Hot and Not
What’s Happening in MAC2
January 8, 2010
Welcome to the new year and the beginning a new decade. With a fresh start it seems like a good time to reiterate our class goals and to raise the bar on our expectations of students' work and behavior. There are many school days left before summer break! You can continue to help by guiding them in completing homework and bringing all of their supplies to school.
Thank you for the generous gift of money that we plan to put towards a purchase from the Acorn Naturalist Catalog. This company offers many choices for science and perhaps improving the prairie. Our gifts were equaling appreciated (except for the chocolate bacon candy bar that Mr. Robert's received!)
Remember, if you would like this letter online next time, please go to our web site, (http://teacherweb.com/WI/Shorewood/MultiageMAC2) and head to the Hot and Not page. Scroll to the bottom and click the “subscribe to this page” button. Follow the directions and you’re all set! We’ll continue to print this for anyone not on the list, so don’t worry if you can’t sign up.
Our music performance with the third grade is Thursday, January 21st at 7 p.m. blah blah blah....
Language Arts - Students are completing their novels on immigration themes. Their responses to the literature have improved since the beginning of the school year. Next week, they will choose a book of their choice on the topic of the Underground Railroad.
Students continue to work on spelling units three times a week and have a spelling test approximately every two weeks or so. A new list was sent home this week. We post the testing date on our web site under the homework section. Again, our goal is improvement in spelling in their everyday writing, not just on final tests. We have added cursive writing practice to the spelling lessons. The expectation is that students will be able to write in cursive handwriting by the end of fourth grade. To help students monitor and improve this independent study time, we have added a checklist that requires our approval before they continue working on spelling tasks.
Our writing will be the completion of a second personal narrative, this time with a focus of putting more feeling and power into the piece. We are also looking to see much more detail and description in the work. Ask your child what they are writing about and help them with ways to add those details.
Social Studies - Students are completing the book, Immigrant Kids next week. They have gained new knowledge about life as an immigrant during the late 1880's. We had several speakers come to our class to share their experiences.) They learned about the importance of timelines as it relates to historical events and completed their own timelines marking special events in their life up to this time.
Next week, students will complete the family tree project with your help using the information they gleaned from interviews. Finally, we will have an international food tasting lesson. More information will be coming on that later in the month.
The next social studies topic will be the ups and downs of basic economics. Good timing!
Math - Mr. Roberts’ group will complete Unit 4, the use of decimals, this week. Unit 5 returns to multiplication where the kids will begin multi-digit problems and extend their facts (i.e. if 4x3=12 then 40x30=1200) Keep up the study of basic facts, as they sure com in handy now that we're moving to harder problems.
Mrs. Moore’s math group began Unit 6 - Learning about polygons, lines, line segments, and angles. There are many opportunities for hands on learning that reinforce the lessons presented. Between 92 to 96% of students return their math homework each day. Great job!
Again, we encourage your kids to use the SRB they brought home to help them study. Each Study Link references the corresponding pages to use. Additionally, a Family Letter goes home at the beginning of each unit with ideas you can do to help your student, including the answers to the homework! Finally, each student has a password for the online games and SRB you can use. If you need a new one, please let us know. We have been very pleased that almost 100% of the students do their homework every night. Great work habits!
Science - Rocks and Minerals is our new area of study. We'll begin with some basics about the three types of rocks and then get into performing the different tests geologists do to help determine which is which.
We notice our class taking the character education tenets to heart and practicing them in context throughout their day. The students make four main choices every day that only they can control or change. They choose:
1. their attitude
2. how hard they work
3. how they treat one another
4. how honest they are
Please reinforce these ideas at home. We feel it is making all of us a better, united class of learners.
We’d like to again remind you to mark your student’s clothes so they are easily identified. Do the same with lunch boxes, as many seem to get misplaced after lunch. If you don't believe us, take a look at the tables of lost and found items by the office!
We'll talk again right after winter break!
Sincerely,
Mike and Kitty