Spelling List Change

Our spelling lists each week will be a bit different from now on. The list will consist of 10 words from the weekly spelling pattern, but it will now also include 5 frequently misspelled words. These are words that are frequently misspelled in student's everyday writing. Let me know if you have any questions.

Phases of the Moon

We learned about the 8 phases of the moon. The students created flip books, read books with partners, and watched videos about the phases of the moon. On Thursday the students created the phases of the moon using Oreo Cookies! They especially enjoyed eating the cookies when we were finished!!

New Moon

Waxing Crescent

First Quarter

Waxing Gibbous

Full Moon

Waning Gibbous

Third Quarter

Waning Crescent

J-Term

J-Term has gotten off to a great start! The students are really enjoying their J-Term classes! The students in our class are involved in Google Earth, School Spirit Squad, Wacky Machines, Winter Gardenology, and the Old Corner Book Store. We will continue to meet in our J-Term classes from 12:30-2:30 for the rest of the week!

Week in Review

This week we continued to work on place value as we focused on decimals. We worked in small groups and pairs as we worked on tenths and hundredths. We also continued to review multiplication and created the multiplication charts for each family to have as a resource while we are still working on our facts.

We began to talk about the attributes of a leader as we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. We viewed a video of him as well as researched information on the internet to find out what made him a great leader. We will continue to learn about the attributes of a leader when we work on our Civil Rights unit in March.

This week Flat Stanley arrived! This time he traveled to Ft. Collins, Colorado! So far, Flat Stanley has traveled 15,384 miles this school year and we are still waiting for him to return from several locations around the globe!

We continued to listen to Mrs. Griswold read the book A Wrinkle in Time. Our vocabulary words this week were gallivant, defiant, infuriate, somber, ominous, and deviate. The students worked in pairs to come up with examples for the words.

What are some things that could infuriate you?

• if you got an F- on your test
• not getting any presents for your birthday
• not getting any presents on Christmas

When might you have an ominous feeling?

• if you are driving in the middle of the night
• if you see dark clouds (a storm coming)

What are some things that you might be somber about?

• a funeral
• a sick pet or when a pet dies

When have you been defiant?

• not getting off of the computer
• not cleaning my room
• not stopping watching T.V.
• not doing my homework

When might you need to deviate?

• if you're in danger
• if you're in trouble

As we continued to work on the moon and space, we searched for information and answers to our own questions on the internet and in informational texts. Many of the students also viewed videos as we learned more about the moon and space. As we viewed the videos and read informational texts about space, the students identified the Very Important Points as we are continuing to work on summarizing. Madi, Ava, and Josie performed read alouds based on information they found in informational texts. Each student also read the book What the Moon is Like and identified Very Important Points (VIP's) from the text. Here are a few of the VIP's identified by the students:

• The moon is a dull, grayish brown.
• The moon gets up to 250 degrees at day and down to 290 degrees below zero at night.
• You would be lighter on the moon than Earth. If you weigh 60 pounds on Earth you are only 10 pounds on the moon.
• Holes in the moon were made by rocks that crashed into the moon.
• Day on the moon lasts for 2 weeks and night lasts for 2 weeks.
• 12 people have landed on the moon.

This week we also searched for, identified, and began researching our constellations. Next week each student will present his/her research to the class as well as create their constellation on black poster board. The students will have the choice to either recreate their chosen constellation or create a new constellation. 

Moon Observations

Please help your child to observe the moon every night and record the observations on the worksheet. They will return the worksheet to school when it is completely full.
Thanks for your help!!

Spelling Website

Here is a good website to help your student practice his/her spelling words each week!

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Week in Review

This work we worked on place value and determining the values of numbers up to the millions place. The students chose a city/state/country and found the population; they paired up to compare their numbers and explain the value of each number. We will continue to work on place value next week as well as continue our multiplication review.

The students came up with examples of situations or sentences using our vocabulary words. There were some very creative examples!

We continued to work on our book club groups, Flat Stanley: Stanley in Space and Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon. We are working on finding the important points and summarizing when we read.

In our Moon/Space unit, the students have chosen a variety of activities to complete as they discover and learn about space, including researching questions (using the internet and/or books), reading space/moon books and recording the VIP's (Very Important Points), viewing moon videos and recording the VIP's, reading and categorizing our space sentences, and preparing read alouds to share with the class. We will continue our space unit with a trip to the Planetarium on Thursday.

Next week we will be working on goal setting; please send a 3-ring binder to be a data notebook and keep track of our individual goals.

Flat Stanley Summaries

The students wrote summaries of the Flat Stanley books we have been reading.

Flat Stanley: The Amazing Mexican Secret

Abby:
Stanley was sent to Mexico to save La Abuela's secret ingredient. In Mexico, Stanley meets Carmen, the famous matador. Carmen helps Stanley get to La Abuela's house. La Abuela said, "the secret ingredient is what you do with it."

Emma:
Stanley was sent to Mexico because his friend's Abuela has a secret ingredient. When he got there he found Carmen, a famous matador. Then he and his friends went to the Mayan temple but when he got there he was attacked! But, Carmen saved the day! When he got to La Abuela's house this is what she told him:" the secret is not an ingredient it is what you do with it."

Madi:
Stanley's mom was making a Mexican breakfast while everyone was eating and his mom was loving the breakfast. She had a idea to send Stanley to get Carlos's grandmother's secret ingredient, he has a long travel. He has to fight a chef and has to go down a waterfall.

Sam:
Stanley goes to Mexico to get the secret ingredient. He runs into a real Bull Fighter. He goes to a temple and he meets 3 chefs, who are also looking for the secret ingredient. He finds out that the ingredient is what you do with it.

JaShon:
Stanley and Arthur were playing bullfighting. Then Stanley traveled to Mexico to get the secret ingredient. But then Stanley ran into a matador named Carmen. Then Stanley meets 3 chefs while he's finding the secret ingredient.

Ian:
This story is about Flat Stanley and his travels to Mexico to find an ancient Mexican secret (a secret ingredient). Flat Stanley and the famous Matador Carmen de Junco are chased by 3 chefs that want the ingredient. The chef follows them all the way to a small underwater cabin. It turns out that the secret ingredient is really a simple spice. Stanley tries it out. If you rub the leaf together it tastes really good!

Julia:
This is a story about Flat Stanley's mother wanting the secret ingredient for a recipe. They sent Stanley to Mexico to find la Abuala because she has the secret ingredient.


Flat Stanley: The Japanese Ninja Surprise

Josie:
Stanley and Arthur wanted to meet Oda Nobu. Then Arthur got the idea to send Stanley to Japan. He gets to meet Oda Nobu and he gets to go places with him. Then he and Stanley get attacked. After that they all go home.

Sabine:
Stanley Lambchop went to Japan because he wanted to meet his all time favorite ninja. When Stanley got to Japan he got attacked by ninja's. Oda Nobu invites Stanley into his house Oda Nobu takes Stanley down a hall for a tea ceremony. Then Oda Nobu gets kidnapped. But with the help of Stanley and Arthur they save the day.

Collin:
Flat Stanely's brother Arthur sent Stanley TO Japan to get Oda-Nobu's autograph. Then he saw that Oda-Nobu wasn't a ninja. Oda-Nobu got captured. Stanley saved him.

Ava:
Flat Stanley went to Japan. Then Stanley got attacked by ninjas. Oda Nobu realized that it was Flat Stanley. Oda Nobu showed Flat Stanley off at the tea ceremony. Then they traveled back home. Flat Stanley and Arthur got postcards from Oda Nobu.

Monday, January 10, 2011

We worked on Place Value today; identifying the value of each digit. We worked in pairs as we created our own numbers, read them, and quizzed each other on the values of each digit.

Abby, Madi, and Sabine performed read alouds about interesting information they found in our moon/space informational books. We are excited about our upcoming field trip to the Planetarium on January 20.

We continued to listen to Mrs. Griswold read A Wrinkle in Time. Our vocabulary words this week are apprehension, furtive, tangible, incomprehensible, potent, and solemn.

We started our Moon/Space book club groups today. One group is reading Flat Stanley: Stanley in Space, while the other group is reading Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon. Today we wrote out our predictions of what we thought would happen in the story.

Friday, January 7, 2011

As we have been reviewing math concepts, we took addition, subtraction, and multiplication timed tests this week. We timed ourselves to see how long it took for us to complete 50 problems of each! We are working on becoming more efficient and accurate at our facts. We also worked in partners to practice our multiplication facts!

We reviewed cursive Aa and Cc and learned how to write the letter Oo. We will continue to work on cursive writing. Feel free to practice at home, see the link (on the side of this page) to a website in which cursive handwriting sheets can be printed out for the students to practice at home.

During Science, the students were able to choose 2 of the following activities to complete:

• Read the moon/space facts from our sentence set
• Categorize the moon/space facts
• Read a book or books about space
• Plan a read aloud for the class
• Research a question from our list that we compiled (using the internet or books)

Ava shared a read aloud for us about what the moon is made of. Three other students prepared read alouds to share with the class on Monday.

This week we finished our Flat Stanley Mexico and Japan books. The students worked on writing a summary of the story they read. We are working on summarizing what we've read by picking out the most important points and writing them in our own words.

Next week we will begin our book club groups with student choice of books. One group will be reading Flat Stanley in Space while the other group will be reading Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon. We will continue to work on summarizing as well as developing different levels of questions as we work through these books!

Using Commas

Sabine: When I went to the pool I saw somebody acting very smug, which means that he was full of himself and satisfied.

Josie: When I was coming out of the store I saw a little girl and she was very jaunty, which means happy and feeling very good.

Rebecca: When I was going home from school I ran past a man who was very smug, which means that he was very full of himself.

Emma: She grimaced, meaning she twisted her face in an ugly way, because she was hurting badly.

Collin: My brother inadvertently, which means accidentally, touched the stove and burned his hand!

Julia: I asked her a question and she answered me with wit, which means she was very clever with her words.

Ian: When we had a division unit I was discombobulated about 28/7, which means completely confused.

Abby: We were having rest time when my big sister started acting demented, which means acting crazy.

Ava: One time I went to the store and I saw something on the shelf and then it vanished, which means suddenly disappeared.

Sam: I was walking when suddenly I was ambushed, which means attacked suddenly.-

JaShon: When I was at Chuck E. Cheese I met someone named J and he was a cunning person, which means clever and good at tricking other people, when he tricked us at the games.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

This week we have been reviewing math concepts, including geometrical shapes, multiplication, and three and four digit addition. We will continue to review these concepts as well as others this week.

We have begun our Moon & Space Unit. We have been reading and categorizing facts about the moon and space as well as having read alouds about the moon. We are also focusing on the genres of Science-Fiction and Informational texts. Mrs. Griswold is reading aloud one of her favorite science-fiction books, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. Our vocabulary words come from the first three chapters of the book and they include smug, dubious, indignant, inadvertently, belligerent, and cunning. We have learned the meanings of these words, added them to our vocabulary journals, and used them in our speaking and writing. We will continue to work on these words all week and will get new words from the next few chapters next week.

We reviewed using commas in a series and began working on using commas when giving more information about words in our sentences. We used our current or previous vocabulary words in our sentences.

Welcome

We welcome our new student, Rebecca Leech, from Florida! We're so glad she has joined our classroom!