December 8-12
MATH
This week we are continuing our unit on multiplication. As we work on one- and two-digit multiplication, students will be correcting their mistakes so they begin to learn where they are having the most difficulty. We will also be learning to multiply decimals (Chapter 8). Our Multiplication test will be next week. A good way to practice would be to write 3-4 problems (3-digit times 2-digit) and have students practice a few problems each night, correcting any errors they make.
Word Study
Students took notes on five high frequency words and will be doing dictation and a review to practice their skills with these common words. We are also learning words containing the Latin roots “mal” which means “bad” and “gen” which means birth. Students will have 10 new Vocab words this week. They will get five more words next week and then be tested over the 15 words before Christmas vacation.
i-TIME
We have been reading a book called “Robots” and practicing comprehension strategies as well as working on visualizing. We are about to finish our read-aloud book “The City of Ember.” As we have been reading, students have been asked to sketch what they are visualizing and make text-to-self connections. They are getting really good at these comprehension skills! We also tried a pre-reading strategy called “Probable Passge” where students are given a list of words or phrases from an article they will be reading and are asked to use these as clues about the reading. Students try to think about what they believe will be in the article from the clues. After reading, they are then asked to summarize. These activities, that help students to focus on understanding, are very helpful in improving their comprehension.
Amahl and the Night Visitors
We will be going to Hammons Hall on Dec. 19 to see this play. Students should have their permission note signed and returned before that day.
Christmas Party
Plans are under way for the Christmas Party. Parents are being contacted to send in a bag of chips or carton of dip. We are not scheduling a specific time for parents to come to school that day, due to the fact that we have a lot of things already scheduled. I suggested to our homeroom mom that if parents would send the above items, I could be more flexible with the schedule for the day and not be stuck to a particular party time. We will plan a specific time for the Feb. party so that parents can come, if they want.
