all our lowercase and capital letters.  Students should have all the pages in their cursive books from 1-84 completed by Friday of next week.  If students have pages that are not complete, then they will need to work on them at home for homework or at recess time after next Friday.  We will continue to practice our keyboarding skills in computer lab as well as learning our cursive letters in class.

More Multiplication Ideas

Keep studying those facts. The more they have memorized, the easier it will be. Here are websites or use the flashcards we sent home earlier.  If you are looking for other ideas, send me an email or give me a call!

·         http://www.mathfactcafe.com/

·         http://www.aaastudy.com/mul.htm

·         http://www.aplusmath.com/

·         http://www.multiplication.com – LOVE this for self-timed and graded tests!!!

·         http://www.coolmath4kids.com/times-tables/index.html

·         http://resources.oswego.org/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html

Behavior

Our new word is Acceptance. The students once again must keep at least one letter in order to participate in our fun activity on March 28^th. Please remind your child of your expectations and the Amberly High 5. This includes being responsible for doing their chores around the classroom including making their lunch choice in the morning and turning their homework in first thing.

I am very proud of the way the students looked out for each other this week.  They are a good team!

Dates to Remember

·         March 13 – Daylight Savings Time- Please remember to turn your clock FORWARD one hour on SUNDAY, MARCH 13^TH!

·         March 15 - APT Meeting 7pm Media Center

·         March 28^th – Behavior Reward Time

·         March 30^th – Super student lunch at 11:15 in the activity area

·         March 31^st – No School Teacher Professional Development and Records Day

·         Friday, April 1^st through Friday, April 8^{th –} Spring Break

·         Monday, April 11^th – School Resumes!

 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Mrs. Winstanley

jwinstanley@portageps.org

http://mrswinstanley.blogspot.com/