October 19-22

Reading: The students learned about mood through illustrations in a story.

They also had a Latin/Greek test.  We will have a spelling test this week 10/29.

Writing: We practiced writing power sentences to get ready for narrative writing.  They did a great job making their sentences into power sentences!

Grammar:  We learned about dialog and how to properly place quotation marks.

Projects:  We are building mini catapults to get ready to build our bigger ones.  The students are very excited about this project and are working very hard!

Misc.  

Thursday will be our Halloween dress up day.  The students can dress up but please no masks or scary costumes.  

We will also be having our Halloween party on Thursday.  There was a sign up genius email sent out to sign up to bring something.

I will be sending home another book order soon.  If you would like to purchase books but you don't want your student to see them because they are going to be a gift, please let me know and I will hide them until you can get them from me.

October 12-15

I can't believe the 1st quarter is over!  We spent a lot of time reviewing and assessing this week.

Reading: This week we didn't have mini lessons because I needed to complete assessments. 
 The students received new Latin/Greek roots on Monday. They are pre, post, un/mis and ful. They will have a test on these on October 22.
We had a spelling test on Thursday.  They will receive new words on Monday.

Writing: The students completed a writing assessment.

Grammar: We reviewed and assessed.

Projects: The students learned about their new projects. They are going to build a catapult to launch a mini pumpkin.  They found out who they were partners with, then researched some different kinds of catapults.  They had to give me a list of supplies they would need.  These were quite funny. They ranged from  nails, pvc pipe and bungee cords to a 10 ft. board and a  skill saw!!  Needless to say no one will get to use a skill saw in class!! The students were told not to go home and tell their parents they had to go buy a bunch of things for their project.  I said if you happen to have something at your house and your parents are okay with you bringing it in, that is fine (except the skill saw (o: ).

Up coming events:
* The book fair will be here next week.  Our class will get to go preview on Tuesday.
* Thursday is monster hair day and family night at the book fair.
* Conferences will be on October 23rd
* Our class Halloween party will be on October 29.  The students can wear their costumes to school that day.

October 4-8

Reading:  This week the 3rd graders learned about literal and non-literal (figurative) language. The 4th graders learned about similes and made simile self portraits.

We took a Latin/Greek test.  The tests are getting harder so the students really need to make sure they are studying.  They have to know what the Latin/Greek root means, a word that has the root in it, and know why the word has the root in it.  For example if the root is   -bi, it mean 2. An example word is bicycle. Bicycle has the root bi in it because a bicycle has 2 wheels.

We are working on using our time wisely during Daily 5.  The students have a schedule of what is due each week and what test they will have during the week.  Some of the students are still choosing to read a fun book during several rounds, so they are not completing their edmodo on time or studying for an upcoming test.  I know they will get better at managing their time the more practice they get.

The students received new spelling words on Monday and will have a test on them on Thursday the 15th.

Writing- We finished our best animal writing.

Grammar-We learned a very catchy song about concrete and abstract nouns.  The students did a good job learning about these to types of nouns.

Projects- We started learning about simple machines.  We watched a Bill Nye video and took notes on the different types of simple machines.  Then they got to build a pulley and a wheel and axle. They had so much fun doing this and were very creative!

Conferences are coming up.  Almost all of you have already signed up for your conference time.  If you did not get the sign up genius email to sign up for a conference please let me know.

9/27-10/1

Reading-  This week in reading we learned about theme. I read the students picture books and we determined the theme of the book.  We also reviewed 1st and 3rd person point of view during book club.
The students had a spelling test on Thursday.  They will receive new spelling words on Monday.  They will have a Latin/Greek test on Thursday 10/8.

Writing- We continued our opinion writing on the best animal.

Grammar- We learned about regular and irregular verbs

Projects- We continued doing experiments using the scientific method.  Our first experiment was dancing raisins and our other experiment was about paper clips.  Have your child explain to you how each of the experiments worked.

Our picture day is Tuesday 10/6 at 11:30.  Don't forget to print off the picture order form from the email that was sent to you.