Week of October 3-7

Good afternoon, parents! Happy Friday! I hope you’ve enjoyed the week! We learned a lot this week as we explored Native American culture regions, worked on summarizing, exploring theme, utilizing prefixes, and even trying out various division strategies. I really appreciate your support in encouraging your students to complete the flipped classroom work on Native American culture regions. Every student completed the graphic organizer thoroughly and on time, which allowed them the opportunity to work in groups during class to create murals of the 7 culture regions they studied at home! The murals turned out beautifully and they will be displayed in our classroom! Blog pictures coming soon…!

 

Dates to Know:

October 12^th~Early Release @ 12:20pm

October 12^th~Fall Festival 6-8pm

 

7 Habits: This week we will continue to use the mission statements written by the kids to write our own personal and academic WIGs. A WIG is a “Wildly Important Goal.”

Reading: During reading this week, we will continue to explore theme, but now we will examine it through the lens of poetry. We will then segue into determining an author’s purpose.

Writing: During writing, the kids will apply what they’ve learned about theme this week in order to embed theme into their own writing. They will be given the opportunity to write a story and a poem which incorporates the theme of their choice.

Math: As we near the end of this current math unit, students will be learning about division, order of operations, as well as verbal and numerical expressions of numbers.

Social Studies: Our focus for social studies will continue to be Native Americans as we learn about their systems of government and economics. We will then begin to explore the time period of exploration through the lens of culture and geography.

 

Flipped Classroom~Native American Cultural Regions

Listen to each of these readings and take notes on each Native American cultural region using the graphic organizer provided to you on Monday, 9/26. It is important that you have notes for each heading . The organizer needs to be completed and returned no later than Thursday, 9/28 so that we can complete an in-class project on the Native American cultural regions.

Eastern Woodlands Cultural Region

Southeast Cultural Region

Great Plains Cultural Region

Plateau Cultural Region

Northwest Coast Cultural Region

California-Intermountain Range

Southwest Cultural Region

Week of 9/26 & Tiger Trek

Tiger Trek Fun!!

This Week’s Curriculum

7 Habits: How do I set my own WIGs (wildly important goals)?

ELA (Reading & Writing): How do authors use idioms, adages, and proverbs in their writing? We will examine the differences between these types of figurative language and explore their meaning, as well as use them in our own writing this week.

Word Study: What are prefixes, suffixes, and root words? Kids will learn decoding skills as we study the meaning of various prefixes, suffixes, and root words, as well as the impact of prefixes and suffixes in altering the meaning of words.

Math: How do I multiply and divide whole numbers? We will continue to practice multiplication using both the area model and the standard algorithm, examine the relationship between multiplication and division, and eventually work towards dividing whole numbers.

Social Studies: How do I read and analyze maps? We will continue to explore maps and their components and we will review for this week’s test.

Pokemon Parts of Speech, Synthesizing, & Map Labeling

Early this week, we reviewed parts of speech and the kids had the opportunity to go on a parts of speech client around the room. For each part of speech they collected all of the words for, they earned a Pokémon card! It was a lot of fun!

 

Today we worked on synthesizing information from a really interesting article about how dogs and humans understand language in the same way! The kids worked hard to determine importance and then summarize in order to synthesize the information!

 Finally, this afternoon we were working on maps. One thing the kids completed was an activity where they had to find and label the various landforms and bodies of water on a physical map. They did a great job working in pairs! 

It was a great week!

Week of September 19-23

Good afternoon, parents! It has been an awesome week! The kids have been laughing at me because every day I tell them, “We have so much to do,” and it’s true! However, we are learning so much and I’m impressed with the hard work everyone is putting forth! This week we tried to make Oobleck for their 20^th star celebration on Monday. It didn’t go so well, but everyone stayed really positive and smiles were all around the room despite Mrs. Whitley’s poor recipe following skills! We also took time out to allow the kids to perform their poetry for 2 and 3 voices and it was AMAZING!! Each group or pair chose a unique topic and a unique approach to it in their writing. They all synergized to write and perform, and we all enjoyed watching the performances during class. I will post videos to the blog as soon as I can get them uploaded. I want you all to know that we have a wonderful class and I’m so grateful to work with your children this year. J

 

Upcoming Tests & Quizzes

Wednesday, 9/21~Quiz over continents, oceans, equator, and prime meridian (Kids must be able to label these accurately on a map.)

Friday, 9/23~Geography Test (study guide coming home today; due on Wednesday, 9/21 so we can go over it)

 
Dates to Know
Thursday, 9/22~Tiger Trek (Send a water bottle with your child’s name on it and clothes they can exercise in. Students will also receive a free Tiger Trek T-shirt that morning when they come in to wear during the day.)

 

Color Days Next Week

Monday: Purple
Tuesday: Black
Wednesday: Brown
Thursday: White
Friday: Pink

This Week’s Curriculum

7 Habits: How do I set my own WIGs (wildly important goals)?

ELA (Reading & Writing): How do authors use idioms, adages, and proverbs in their writing? We will examine the differences between these types of figurative language and explore their meaning, as well as use them in our own writing this week.

Word Study: What are prefixes, suffixes, and root words? Kids will learn decoding skills as we study the meaning of various prefixes, suffixes, and root words, as well as the impact of prefixes and suffixes in altering the meaning of words.

Math: How do I multiply and divide whole numbers? We will continue to practice multiplication using both the area model and the standard algorithm, examine the relationship between multiplication and division, and eventually work towards dividing whole numbers.

Social Studies: How do I read and analyze maps? We will continue to explore maps and their components and we will review for this week’s test.

Our First Sharpen the Saw Time

On Thursday of this week, our class got to have our first Sharpen the Saw time in the gym! They opted to play an exciting game of Capture the Flag! Sportsmanship was excellent and fun was had by all! Here are a couple of pictures to capture their fun!

Wacky Tourist Day

Today was Wacky Tourist Day and we also had our regions presentations! The kids did great and their enthusiasm was fantastic & it was really neat to see their creativity at work with their posters, handouts, trifold a, and Power Points! I was really impressed with their hard work!

Eva was awesome in her warm winter gear for winter in the west, but she was sure to recommend we not wear shorts during a northwestern winter!

Kimball was too cool in his western ski wear and the background on his presentation was stunning!

Rex was so cool in his Midwestern style outfit and his trifold was fabulous with beautiful pictures!

Emily was representative of the southern part of the western region and she did a great job capturing the natural resources!

These kiddos went all out for Wacky Tourist Day! They looked great! I wish I'd gotten more pictures, but we were so engrossed in the presentations I forgot to take more photos! Overall, I'm quite proud of our class and their proactive attitudes toward our first homework project! Way to go Whitley Crew!!

Week of September 12-16

 Happy Friday, parents! We’ve had a fun week! If your child would like to participate in celebrating the color of the day with Kindergarten next week, here are the colors to wear each day.

Monday: Red

Tuesday: Blue

Wednesday: Yellow

Thursday: Green

Friday: Orange

5^th Grade T-shirt Selection

Next week Monday through Thursday, we will be collecting donations toward your favorite 5^thgrade t-shirt design. Please tell your child to bring in coins ONLY to vote for his/her favorite 5^thgrade t-shirt design. There will be 5 options, one from each class.

Celebration

I award stars to the kids for meeting expectations in the hallway, other common areas, good reports during related arts, and for general overall use of the 7 habits. Yesterday we earned our 20^th star! After 20 stars have been earned, I always allow the kids to give suggestions for some type of celebration and then vote on a favorite. Today’s vote was to make Oobleck one day next week! I think this was a great idea from one of our kiddos because not only is it fun, but it’s educational! So, expect your student to come home one evening next week with a small baggie of Oobleck, a fun, slimy substance!

Questions to ask your child about this week…

As a parent, I’m always curious about what goes on in school with my boys. It seems every time I ask about school I get, “It was good.” So each day, I ask them for a high and a low. As our kids get older sometimes they’re more worried about the social aspects of school. If you want to know more about what your child learned this week, here are a few questions to get them talking. J

What have you learned about the U.S. regions?

How do you use the thinking strategies to help you when you read?

What types of poems have you been writing in class?

What are your big rocks (priorities)?

Can you show me how to write a 7 digit number in various forms?

Next Week’s Learning Plan

7 Habits: We will continue to focus on habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind.

Reading: Thinking strategies will remain our focus for this week. Please encourage your child to use the thinking strategies such as questioning and inferring at home.

Writing: We will begin grammar lessons reviewing the parts of speech, learning about prefixes and suffixes, and we will also be co-authoring poetry for 2-3 voices. You can ask your child about this tonight as we began today.

Math: We will continue our unit on place value and operations with whole numbers.

Social Studies: Our study of geography will segue into a focus on map skills this coming week.

Have a wonderful weekend and please contact me with any questions! Later this weekend, I will update our class website with some great pictures from the week!

Week of September 5-9

Dates to Know

9/8~Early Release @ 12:20pm *Please send a note if your child’s transportation will be different on this date.

9/22~Tiger Trek ~ Please collect donations to help support our school! J

 

U.S. Region Project & Wacky Tourist Day!

Tonight I sent home an assignment that will be due on Friday. Each child is to color and label the states for the region to which he/she is assigned. Then your child is to research (using the Internet at home). I have included a list of several websites students may use to gather information on my blog. They need at least 10 bullet points under each topic. Your child also has a highlighted topic on the graphic organizer. For this particular topic in your child’s assigned region, your child will need to make either a short PowerPoint presentation (no more than 3 slides), a handout, or a poster to support him/her when the group presents the information on Friday. Finally, to further support their learning, each child is being asked to dress as a “wacky tourist” from their region. Please just use materials from home. Nothing needs to be purchased for this.

 

Note from Mr. Beatty

Dear Families,

Starting Friday, September 2, the art room will commence weaving with yarn.  This past summer, Mr. Beatty saw a way demonstrated to keep the yarn nice and neat, and it involved using empty clear two-liter bottles for the yarn to be pulled through.

Would you consider sending in a clean, empty, intact two-liter bottle?  It doesn't need a cap, and each bottle will garner the student who brings it 20,000 points toward the art trophy.  We need approximately fifty bottles, and a second email will go out if and when we reach our limit.

Thanks a lot,

Mr. Beatty

Here’s what we’re learning this week!

7 Habits: What does it mean to be begin with the end in mind?

Reading: This week we will continue learning about metacognition or thinking about your thinking. The kids will be learning how to apply the thinking strategies to help build their comprehension when reading a text.

Writing: Our focus for writing this week is to continue exploring various types of poetry. We will try Xanadus and poems for 2 voices this week. Then we will segue into our next unit, Playing with Words, where the kids will begin learning about the various parts of speech and how they are used.

Math: During math, we will continue our unit on place value where students will learn about the relative value of place value positions, review how to read and write numbers in various forms, and learn to apply basic facts to patterns such as 8x3=24, therefore 80x30=2400. We will also begin learning to multiply large whole numbers this week.

Social Studies: During social studies, we will work on understanding regions and learning map skills.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or email me. Have a fabulous week!