Welcome to Week 26! Remember that Friday is a teacher inservice day. Please find somewhere else for your students to be.
This week in math we will be completing the first chapter of fractions. Early this week we will be looking at fractions and decimals on a number line and writing to explain story problems. Later in the week students will be reviewing this rather large chapter and completing a chapter test. So far the kids have done excellent work with fractions. I look forward to seeing their test scores at the end.
In reading this week we are going to continue our work with mysteries. Students will continue to have homework of one to two chapters a night. The expectation is that they complete the reading and start the comprehension packet at home. They will be given time to work with their groups to complete the comprehension packet. Students are receiving an effort and homework grade daily for showing that they have done their reading homework. If they have done the reading and started the packet, they will receive a 3. If they haven't done any of the work, they will receive a 1. Students are also being graded in how they participate in their group. If they are actively participating, they will receive a 3. If they are not participating or are messing around, they will receive a 1. If you have any questions about this, please contact Mrs. Therriault.
We will not be doing any Grocking or spelling rules this week. We are going to use some of our Grocking time to work on a district writing prompt. Students will be writing a short narrative in class that will be graded according to the district rubric. This writing assignment will be graded and used, in addition to the personal narrative that was completed last month, to get their writing grade for the trimester.
In Social Studies this week we are going to begin the week with a short quiz on the Southern Colonies. We will also begin to look at life in the New England Colonies by examining the Puritans. We will be studying the Puritans because of their influence on the development of New England. Students will be reading from the social studies text book. There will be a quiz at the beginning of the week next week.
An additional skill that we are going to be focusing on in our classroom is following directions. We have noticed lately that many students are missing problems on their math, or not completing the reading comprehension packet correctly is because they are not reading the directions carefully. They are also not reading the entire question which leads them to answering only a portion of a question. Often students will quickly scan the problems or questions and assume they know what to do. This is affecting their day to day work, and will also have a dramatic impact on their MSP scores. As a result, we feel that it is important to take the time to teach students how to read directions carefully. We will be teaching this through oral exercises, art projects and worksheets. We are hoping that this explicit teaching will help students to recognize the importance of slowing down to read all of the directions and every question carefully. Please look for these worksheets to be coming home on Tuesdays in the boomerangs. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact one of us.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Allyn and Alaina
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