A longer weekend for some of us...

I decided to go to the doctor today...I had been fighting a cold for almost two weeks and when I felt achy last night I was worried the dreaded flu had gotten me, too...but the good news is...it's not flu! I have a sinus infection and am on antibiotics, so I should be in good shape quickly. I missed being at school today, but I made a good decision...I got some much needed rest and some medication!

We had a shorter week this week, but it was still chock full of learning...here's how it went down:

Math
This week we finished up our work with area...during this unit the students redecorated Inchy's House and designed a solar powered car...all the while working with the area of a rectangle. On Wednesday I gave the kids a multiplication pretest that will help guide my instruction for the next couple of weeks. I had so many hands go up to tell me that they already know how to multiply...I don't think they knew what to do with me when I jumped up and down and said, "Oh, good!!!" :-) As in most classrooms, I have kids on either end of the spectrum when it comes to multiplication. My whole class understands that multiplication is repeated addition, some know their facts, some know how to multiply one digit by three digits or more...most do not know the strategy used to estimate when multiplying...and most need some work solving word problems that involve multiplication. It is now my job to teach those that don't know a particular skill that skill while making sure the children that have already mastered it are working on something challenging for them! I'll let you know how that goes! :-)

I also gave the kids a timed multiplication facts test on Wednesday. There were 100 problems and they had 6 minutes. They checked their own tests and recorded the number of correct answers. Their goal is to increase this number each week or so. I have two different math links that are wonderful for practicing facts. Please encourage your child to visit these sites and work on increasing their accuracy and/or speed. This will help them so much in the multiplication unit and especially in the division unit.

Social Studies
Planning to visit parts of our beautiful country anytime soon? If so, you're in luck! We are well on our way to producing travel brochures for 21 different states in the US! The students spent time this week working on the Language Arts indicator of using different note taking devices and summarizing. We researched states using Culturegrams two different days in the labs...the kids used sticky notes to jot down important key words or phrases and organized them in their "learning laptops" (manila folders)...then each student had an article printed from SIRS (another research portal) and we used highlighters to mark key words and phrases. Today, with the sub, the kids began their rough drafts of the travel brochures. We will polish these and have final products some time next week...it is very exciting!

The kids did a nice job on their first project...we learned the schedules of so many fun teams and got to hear the latitude and longitude of tons of cities across our country! It was obvious many of the students had practiced speaking at home...they used eye contact and a loud voice!

Language Arts
As stated above, we did a lot of note taking this week...using sticky notes and highlighters. We also are continuing our focus on the "during reading" strategies...while reading our novel, Frindle. Today the kids took a quiz on Chapter Nine...I'm anxious to see how they did...I want the students to read carefully while they're enjoying a book...the more they think WHILE they read, the better they understand what they're reading. We talk about this a lot...so often they read quickly...because THEY CAN...but they need to slow down and process what they're reading. They need to make connections, ask questions, visualize, infer meaning, synthesize, and use fix up strategies to better understand what they're reading!

Writing
I know many of you have seen the paragraph that your child brought home...the best path to take to Wyoming from Maryland. Thank you to all of the people that signed the red form and returned the whole packet. I have to keep certain samples in their portfolios, and that is the best way for me to let you see them, but also keep them. If I ever send anything home like that and you have a question, don't hesitate to send me an email. karen.wills@fcps.org

Word Study
Since next week is a short week, we'll probably have a word study list that lasts two weeks again. When you see your child's list in the folder, encourage them to practice those words. I will assign homework with their words a few nights, but it is their responsibility to practice spelling their words. Also, please help your child keep that list in their folder. Because each child has a different list, they need them on test day...they give each other their word study tests! Thanks for your help with this.

Speaking of thanks...thank you to Mrs. Akula, Neelam's mom, for putting together the class directory. It should have come home today in your child's Take Home folder. I appreciate the time it took for her to do this...thank you!

I hope you have fun plans for the four day weekend!! I will be at school tomorrow, but will enjoy the three days with my family. Tell your kids I'll look forward to seeing them Tuesday!