1/16-1/18

Reading: This week the students received their spelling words.  Everyone will have the same words this time.  All week we practiced using these high frequency words correctly.  We will continue practicing next week. The students should also be practicing at home. There will be a test on Thursday 1/ 25.

The students took a Latin/Greek test.  I was very disappointed with how many students did not study.  I remind them daily to study for this test.  They also have the new roots in their binders to study at home.  Those that received a 1 or a 2 retook the test at the end of the day. We quickly went over the words and then they were give 10 minutes to study.  Also all of the students received a 3 after this.


Writing: The students continued working on their snow globe writing.  

Grammar:  We continued working on plural vs. possessive nouns.  This is a very hard concept but they are doing a great job understanding it.

Projects: The students continued working on their weather projects. 


* Snack: Every day I have at least 5 students who tell me they do not have a snack.  I am no longer bringing extra snacks for students. Please make sure your student brings a snack for the morning and one for the afternoon.

2/5-2/8

Reminder:  Your child may bring in a Valentine for each student in the class.  Please only fill out the from section of the card. I will provide the treat for the Valentine party. 


Writing: The students are each researching a deep sea creature.  I love this writing assignment  because these creatures are all so unique!

Reading: We continued learning about text feature.  This week we focused on pictures and captions. 

The students received their new Latin/Greek words.  We will test on these on Thursday 2/15.

The students did a great job on their spelling tests!  

Grammar: The students learned about shades of meaning with related words.  We also reviewed parts of speech, quotation marks and irregular nouns.

Project:  We started our animal adaptation project.  The students will each create the ultimate animal to survive in a specific habitat.  We read about the 4 different habitats.  The students each got to pick which habitat they wanted their animal to be in. We then read about animal hands/feet.  The students filled out a note taker picking which animal hands/feet they want their animal to have.  

1/29-2/1

** We need shoe boxes for our next project.  If you have 1 or 2 you could send in that would be very helpful.  Also if you have any magazines with animals in them that you could donate to our classroom that would be great!


Reading: This week we started reading non-fiction.  We introduced the text features title, subtitle, heading and subheading.  

The students also received their spelling words.  Their test will be on 2/8.

3rd Graders: They did a great job on their work this week.  They took their time and went back and found their answers in the text.  I was very proud of their work ethic! 

4th Graders:  This week the 4th graders did not take their work seriously.  Out of the entire class only 3 turned in their work completed correctly.  The others had to get their work back to fix.  Some of them had to fix it 3 or 4 times before getting it correct.  If they go back and use their text to find their answers they would not have this problem.  Starting this week, if a student turns in his/her work the first time and misses enough problems to earn a 1 on the assignment I will be sending it home for a parent signature.  They will still be required to fix their work and turn it back in.  This work in not too hard for them, they just don't want to take the time to read carefully and go back and find their answers.

Writing:  The students had a narrative assessment.  They had to write a narrative story about missing Valentines.

Grammar:  We worked on subject/verb agreement.

Projects:  We finished up our weather projects and presented to the 2nd grade.