Thank You! & The Week of October 15

I realize I have not been a very consistent blogger, so I am in the process of improving by promising attempting to blog every week.  First of all, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all the parents that prepared fabric, cooked, set-up, served, and cleaned-up for Colonial Day.  It was a huge success; an experience the children will remember for years to come.  Thank you again!

Looking at the week ahead of us:

• It is Conference Week.  Students will be dismissed at 12:50 each day
• Students will be having a test on Colonization of North America on Wednesday, Oct. 17.  They were given a study guide on Tuesday, Oct. 9.  We will review the study guide on Tuesday.  A successfully completed study guide will be worth extra credit points on their test.
• I reviewed students' rough drafts of their explanatory essays on physical properties of minerals. Making comments on their individual essays. We also reviewed the organization of the essay as a whole class.  Students have also been given a scoring rubric to guide them in making revisions for their final copy.  The final copy is due Friday, Oct. 19.
• Students first Independent Reading Assignment was due Friday. Several students did not complete all the requirements which were the following: AR points goal, story map, book review and WOW! Words bookmark.  This assignment was given to students 5 weeks ago. Please make sure your children are reading for 20-30 minutes a night.  Thank you!

Topics being studied by subject:

• Math--We are focused on addition, subtraction, multiplication of whole numbers and decimal numbers and corresponding word problems.  We are also investigating volume through our science studies. Decimal place value is being reviewed using IXL.
• Reading--Our focus in the classroom has been reading informational text using our social studies and the weekly Time for Kids. Students are learning the importance of rereading text to locate answers and support their responses with evidence from the text.  As a class, we have been reading the historical fiction novel The Sign of the Beaver.
• Writing--Writing is being integrated with science and social studies topics.  Common Core Standards indicate students need to pull information from a variety of sources to write cohesive multi-paragraph essays.  To that end, we have been writing about the physical properties of minerals. On Monday we will be learning how to write a comparing  and contrasting paragraph on the topic of Colonial Children vs. Modern Day Children.
• Science--Our unit Atoms to Minerals is coming to a close.  The last physical property of matter we are investigating is density.  Students engaged in two density labs so far, we 3 more to come. Students will be given a study guide for the Atoms to Minerals test at the end of next week.  The test will sometime the end of the month.
• Social studies--We are leaving the colonies and heading to the American Revolution!