Week of December 10-14

Mrs. Whitley’s Last Day

In case you didn’t catch the e-mail, here is a reminder that my last day before maternity leave will be this Friday, December 14, unless Baby Dylan has other plans.  My long-term substitute, Marcie Wilson, will begin working with me in the classroom Monday and she will be with me all week to learn the routines, get to know the kids, and prepare to take over.  If you have any last minute questions or concerns for me, please e-mail or call.  Marcie’s e-mail is marcie.wilson@oldham.kyschools.us should you need to reach her.  I will return mid-late March, but I am certain the kids will be in good hands with Mrs. Wilson!

Husky Helping House

As a reminder, please send your purchased item for Husky Helping House to school no later than December 10^th!  We will be wrapping the presents and sending them off this week!

 Food Drive

Please remember to send in any canned goods or non-perishable items you would like to donate to our annual holiday food drive.

PE

Our PE rotation continues through Tuesday.  Please remind your child to wear or bring a pair of tennis shoes.

Shopping Spree Unit

At the end of the week, we will also begin a fun math unit we like to call “The Shopping Spree.”  During this unit, kids will select a Secret Santa and 4+ family members to go pretend shopping for.  No gifts will actually be bought, but the students will learn how to shop on a budget using catalogs.  They will calculate tax, total cost, and figure out what percent of their fictional budget was spent on each person they “shopped” for.  Secret Santas will be revealed at our Holiday Party by giving each other homemade cards with the picture of the item they would buy if we were using really money.  It’s a fun way to go over many of the skills we’ve learned over the past several months, and even though there is no real gift buying or giving, the kids always enjoy it!  So, if you hear them talking about Secret Santa, please know there is nothing you need to buy.  However, if you have any catalogs you can send in for our “shopping,” we’d love to have them!

Pajama Day
Pajama Day will take place the last Monday before break, December 17th!

 Upcoming Tests

• Social Studies Test over the Colonial Williamsburg on Wednesday (Chapter 9 tutorial)
• Math Test over fractions on Thursday

This Week’s Learning Plan

Social Studies:  This week, we will wrap up our unit on Colonial Williamsburg.  The kids will continue to have the opportunity to walk through stations set up to depict colonial life in Williamsburg long ago.  Then we will culminate with a test and an extended response on Wednesday.

Math:  Fractions!  We will continue learning about fractions, ordering, comparing, finding equivalence, as well as reading graphs as we wrap up our unit on fractions.  We will also begin a fun holiday unit called “The Shopping Spree” at the end of the week.   

Word Study:  We will review the different uses of the comma and begin to explore the use of the semicolon.

Writing:  The kids have done an amazing job using various points of view to write about slavery.  They will continue to explore point of view and verb tense as they write about colonial Williamsburg experiences this week.  I have been so impressed with their work, I’ve even invited Mrs. Horn to come check it out!

Reading:  In reading this week we will learn strategies for selecting the best answer on multiple choice questions through reading comprehension sheets.  The kids will also transfer their knowledge of how to learn about a culture through reading.

Week of December 3-7

As the countdown to Winter Break begins, we have many things going on in our classroom!  Here are a few reminders.

Husky Helping House

Thank you to the many parents who signed up to buy and item or donated money for our Husky Helping House child!  He is lucky to have such wonderful people working to make his holiday special!  Please remember to send your purchased item to school no later than December 10^th!  We will be wrapping the presents and sending them off that week.

Food Drive

Please remember to send in any canned goods or non-perishable items you would like to donate to our annual holiday food drive.

 PE

Our next PE rotation begins Tuesday.  Please remind your child to wear or bring a pair of tennis shoes.

Upcoming Tests

Social Studies Test over the Colonial Regions on Wednesday (Chapter 7 tutorial)

 Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thank you to the many parents who made a donation to the classroom in order for your child to participate in Boys’ Night Out and Girls’ Night Out!  Both events were a big success!

 This Week’s Learning Plan

Social Studies:  After we wrap up our learning about the colonial regions we will begin an interesting unit on Colonial Williamsburg where the children will have the opportunity to walk through stations set up to depict colonial life in Williamsburg long ago.

Math:  Fractions!  We will continue learning about fractions, ordering, comparing, finding equivalence, but this week we will explore how to do these things by converting to decimals.

Word Study:  We will explore the different uses of the comma for introductory phrases, for use in a series, etc.

Writing:  Point of view will be explored this week as we have the kids write about slavery for 1^st person, 2^nd person, and 3^rd person viewpoints.

Reading:  In reading this week we will read about slavery and use the skill of gathering information from various texts to write about it.