Friday, March 4, 2011

Newsletter for March 4, 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:  We read Across the Wide Dark Sea.  This is the first story in the new theme labeled Voyagers.  In this story we focused on making inferences about what might happen next. We continued to practice this skill with our own books during Read to Self time. Next week we will be reading Yunmi and Halmoni’s Trip.  This is always a special story as I am able to share with the students about my own voyage to South Korea to visit my dad who is currently working there.

·         Writing: This week we continued to work on our Natural Disaster papers.  We have learned that each paragraph must start with a topic sentence that introduces what the paragraph will be about.  Next week we will work on the editing process of these papers.  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.  New boards will start next week that allow for more fun, interesting writing choices! 

·         Spelling:

  1. caught
  2. thought
  3. bought
  4. laugh
  5. through
  6. enough
  7. fought
  8. daughter
  9. taught
  10. brought
  11. ought
  12. cough
  13. sought
  14. granddaughter

·         Vocabulary:

1.       bustling:  full of activity; busy

2.      custom:  a tradition; a way of doing something that many people follow

3.      foreigners:  people who come from a different country or place

4.      passport:  a government document that allows a person to travel in foreign countries

5.      sightseeing:  visiting interesting places; touring

6.      skyscrapers:  very tall buildings

7.      vendor:  someone who sells something

·         Math: Students took their multiplication test this week.  The graded assessments will come home shortly.  Please use this as an opportunity to review facts that your child still struggles with as well as understanding story problems.  We are beginning chapter 7 on Monday.  This is all about division.  However, it is imperative that MULTIPLICATION practice still takes place each evening as it is directly related to division.  Don’t forget you can view the text book online by going to www.pearsonsuccessnet.com.

·         Science: We have talked about water and weather this week.  We also wrote stories acting like we were a raindrop and how we travel through the water cycle.  Weather words were due today.

·         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. Here is a great website to help you practice: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm

·         Cursive: Students are having a lot of fun learning their new letters.  We now know all our lower case letters and have begun practicing our capitals. We will continue to practice our keyboarding skills in computer lab as well as learning our cursive letters in class.  We will also be working on typing our research papers.

Conferences

I enjoyed meeting with all of you!  It is hard to believe that our spring conferences are already complete.  The school year is going so quickly!  I will continue to stay in touch through newsletters and email/phone calls as needed J

Junior Great Books

Students received their books today.  Their first book club meeting is on Monday.  They need to have the first 26 pages of the story Lemonade Wars read by Monday.

Multiplication

Keep studying those facts. The more they have memorized, the easier it will be.

·         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 28th. 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.

Dates to Remember

·         March 8 - Peter Pan Production in AMB Gym @ 6pm

·         March 9 - Ski Club

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

·         March 15 - APT Meeting 7pm Media Center

·         March 28th – Behavior Reward Time

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

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

·         Monday, April 11th – School Resumes!

 

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

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Mrs. Winstanley

 

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