Weekly Update for February 6-10

Monday, February 6^th, 2012

Dear Families,

I hope you had time to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend! Thank you for taking the time to read our update and stay current with school and classroom happenings!

A Few Reminders/Important Dates:

Wednesday 2/8 – Viking Test

The Medieval Faire is February 18^th. Our class booth is now entitled “Marvelous Madame Marie’s Fantastic Fortunes”. The 4 classes with the most volunteer participation will receive a monetary reward for classroom materials! You can sign up to help at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050445ACA6229-medieval

I would also like to get reading groups back into full swing! I would love to open the opportunity to as many interested volunteers as possible. So if you are interested in coming in to host readings groups, please send me an e-mail letting me know when you are available during the day. I will adjust the schedule to accommodate the greatest number of people possible!

Our new Recycling Contest is for Plastic Lids (water bottles, milk jugs, Gatorade, etc.) and the metal soda can tabs. The class that collects the most wins an ice cream party.

This Week at a Glance

Language Arts: In Riggs we are working on some vocabulary from Science and The Wise Woman as well as the spelling rule, “All, till, and full, are spelled with only one “l” when added to another syllable.” In Writing, we are publishing their versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I have been really impressed with the quality of these stories. Please take a chance to look over your students stories! The Wise Woman is going well! I am continually thrilled by their eager participation in class discussions. Please encourage your students to summarize, explain, and discuss the story with you as you are able. These added opportunities to consider the content, particularly in such a casual manner, will really build their comprehension.

History & Geography: We are wrapping up our unit on the Vikings. We will do a review on Tuesday and the Unit Test on Wednesday. They should understand where the Vikings came from and ended up, what their culture was like, how they made their living, and their religious beliefs and myths. Then it is on to Earliest Americans!

Science: Our next unit is on The Eye! It builds nicely on what they have just learned about light. Again, their note-taking skills will be crucial. I cannot teach and simultaneously track each student to ensure that they are taking notes. The natural consequence of failing to take notes will be having to get the notes from someone else on their own time. This week we are talking about what vision is and the anatomy of the eye. The will learn the name, location, and function of each major structure in the eye.

Thank you, again, for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!

Miss Smith and Mr. Sultana

Weekly Update for January 30 - February 3

Sunday, January 29^th, 2012

Dear Families,

I hope you had time to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend! Thank you for taking the time to read our update and stay current with school and classroom happenings!

A Few Reminders/Important Dates:

Friday 2/3 – Half day! Students should be picked up at 12:15 and 12:30. They will not have lunch so they should definitely bring a snack!

Friday 2/3 – Light and Optics Unit Test

The Medieval Faire is February 18^th. Each class has been assigned a booth to plan, set-up, man, and tear down. The 4 classes with the most volunteer participation will receive a monetary reward for classroom materials! I am finalizing the plans for our booth and you will be receiving a sign-up genius invitation within the week for supplies and volunteers! Keep a wary eye! 

I would also like to get reading groups back into full swing! I would love to open the opportunity to as many interested volunteers as possible. So if you are interested in coming in to host readings groups, please send me an e-mail letting me know when you are available during the day. I will adjust the schedule to accommodate the greatest number of people possible! 

Collections of box tops, ink cartridges, and used cell phones are continuous, so please feel free to send them in any time. We do seem to have a great many receptacles for various odds and ends, so if you find yourself afraid to throw things away, don’t hesitate to e-mail and I’ll let you know if we need it. 

This Week at a Glance

Language Arts: We are bringing Riggs back to content vocabulary. Please encourage your students to practice chanting and explaining the rules at home with you as well as defining the words. I will remind students that they can bring their spelling notebooks home if they have trouble copying the words into their planners clearly and so that they will have definitions handy. In Writing, we are finalizing their versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I have been really impressed with the quality of these stories. Please take a chance to look over your students stories! The Wise Woman is going well! I am continually thrilled by their eager participation in class discussions. Please encourage your students to summarize, explain, and discuss the story with you as you are able. These added opportunities to consider the content, particularly in such a casual manner, will really build their comprehension.

History & Geography: We are coming near the end of our unit on the Vikings! We are finishing our study of Eric the Red and Leif Ericson. The students will be creating their own Viking names on Monday. Then we will be learning about Viking religious beliefs and myths. The students have really been looking forward to this as they so enjoyed learning about Roman gods and goddesses. We will also be doing a great rune carving activity towards the end of the week!

Science: We are wrapping up our unit on Light & Optics this week as well. I carefully created a set of notes to help them study for the Unit Test on Friday. We have been diligently filling them out as a class since the unit began. I have gone over each page more than once and made the expectation clear that they must follow along in order to have the information later! We will have an in-class review on Thursday. It might be wise to begin reviewing the notes earlier in the week to give them sufficient time to be ready for the test. We have had experiments and demonstrations every day, so I anticipate they have given full attention to the content!  Let me know if you have any questions once you see the notes!

Thank you, again, for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!

Miss Smith and Mr. Sultana

Weekly Update for January 17-20

Monday, January 16^th, 2012

Dear Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful break and are enjoying getting back into the swing of things! We have a busy week of all brand new units, so your students should come home with plenty of exciting news! 

A Few Reminders/Important Dates:

We begin The Wise Woman tomorrow, Tuesday 1/17! Please send students with their books!

Collections of box tops, ink cartridges, and used cell phones are continuous, so please feel free to send them in any time. We do seem to have a great many receptacles for various odds and ends, so if you find yourself afraid to throw things away, don’t hesitate to e-mail and I’ll let you know if we need it. 

This Week at a Glance

Language Arts: We are really focusing our Riggs words on spelling rules over the next few weeks. Please encourage your students to practice chanting and explaining the rules at home with you. I will remind students that they can bring their spelling notebooks home if they have trouble copying the words into their planners clearly. In Writing, we are working on story telling. We will be examining the structure and elements of the story this week through multiple versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This will lead us into our writing project next week wherein the students will do their own retellings. I am thrilled to say that we are beginning The Wise Woman. This book is written at a very high level of language, which creates wonderful opportunities to build reading comprehension skills. The actual content of the story, however, will be genuinely and profoundly relatable. I will be reading aloud to the students with lots of class discussion as we go to ensure comprehension. Rather than doing reading group discussions, we will be doing more journaling activities. I will still utilize any and all reading group volunteers either for reading for other subjects or for doing writing workshops. 

History & Geography: We are beginning our new unit on the Vikings! This week we will be learning about who the Vikings were, when and where they lived, and their unique skills as craftsmen and sailors.

Science: We are beginning our new unit on Light & Optics this week as well. This week we will be talking about sources of light and what light is. We will talk about how it travels and creates shadows. We will look at transparent/translucent/opaque objects and examine the reflection of light in mirrors and other reflective surfaces. As we do not have a text book, it is really important for the students to participate in the experiments and discussions whenever possible. 

Thank you, again, for your continued support! Have a wonderful week!

Miss Smith and Mr. Sultana