January 23-27

I have printed missing work notes and progress reports. They will come home on Monday. In order to avoid any surprises at conference time, please sign and return these to school.
Country Report Maps are due on Friday. Students should make these on 81/2 by 11 size paper. They need to be drawn, not copied. One map must be a political map, but the other can be any type they choose. The students were shown examples of maps on Thursday at school.

Here is what you can expect this week-

MATH-I am so proud of my class. Everyone is showing improvement in math! This week we will shift from fractions to integers, (Topic 10 in the math book).
WRITING-As we finished Ancient Greece, students were asked to write their own myth, using Greek mythology as inspiration. These will be due on Friday. Students will also be learning different ways to organize writing based on the type of information used.
READING-This will be the last week for the novels about bullying. They have been working on making inferences about characters and vocabulary. They have also been expected to look for themes throughout the book.
SPELLING-The Take Home Task this week focuses on making nouns plural. There are rules that students need to be familiar with for the Skill Test on Friday.
SOCIAL STUDIES-Romulus and Remus were twins said to have been the founders of Ancient Rome. Students will create comic strips based around this legend. We will also explore the geography, government and famous people of Ancient Rome.
SCIENCE-We enjoyed looking over the survey results about why we have seasons on Earth. This week we will focus on some fun experiments and demonstrations that reinforce that it is the tilt of the Earth that causes this, not distance from the sun.

Everyone have a great week!

January 9 - January 13

Happy Monday!

Here is what you can expect this week.

Math: We will finish multiplying by fractions this week. Answers should always be in lowest terms. One way you can help your student at home is to make sure they are comfortable simplifying fractions.

Writing: Final drafts of country reports are due on Friday! We spend several days working on them in class. Students need to finish them at home. Let me know if you or your student have any questions. In class we will be learning how to organize a persuasive essay.

Reading: We will be working on making inferences based on facts in our novels and nonfiction.

Spelling: Students will be practicing how to make different words plural. They will be able to identify when words need an apostrophe.

Social Studies: We will finish our study of Ancient Greece this week. By the end of this unit students should be able to tell you about the location, culture and government of Ancient Greece.

Science: We wil finish our unit on Moon Phases this week. We will test tomorrow and begin learning about why Earth has seasons. Students will be bringing home a survey about seasons for YOU to complete.

Have a great week!

Here is the volunteer schedule for January and February! Thank you for all you do!

Welcome Back! I hope everyone feels rested and ready to get back to work! I will be emailing a new calendar for January and February. If it fills up before you get to sign up, let me know and we will find spots for everyone. I am so amazed at how much support I have from parents. Thank you for being so involved in our classroom.
We started NOVA today.  NOVA is a program that the Sandy City Police department runs. The purpose of NOVA is to teach students how to make choices that are positive. Officer Marquez will be in our room every Monday for the next 13 weeks. This is an amazing program that students enjoy each year.
Here is what you can expect this week.
MATH We reviewed Topic 7 today and will test on it tomorrow. Two weeks is a long time to be away from math, so I assigned the chapter test in the book as homework. Topic 8 is multiplying and dividing fractions.
Reading/Social Studies We will be reading nonfiction text about Ancient Greece. Students will be using different strategies to monitor their comprehension. Students will also be starting novels with a theme of bullying.
Writing We will spend Wednesday and Thursday writing our final drafts for the country reports. These need to be typed. If your student needs more than two days, they will need to finish it at home.
Spelling The suffix er can mean "one who" or "more." Students will be learning the rules for adding er to base words.
Science We will finish our unit on the phases of the moon and have a test next Monday. Students should be able to determine the position of the moon, sun and earth during specific phases of the moon as well as understand key vocabulary terms. We will review on Thursday in class.
Have a great week!