Sunday, September 27, 2015

Sept. 21-24

Reading: This week we learned about 1st and 3rd person point of view.

We continued with book club and Edmodo.  The students have plenty of time to get their reading and Edmodo finished in class.  However, if they find that they don't think they will finish by Thursday they can get onto Edmodo at home.  

The students took their Latin/Greek test on Thursday.  They will receive new roots on Monday.

The students received new spelling words on Monday.  They will have their test on these words on 10/1.

Writing: We started writing a new opinion piece on Monday.  The students are starting off by researching the best animal.  They will use this research to provide support in their paper.

Grammar: We learned how to form regular and irregular plural nouns.

Projects: We did a couple of experiments to practice the scientific method.  First they blew up balloons using baking soda and vinegar. Then we watched an egg get sucked into a bottle due to lack of oxygen.


* A new book order will be sent home on Monday.  Our class got close to 30 free books with the last book order! The kids were so excited to read all the new books!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Sept 14-17

Reading: We continued getting comfortable using Edmodo this week.  The 3rd graders are working on restating the question when answering.  The 4th graders are working on using evidence to support their answers and putting more details in their answers.

The vocabulary we focused on this week was: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.  We will continue becoming more familiar with this vocabulary.

Spelling:  We had our 2nd spelling test.  I will return them to the students on Monday.  If your child received a 1 please sign their test and have your child bring it back to me.  

New spelling lists will be passes out on Monday.  We will have our next test on October 1st.  Your child has time to practice their words at school but please help them practice at home also to ensure that they are confident when they take the test.

Latin/Greek:  We will be having our 2nd Latin/Greek test on Thursday 9/24.  Please help your child be prepared for this test.

penta: 5
hex: 6
sept: 7
oct: 8

Grammar: We learned about singular and plural nouns.  We then did a sort on singular and plural nouns.  Next week we are going to focus on regular and irregular plural nouns.

Writing: The students finished their ant writing.  We will be starting a new writing piece on Monday. 

Projects:  We started learning about the scientific method.  We took notes and then did our first activity to practice using the method. We tested 3 different brands of bubble gum to see which brand would blow the biggest bubble.  The kids had lots of fun with this!





Saturday, September 12, 2015

September 8-10

Reading:  This week in reading we introduced the vocabulary words protagonist and antagonist. We also learned about character traits.  The 3rd graders were assigned a picture book and started using Edmodo to respond to their reading question.  We will continue practicing using Edmodo for one more week with a picture book before the students start reading chapter books.  Some of the 4th graders even came in and helped the 3rd graders with how to use Edmodo and how to use evidence when answering a question.  The 3rd graders should feel more comfortable with Edmodo this week.
The students also received their new spelling lists.  Don't forget to have them study their words so they are ready for their next test on Thursday the 17th!

Latin/Greek:  We had a first test and the students did awesome!!

Writing:  We watched an awesome video about giving specific feed back and making revisions.  We also practiced skipping lines when writing our rough drafts.  This is a concept that seems easy but the students are having a hard time first understanding how it works and then remembering to do it when writing.  We also practiced self-editing a paragraph.  The students then continued filling out their graphic organizers and started writing their paragraphs for their opinion writing.

Grammar:  We reviewed adjectives and adverbs.  We then took an assessment on Thursday.

Projects:  We finished our Tribes in Action skits.  It was fun to watch the kids perform for the class!

Monday, September 7, 2015

August 31- September 3rd

Reading:  This week in reading we learned about inference.  We watched some fun videos and pixar shorts to practice our inferencing skills.

The students received their new Latin and Greek words. The test on these will be September 10th.  They need to know the meaning of the L/G word and an example of a word that includes that prefix. For example bi means two bicycle. The word bicycle has the prefix bi because a bicycle has 2 wheels. The words this week are:
                     
                              uni- one
                             mono- one
                              bi- two
                             tri- three
                             quad- four

Spelling: We had our first spelling test this week. Overall most of the students did a good job on the test, but there were a few who did not. Make sure your student is studying his/her spelling words. The test is given in sentence form and part of their grade is starting the sentence with a capital and ending with the correct punctuation. 

Writing: We added using evidence to support our opinion in the writing process.  We a book that ends with the reader getting to decide if an should be squished by a boy or not. The students took notes while I read of the reasons why the boy thought he should squish the ant and reasons why the ant thought he should not. We then read a few non fiction books about ants. The students then practiced using the facts to support their opinions. They began filling out their graphic organizers.  

Grammar: We learned about adjectives on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday the students reviewed the different parts of speech using IXL Grammar. We then took a test on the parts of speech on Thursday.

Projects: The students continued working on their skits. We will film this week.

**4th graders are all up and going on Edmodo. They can sign on at home if parents want to check it out or if they don't think they will finish in class.

**Thank you to all the parents who ordered from Scholastic. I am excited to get new books for our class with the points that I earn!



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

google sign in

The students have been filling out their google calendars with their nightly  homework assignments.
To access this at home the students need to sign on to their google account at home. To do this you will:
            1. go to google.com
            2.  Click on mail
            3.  sign on using firstnamelastname@oasisacademyfallon.us
            4.  Their password is the same one they use to get onto their computers at school.
            5. once logged in click on google calendar



***Some parents are finding that they cannot sign their child on to google.  They get a message that says the password does not work.  If this happens let me know and I will work on solving this problem.