Costumes

We will be having lots of fun tomorrow!  The kids can wear their costumes to school all day.  Please make sure they either wear a costume or their uniform, not street clothes, or you will have to bring them a change of clothes.  We will have a costume parade so everyone can see each other's costumes!  We will also have a party in the afternoon.  It will be such a fun day!!  * Remember no scary masks, no accessories (knifes, swords, fake blood, etc)

Now and Then projects

More pictures

Now and Then projects

I'm going to try to put pictures of our Now and Then projects.

10/25/2012

Thank you for all the great parent conferences!  I love this class and I'm sad that the year is going by so quickly!
If anyone is planning on getting more pencils for our classroom in a previous post I put not to get the Dixon brand of pencils.  I didn't realize that the Ticonderoga pencils were made by Dixon.  Those pencils are actually the one that sharpen the best.  The pencils that just say Dixon do not sharpen for some reason.  
I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Oct 13-24

Reading: I have been assessing the students so we haven't been doing mini lessons.  We started doing Wonder Stories. The students have to read a passage and answer questions. They must highlight in the text to show where they found their answers.  We also started our Latin/Greek creations.  I am excited to see what interesting words they come up with!

Writing: We finished our opinion assessments and moved on to a Halloween narrative.  We are working on using story elements to help ensure there will be a clear beginning, middle and end. We partnered up with Mrs. WindRiver's class to help get feedback on our stories.  We are working on adding more details so the reader can get a clear picture of what is going on in the story.

Grammar: We learned about verbs. Each group was given a different setting and wrote down verbs that could happen in that location. Next we will be learning about adverbs.

Projects:   We have been working very hard in projects.  The students had to really learn how to work together in order to finish their project on time.  Today each group presented their project to Mrs. Jackson's class.  Tomorrow I will bring their projects to the museum! The students all worked so hard. They all deserve to win the contest!

Remember conferences are on Friday.  If for any reason you are unable to make it to your scheduled time please let me know so we can reschedule.

We are running low on pencils.  If anyone could please donate more pencils to our class that would be great! Please don't buy the Dixon brand.  For some reason our pencil sharpener does not like that brand!

October 6-9

I can't believe how fast this year is going by!  Parent-teacher conferences will be held on Friday, October 24.  I will hold them in 15 minute increments.  The first quarter conferences are really to touch base and give a brief overview of how your child is doing.  The number of standards we cover in the first quarter does not compare to what we are able to cover the following quarters.  We spent those first few weeks of school getting our routines down so we can become a well oiled machine!

At this point if I had any major concerns regarding your child, behavior or academic, I have been in contact with you.  However, if you would like to have more time for our conference please let me know.

Conferences will be with me only.  I will have information about how your child is doing in math.  If you feel a need to meet with Mrs. Green, please contact her.

I will be sending home an email out this week to sign up for the time slots on that day.  If you cannot make it that day, let me know and we can make other arrangements.

Reading (3rd and 4th):This week reviewed and then had an assessment on first and third person.  I was impressed with how well everyone did!!
We are getting into the groove of using edmodo.  The thing that a lot of the students need to work on is restating the question when writing their answers and using the text to support their answers.  We will continue working on both of these things throughout the year.
The students had a spelling assessment on Thursday.  As a whole they did very good.  If your child received a 1 on their test please have them spend more time studying their words each night.
We have a Latin/Greek test on Thursday the 16th.

Writing:The students worked on an opinion writing assessment this week.  They are writing about the best vacation spot.  They will finish up on Monday.  We  also finished learning the rest of our cursive letters! We will continue practicing these each day.

Grammar: We reviewed adjectives this week by writing as many adjectives as we could think of using our 5 senses on fun sensory loaded pictures.  We then took an assessment on adjectives on Thursday.

Projects:  We continue working hard on our Then and Now projects.  This week the students worked on finding pictures and mounting them to get ready to put on their boards.  They are all working very hard and learning how to work as a team.  The projects have to be turned into the museum on the 23rd so we will have to work really hard to get them completed!!

Edmodo

Parents,

This is just a quick "info/how to" for Edmodo to clear up any confusion, should there be any.

1. Your child receives their "code" at school.  It is only entered ONCE for each book club they are in.  You do not need a code to log in at home.  

2.  Your child created his/her username and password.  That will be the same all year.  

3.  To log in, go to www.edmodo.com and this homepage will pop up:

***Do not get a secure student account... they already have one.

To log in, go to the upper right (right above "get a secure teacher account") and your child will type in their username and password.

4.  There is a parent code available once your child logs in that you can use to see their work.  Otherwise, you can just see it from their profile.

5.  Your child should have enough time to complete their work in class; however, I know some students like to do it at home as well, and that's fine.

6.  Your child knows Edmodo pretty well.  For some that have been with me before, this is their second year using it.  For others, we've been using it for about 3 weeks now.  Please ask them questions - chances are, they know the answer!  :o)

As with anything new, there's a learning period.  

.  

September 29- October 2

Reading:  (3rd and 4th)-  The students worked in partners and read a picture book together.  Then they had to find the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.  They also had to find the protagonist, antagonist and decide if their book was written in first or third person.  We also took our 2nd Latin/Greek test.  This week they will have a spelling test on Thursday.  Make sure they are studying!

Writing: This week we finished up our opinion writing on what is the best animal.  Most of the students had time to type their final drafts and draw a picture of their best animal. These are hanging out in the hallway, come check them out!  This week they will be assessed on writing an opinion paper.

Grammar:  We reviewed nouns and pronouns and took an assessment.

Projects:  We have been working really hard finishing up our rough drafts this week.  The students are really learning how to work TOGETHER.  This week they will start getting their pictures ready for their tri-fold boards.