Week of May 20

     This week we will be having a math test on Wednesday, May 22.  We will also have our unit 9 spelling test on Thursday, May 23.  Spelling homework is also due on Thursday.

     In religion this week we are continuing to talk about the sacraments, focusing now on Reconciliation and God's forgiveness.  We will also talk about how the choices we make can show our love for God and how to be a peacemaker.  Our family mass is on Sunday, May 26 at 9:30.  Students that are reading at the mass will be practicing this week.

     We have started out last book in More Adventures of the Superkids.  In unit 9 students will be working on the oo sound as in spooky and the oo as in look.  They will also continue to work on problem/solution stories, summarizing, sequencing events, and recalling details of a story.

     For Math this week students will be working more on subtraction facts, identifying events as certain, likely, or unlikely, problem solving strategies, and identifying hundreds, tens, and ones.  We will be continuing to use our interactive math games on the SMARTboard as well as practice math on our Ipads.

     In Science this week students will be learning about life cycles of plants and animals.  We will be comparing different life cycles and students will draw the life cycle of the animal that they have chosen to write about. 

Week of May 13

     Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

     This week we will be learning more about Baptism, the signs and symbols of Baptism and what the signs and symbols mean. 

     For superkids this week we will be finishing up unit 8 and having our spelling test on Wednesday, May 15.  We will also have a reading test on Thursday, May 16 that will cover units 7 and 8, along with reading comprehension and a writing part.  Students are also working on planning their characters, a problem, and a solution to go along with their setting that they worked on last week. 

     During Math this week we will be working on identifying and counting quarters, subtracting 2-digit numbers without regrouping, reading a thermometer, and identifying more geometric solids.  We will also be having a math test on Monday, May 13.

     In Science we are working on our Creature Feature inquiry unit.  Last week students began identifying different features that animals have that help them to survive.  They then drew their own animal taking features from different animals to create a new animal.  This week they will work on writing about how these features would help their animal to grow and survive.  We will also continue talking about features of animals and plants, classifying animals as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, or birds.  Each student will also be selecting an animal to write about.  In our science lab this week we will be erupting our volcanoes that the kids worked on building last week in lab.

     For Social Studies, the students will be helping to add the captions to the pictures for our community scrapbook.

Week of May 6

     This week we will be talking about Mary and the rosary during religion class.  May Crowning will be on Wednesday, May 8 during our school mass.  The students need to bring in a flower and a rosary.  We will also be talking about the sacraments.

     In Superkids the students will be working on ou/ow words and rhyming words.  They will also be planning a setting for a story.  We will be reading another one of our Super-Duper magazines, this time about nightlife and jobs that people do at night.

     For Math this week students will be learning about polygons using our ipads.  We will also be focusing on subtraction facts this week.

     Last week the students had lots of fun with the worms.  This week we will be starting our next inquiry unit creature features.  We will also begin constructing volcanoes in lab.

     In Social Studies this week we are going to be putting together a community scrapbook.  Please send in the pictures of places in our community.

     Our plants are also starting to grow!

 

Worms

     I am sure that most of you have already heard from your children that we have worms in our classroom.  Today the students were introduced to the worms and got to look at them using magnifying glasses.  We also have created a worm farm and hopefully we will be able to observe them tunneling through the dirt.  We will be doing various activities with the worms and observing our worm farm throughout the week.

Week of April 29

     This week we will be having a math test and our Unit 7 spelling test on Friday, May 3.  Progress reports will also be going home on Wednesday, May 1.

     This week we will begin learning about the different sacraments in religion class.  We will also continue to learn about how we can grow as disciples of Jesus.

     In Superkids this week we will be working on ar, or, and ear trickers.  Friday we talked about how these letters do not always make the sounds that we learned about in Unit 5, sometimes they make the er sound.  Students have finished writing their biopoems and we will be putting them into Wordle using the computer lab.  This week we will also be reading three different stories in our readers and working on identifying reality/fantasy, sequence of events, and drawing conclusions from what we read.  We will also continue to practice identifying main idea and cause and effect using our interactive SMARTboard games.

     In Math this week students will be working on fractions, and we will be making fraction kites.  They will also work on measuring and drawing line segments to the nearest inch, geometric solids (cylinders and cubes), bar graphs, and problem solving strategies.  We will also continue to practice our math skills using our ipads, IXL, xtramath, and our SMARTboard games. 

     During Science this week we will be doing various experiments/activities involving worms.  Students read in our Super-Duper magazine last week about different types of worms and where they can be found.  We will be making a worm farm where hopefully we will be able to see them making tunnels.  We will also begin working on our last inquiry unit Creature Features.

     For our Community Inquiry Unit this week students will be choosing a community worker to write about, making a map of our community, creating a business that they would like to be in our community, and working on putting together our scrapbook.

Geography website

     We are currently working on map skills in Social Studies with our Community Inquiry Unit.  Yesterday we looked at some geography games that involve using directions and maps.  Students can play these games at home too.  The website is
http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/toolsforadventure/games/index.html

Flower Update

     This morning when the kids came in and then throughout the school day, they noticed that the white carnation flowers and the celery had turned the color of the water they were in.  This was able to show us that the stem does carry the water to the rest of the plant and whatever is in the water will affect the plant.  The students also noticed that the red and green colors worked the best.