Week of January 16-20

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!  I hope everyone had a fabulous long weekend!  I’m going to tie in Martin Luther King, Jr. with the notion of declaring independence this week.  The colonists declared independence because they weren’t being treated fairly and, ironically, Dr. King led the Civil Rights Movement for similar reasons.

Math

This week will be pretty intense in math as the kids learn to compare, add, and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with unlike denominators.  Please feel free to help at home as needed.  This is the time of year when knowing those multiplication facts becomes crucial.

BOB

This is another reminder that the BOB competition is coming to a close.  Please encourage your child to be an active participant.  If you need ideas for ways to motivate and help your child, please look at last week’s blog post.  I’d love to see us win the school competition and it would be really cool to send a few on to the district competition this spring!

Upcoming Tests:

Social Studies (Declaration of Independence) on Friday
Word Study (Antonyms) Quiz on Friday

Here is what we’ll be learning over the next 4 days!

Social Studies:  Watch out, parents!  This week I’ll be asking the kids to declare independence and there’s no telling from what or whom they will declare it!  We will wrap up this unit by interpreting the Declaration and discussing what declaring independence actually meant for the colonies…war!

Math:  Fractions, mixed numbers, and decimals!  We will be comparing, estimating, adding, and subtracting.  The assessment for this unit over fractions and data analysis will take place late next week.

Word Study:  Let’s talk about antonyms!

Writing:  Our study of opinion writing will delve a little further as the kids begin to examine their collecting and select a seed for an opinion piece.

Reading:  Literature circles!  Keep on keeping on with those literature circle books!