Announcements:-BOOK FAIR!!! Each student and teacher will get ONE free book at the book fair this week! The book must be $10 or less. Also, if you have your wish list filled out don't forget to get it to Mr. Scoville.
-With the math units becoming a bit more challenging, I am looking at starting an after school math study group. The study group will take place once a week in our classroom for 45 minutes. The time will be spent reviewing the concepts learned, practicing together, and completing some of the homework. Please send a note with your student or email me if you think this would be helpful for your child. Also include the day of the week that you would prefer the group to meet. I will send out another message later this week with more details once I've received your feedback. I hope to start the group next week.
-With the new quarter underway and after receiving some feedback from conferences, I have decided to implement a few changes this quarter. First, your student is required to read at least 20 minutes three nights a week. To confirm that they have read, I ask that you sign their planner in the ELA section. Second, On days when tests are returned, your student will be required to get a parent/guardian signature on the test and return it the following day. Thank you for your continued support!
What are we learning???Math:
This week, we will be finishing up the test for unit 3 and taking the pre-test for unit 4. The next unit will cover comparing fractions, adding/subtracting/multiplying fractions, and converting between fractions, decimals, and percents. This is quite a long and complex unit. In efforts to not rush through it, we will only be covering half of the unit 4 material before Christmas break. We will take a test on half of the unit and then continue the second half of the unit in January. The test for the first half of the unit will be Friday, Dec. 19th.
Science:
Last week, students began researching an element of their choice. We will use the research collected to create a cube as a display for their work. The cubes will then be used to help students compare, contrast, and group the elements in various categories.
Spelling - On Monday, the students will be assigned to new Words Their Way groups. Everything will remain the same with their assignments for each week. Students will meet with their groups on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.
Writing - Our class has begun the process of choosing a claim to pursue with their literary essay. They created a list of 5 possible claims about a character in their short story. From that list, they had to see which claims encompassed the WHOLE character and the WHOLE story. Starting Monday, we will polish up their claim statements and begin the process of finding evidence to then construct our body paragraphs of our essays. This week, students will also be referencing a mentor text to see what the author did really well and then try to mimic that in their own essays.
Reading - We are on the verge of finishing our read aloud book Wonder! Students have thoroughly enjoyed it and through the reading, have sharpened their skills of determining point of view, character/plot development, narrator styles, and discussion techniques. They will each be assigned a mini project to complete in response to the book this week.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ball
mball@gibraltar.k12.wi.us
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