Wrap-Up of Theme Two: Celebrating Traditions

House Keeping:

• Monday, December 6, 2010: Early Release-PLC
• Monday, December 13, 2010: Practice for Christmas Program
• Tuesday, December 14, 2010: Christmas Program AM--9:30, Christmas Program PM--1:30
• Wednesday, December 15, 2010: Christmas Program AM--9:30
• Thursday, December 16, 2010: Class Christmas Party
• Friday, December 17, 2010: Last day of school before the Christmas Break

Language Arts:

Oh my goodness!! Can you believe it??? Hagen Pence already reached his AR goal. He has become quite an amazing reader. I bet you didn't know he had been reading the BFG on his own at his home. Way to go Hagen!!! This week the students should be at about 25% of their AR goal. Don't forget to read over the Christmas Holidays. We hope you get some great books!!

This week is our wrap-up of Celebrating Traditions. Actually, we are engaging in a Genre Study of Trickster Tales. The Tales involve stories about animals with life-like characteristics. Each story has a trickster in it as well as a lesson to be learned. We think you will enjoy these crafty stories.

Spelling List:

join

joy

boil

noise

spoil

choice

soil

point

coil

voice

foil

broil

Math:

This week in math we are practicing with Tables, Bar Graphs, Pictographs, and word problems with extra information. Keep practicing your math addition and subtraction facts. It helps with all of the math you will have in the future. It will also help when we start division and multiplication.

In science, we are studying about motion, force, mass, matter, and energy. We have some fun experiments for the students to participate in. Thanks for your attention during Science time. It is one of my favorite subjects.

Question of the Week:

What is the exhaust coming out of a jet plane called?

HELLO WINTER!!!!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving break and a snow day also!! I was a bit sad because I hurt my back and wasn't able to enjoy it like I wanted. But Thanksgiving was pleasant with lots of family and friends...and we got to see Harry Potter VII!! It was great!! We are glad to be back at school. Make sure you come prepared for the cold weather. Snow boots, warm coats, gloves or mittens, and a snugly warm hat. We may be staying in for recess for a few days, but it is always nice to go outside for a few minutes and get some fresh air.

Housekeeping:

• Monday, November 29, 2010: First day of next six-week grading period. New AR goals start today. Early Release: PLC
• Wednesday, December 1, 2010: AR store open for all students who reached 100% of their goal.
• Thursday, December 2, 2010: Report Cards come home. Please sign and have your child bring the envelope back.
• Friday, December 3, 2010: Awards assembly at 9:25-9:45 for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.

Language Arts:

We are starting our comparison stories this week and reviewing skills we have learned over the past 6 weeks. One of my favorite stories is Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. It is a story about a woman who tried to make the world a little bit more beautiful by something she did. We have review spelling for this week. We did not get to our spelling test last week because of the snow day. We decided not to worry about it because of the Holiday and the snow day. Here are the words for this week:

lay

feel

hold

while

might

paint

seem

patch

three

own

speak

need

lie

most

spread

float

row

leave

both

wrap

know

mind

street

bright

tie

Here are some skills you can work on at home: Contractions, -ed, -ing, suffixes, plurals, exact nouns, proper nouns, and commas in a series.

Math:

Last week we got some more practice on rounding numbers to the nearest 100 and the nearest 10. This week we are moving on to counting money and different ways to count money using different coins and dollar amounts.

Science: Hooray for Science!! We concluded our unit on Native Americans. It was great. We are completing our weaving project and waiting for our clay pots to come back. We learned about Native people who lived in the Forests, the Grasslands, and the Deserts. This week we will begin our Science unit on energy and force.

Question of the Week...What are the 5 parts of a friendly letter?? You can post your answer and win a blue token.

Thanksgiving Week

Congratulations CJ and Koy. You were the first boy and girl in our class to reach 100% of their AR goal. Great Job!!

Housekeeping:

• Monday, November 21, 2010: (PLC Early Realease)



• Tuesday, November 22 2010: Spelling Test--Yes!! We are having it!!



• Wednesday, November 23, 2010: No School (Record Day)



• HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Language Arts:

This week we are working on writing instructions. The students will publish their pieces on Tuesday, and I will hang them on the writing wall. We will use time sensitive words like: First, Second, Next, Finally, in conclusion.

We are having a spelling test this week. The words on the list are:

now

off

for

almost

also

cannot

can't

about

always

today

until

again

January

Wednesday

Saturday

February

Math:

Our class just started Unit 5. This week we will concentrate on rounding to the nearest 10. Remember those strategies: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4--go back down and shut the door!

5 or above, give it a shove

Social Studies:

Our class will conclude our Native American unit. We were fortunate too have two ISU representatives come to our classroom. One gave us a history of the Native people in Idaho. The other help us with our clay pots

**Question of the Week:

What are parallel lines. Give me the definition.

Red Ribbon Week

THE KEEPING QUILT

Adam brought this apple to us from Oregon. It is one of the biggest apples we have ever seen. We will cut it up and give everybody a piece of it on Monday. Thanks Adam!!

Our BFG Party was a big hit. We had guest appearances from Sophie (aka Mrs. Shore) and the BFG (aka Mrs. Graham). We drank frobscottle, ate toast and butter, and made trogglehumps (dreams). It was a fun way to celebrate the ending of our Teacher Read Aloud Book. Next on the docket is George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl.

House Keeping:

It was a busy week last week with AR celebrations, guest readers, and the BFG Party. This week is the Red Ribbon Celebration: A Commitment to stay "Drug Free". These are the following dress-up days:

Monday: Pajama Day

Tuesday: Crazy Hair Day

Wednesday: Wear a Hat Day

Thursday: Crazy Sock Day

Friday: Wear All Red Day "Just Say No" to Drugs

Reading:

We are starting a new story: The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. I is a story about family traditions and how these traditions are passed down from one generation to the next. Please continue reading with your child 20 minutes every evening and have them return their Reading Logs daily. We have set new AR goals for them for the next 6 weeks. At the end of this week they need to be at about 33% of their AR Goal. Let's get those X-wings moving across the wall!! The spelling words for this week concentrate on the long vowel sound /a/ and the long vowel sound /e/.

• neighbor
• speak
• weigh
• neighbor
• paint
• clay
• feel
• leave
• eight
• seem
• paid
• lay
• need

Math:

We are wrapping up the mini unit on Rectangles, Squares, Parallel Lines, and Perpendicular Lines. The students will be assessed on their knowledge on Monday. Then we will start into story problems for addition and subtraction. They will learn many new concepts and strategies to break up problems and look for information that is useful in solving the problem.

Social Studies:

We continue our study on communities, traditions, a community's history, and what makes a community go and grow. We are looking forward to beginning our Native American Unit in a few weeks. We will learn of several Native American groups from our past and their culture and ways of life. We will learn how to weave and make some small mats. We will also study picture graph illustrations and write our own messages using pictures.

Question of the Day?

How many times does your heart beat every day?

End of the First Six Weeks--What a great 6-weeks it was!

Isaac wrote an amazing personal narrative about and experience he had at Lava Hot Springs. I laughed and laughed. He had some great descriptive words and he even talked about a wedgie. Very great Isaac!!

Brianna is a terrific Math student. She recently scored 100% on several subtraction assignments. We have been ungrouping numbers and subtracting across zeroes. Way to go Brianna!





Housekeeping:

• End of the first 6-week grading period


• AR Goals should be completed by Friday, October 15, 2010


• New Goals will start Friday, October 18, 2010


• PLC Early Release on Monday, October 11, 2010

Language: The story of the week is Lost and Found by Mark Teague. This is one of the most beloved stories of the third grade classes. We hope you enjoy it!! We continue to work on skills such as adding -ed and -ing to base words. Antonymns (Opposites), and Homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently).

The students had marvelous Personal Narrative stories. Thank you for using juicy color words in your pieces. The class will begin to recopy the stories for our class book.

Spelling List:

smoke

huge

save

life

wide

come

mine

grade

smile

note

cube

love

Mathematics:

This week our young Padawans will wrap up Unit 1. We have been working on place values, addition and subtraction with more than 1 number. There will be a test this week on the concepts we have been working on. The next Unit will focus on lines and shapes.

Social Studies:

Last week (Wednesday), we started our Unit on Communities. What is a community? What makes up a community? Over the next 6 weeks, we will learn about communities and why we make laws. We will learn why it is necessary to have businesses and leadership. We will learn how to be a great citizen.

We hope you had a nice 2-day vacation. It was kind of rainy the whole time. Welcome to FALL!!

Question of the week: About how many times does your heart pump every day?

Short Week Ahead!!

Congratulations to our first three boys to reach their AR Goal:

Adam Jones

Kody Wright

Nathan Carter

They all reached their goal of 100% on the same day. Way to go boys! You are amazing. Keep reading.

We have two stories of Focus this week:

1) Radio Rescue

2)Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride

Our third grade class will be reviewing skills we have been working on for the past several weeks. Here are some of them:

1) Adding -ed and -ing to base words. Don't forget to double the consonant after a short vowel sound.

2) Identifying a complete sentence.

3) Recognizing different kinds of sentences (exclamative, interrogative, declarative, command).

4) Dividing words up into different syllables.

The spelling words for this week are as follows:

1) drum

2) huge

3) last

4) drop

5) class

6) left

7) wide

8) mix

9) send

10) save

11) smell

12) stick

13) note

14) thick

15) hunt

16) thin

17) grade

18) lot

19) cube

20) pond

21) life

22) sock

23) luck

24) shut

25) smile

Today (Friday, October 1, 2010, our personal narrative stories are due. I have already graded the early bird papers. Fine Job-I say. Hope to read all the rest of them this weekend.

Math:

We are almost finished with UNIT 1. We have learned to add with multi-digits. We have discovered the beauty of adding using different methods. We have polished the art of regrouping. We have FABULOUS SKILLS. We have learned to subtract with ungrouping and subtract over zeros. Keep practicing these skills at home. Our test will be the following week. We will test on the skills we have covered thus far.

Science:

Discussion on the Moon, Earth, and Sun is almost over. We have three days left to wrap up this Unit. Stay focused...and stay tuned for Social Studies - a study about communities.

House Keeping:

Next Week is a short week. We have school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday

Monday, October 4th is a 1-hour early release.

Tuesday, October 5th: Hearing Screening

Question of the Week:

What mammal/carnivore, is the largest? (Hint: He loves to eat seals)

Congratulations!! Sarah Nield!! She was our very first student to reach 100% of her AR reading goal. Way to go young Padawan.

House Keeping:

Parents, be on the lookout for your child's personal narrative story. It is due (polished and perfected) on Friday, October 1, 2010. This is the story we will be doing for our classroom adventure book.

AR goal deadline is Friday, October 14, 2010.

Reading/Language Arts:

Our story anthology this week is the folktale: Ballad of Mulan

Students will be able to recognize sentences that are incomplete and complete.

Students are working on adding the endings -ed and -ing to base words with the cvc pattern (nap). Don't forget to double that consonant after the short vowel sound (napping). This is a great story. The students will also be creating some Chinese symbols and characters for their memory books.

Spelling List:

pond luck drop lot rub does drum sock hunt crop shut won

These are words with a short vowel sound in the middle. The word does is an irregular word.

Math:

The students will continue adding multi-digit numbers using addition strategies. This week we will introduce subtraction. Keep working on those strategies. It will help you so much as we progress through the next section.

Science:

I love science. Room One has almost completed the section on space. We will focus on what makes tides in the ocean and why Earth has different seasons. Thanks for being such great readers as we read through some of the information.

Continue reading at home and don't forget to get those reading logs signed. Remember--you need to be at 100% of your goal by Friday, October 14th!! Read On Young Padawans!!!

Question of the Week:

What are the colors in the rainbow?? (In order please)

Reading/Writing Workshop

We hope you had a great weekend. We are excited about this week because it is our first
Reading/Writing Workshop. The entire class will be working on a personal narrative
story. This is something that really happened to you. All students will work on creating
and writing their piece this week and then we will send it home to be polished and published.
The entire writing will be due on Friday, October 1, 2010. All instructions will be included
in the writing folder. Thanks for all your help in getting these writings "publishing ready".
Each student will re-write their piece and include a drawing for our class book. Please
let us know if you are interested in ordering a class book.

Housekeeping:

IRI is over. We did really good--but there is plenty of room for improvement. We would like to see growth for all of our students this school year.

Monday, September 20, 2010: 1-hour early release.

Book orders should be here in about 2 weeks. A new order will come home this week.

Spelling list for this week:

have

haven't

found

around

one

than

then

them

before

because

other

mother

Challenge Words: family, cousin, everybody, guess

The spelling test will be given Friday 24, 2010. This is also are library day--so don't forget to bring your library books back.

All students should be at 60% of their reading goals this week. Keep reading every night and don't forget to bring back your reading logs every day!!

Math:

The students in third grade have been learning four different ways to add multi-digit numbers:

1) Proof drawings

2) Show All groups

3) New groups above

4) New groups below

This week we will continue to use these methods as we practice addition with money amounts and also continue to practice multi-digit addition.

Science:

We are moving from the study of the Moon to the study of the Sun and also how the earth rotates.

Science is a great subject and we try to integrate science experiments and activities when we have time to do so.

Question of the Week??

What is the largest U.S. state?

What is the smallest U.S. state?

Hello young padawans!! We are starting our first Reading Anthology Story this week. It is called "Cliff Hanger" by Jean Craighead George. We will be concentrating on Cause and Effect and identifying complete and incomplete sentences.

AR reading goals have been assigned. Your child can start testing immediately on books they have read.

CONGRATULATIONS KAIAH ANDERSON FOR READING THE MOST BOOKS THIS SUMMER!!

If anyone else tracked how many books they read this summer--please bring a record of them to Master Shore or Master Graham.

WAY TO GO KAIAH!!!

The spelling words concentrate on the short vowel sounds (e), (i), and (a). The words for this week are:

milk

mix

smell

last

head

friend

class

left

thick

send

thin

stick

Math: Look for the first Homework Assignment coming home this Monday. It is a review of some of the things we have been covering. We are working on our Math Boards learning new ways to identify place values through the thousands. Ask your child to show you a thousand bar, a hundred square, a ten stick, or a one circle.

Science: The students have been exploring the Moon, atmosphere and the Sun. This week we will

read and discuss the Moon's rotations. We will discuss attributes of the Sun and how space scientists are able to study the Sun.

Housekeeping:

Monday, Septemeber 13th: PLC Day--One hour early release.

Wednesday, September 15th at 9:30 AM--Strings presentation for the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.

Thursday, September 16th: IRI begins for the third grade. Please make sure your child gets a lot

of sleep and a good breakfast.

Friday, September 17th: Book Orders are due!!

ISAT testing starts this week!!

For the next three weeks, Ellis Elementary will be involved in ISAT testing. This week the third grade will be tested on Language. Next week, we will test on Reading, and the last week is Math. NO SNOOZING during ISAT. Use all of the knowledge you have gained this year in doing the best job you can do.

• Calendar:
• **Monday, April 12th: Early Release: PLC

*Wednesday, April 14th: End of the fifth 6-week grading period. AR goals completed this day.

*Thursday, April 15th: Shore/Graham ISAT Language Testing

** Tuesday, April 13th: Individual Pictures
Do your best!!



Language:
This week our story is Pepita talks Twice. It is about a little girl who can speak two languages but doesn't always like to use her skills.

We will continue to work on using both singular and plural possessives as well as antonyms (opposites). All of these skills will be tested on the ISAT.

Spelling List:
summer
winter
October
travel
little
color
apple
able
November
ever
later
purple
flower
people
thermometer
mumble

In two weeks we take the Math ISAT. We finished multiplication and multiplication strategies. This past week we covered fractions, probability, and cubes. This week we will do other geomtric 3-D shapes and then start measurement. Next week, we will have a 3-day Math Olympics to review skills important for the ISAT test. These will be review of what we have already covered.

Science:
Also this week, we will start life cycles and living things in our Science Unit. Science is an ISAT tested skill in third grade. It is still very important to learn these different concepts and ideas, because Science will be tested in fifth grade.

Questions of the Week:
What is the top number of a fraction called? What is the bottom part of a fraction called? How many faces does a cube have?

AR Goal deadline April 14, 2010

Housekeeping:


Wednesday, April 7, 2010: PE week


Thursday, April 8, 2010: Rodeo Queens come to visit


Wednesday, April 14, 2010: End of the Fifth six weeks


Wednesday, April 14, 2010: AR Reading Goal Deadline


Thursday, April 15, 2010: ISAT's start for our class








Our story this week is a true exploring adventure. It is a story about the first expedition to cross the continent of Antarctica. The students will be able to view actual pictures from the expedition and watch a narrated film. The story is called Trapped by the Ice!

The Spelling list focuses on the VCCV pattern. Words with this pattern are divided between the two consonants:

• Monday
• sudden
• until
• forget
• happen
• follow
• dollar
• window
• hello
• market
• pretty
• order
• after
• funny
• expect
• stubborn

Math:

We just took our multiplication test on 6, 7, and 8's. Wow!! The students did great!! We are so impressed you are understanding how to do it. Keep working on those facts. This week we will begin fractions and on Friday we will start Geometric shapes. Our Math ISAT is on Thursday, April 29th. We still need to cover measurement and review computation and rounding. We are going to do great. Keep up the wonderful work.

Social Studies:

The students will study about reasons foriegners come to the United States to live and start families. The students are also working on PowerPoint presentations of their experience in third grade this year.

**Question of the Week: When you find the median of a group of numbers, you need to put the numbers in order first. This was a question on our math test. Most students knew how to find the median--but forgot to put the numbers in order first. Let's try it for the question of the week.....here are the numbers. Remember put the numbers in order first!!!!!

2, 5, 6, 6, 1, 3, 4, 9, 2

Good Luck!!

!00% Parent Teacher Conferences!! Way to go Parents!!

Iditarod Standings as of Sunday, March 14, 2010
1st: Lance Mackay
2nd: Jeff King
3rd: Hugh Neff
4th: Hans Gatt
5th: Mitch Seavey
6th: John Baker
7th:Sebastian Schnuelle
8th: Ken Anderson
9th: Gerry Willomitzer
10th: Ramey Smyth

Lance Mackay is the leader and only about 250 miles out of Nome, Alaska. We should have a winner in about 2 more days.
Housekeeping:
March 17, 2010: Visiting Author from 10:15 to 11:00 in the cafeteria
Friday, March 19, 2010: Research Reports due
Monday-Friday this week: Water Cycle Presentations
Saturday, March 20, 2010: Beginning of Spring Break
Monday, March 29, 2010: Back from Spring Break

Our Genre study this week is a comparison story between two fairy tales. We will be learning about the elements in a fairy tale and also discussing similis and pronouns.
Spelling list focuses on the soft C sound:
face
city
pencil
place
center
dance
race
circle
nice
once
princess
circus
chase
size
silence
excitement

Math:
More practice on multiplication. We start 8's and 7's this week. We want to get them all learned before we take the ISAT's in April.

A good site for ISAT practice is prepdog.com
We talked about this site at each Parent Teacher Conference.

Women in History:
This week we will continue our study of Women in History. We have already learned about several.

Question of the Week:
Where does the Iditarod Race start and end?
About how many miles is it?

A Great Olympic AR Party!!

This week was our AR reading Party for the past 6-week grading period. We had a great time. The third grade classes rotated around to different rooms and participated in Winter Olympic games. We has the Skeleton, Hockey and snowball blowing. A wonderful time was had by all. The next deadline for AR goals in April 14, 2010. The students have all reviewed and help set their goals. We will have a Harry Potter Pizza Party with Magic Tricks. Hope to see you all there.

Housekeeping:

This week is another shortened week because of Parent Teacher Conferences. We hope to see you all there so we can chat with you about your child's progress.

• Wednesday, March 10th: Evening Conferences



• Thursday, March 11th: Daytime and Evening Conferences



• Friday, March 12th: No school

Language Arts:

This week we begin our Research Papers on an animal each student has selected. The report will be sent home at conference time. We will review the rubric with you and let you know of our expectations. We have already copied off some facts and gotten some books from the library. Please help your child with this report. It will be a big part of the writing grade.

Spelling:

There is no spelling list this week because it is a short week. We are reviewing high frequency words and will have a quick test over these words on Wednesday.

Math:

The students have just finished up a short unit on telling time using a digital and analogue clock. We will take a test on Monday. Our next unit will start multiplication facts for 6, 7, and 8. It will take us about a month to get through the next unit. Please continue to study the multiplication facts at home.

Science:

Water Cycles should be coming in sometime this week. We have discussed the water cycles in class and drew a picture of the water cycle. The students should create a 3-D exhibit of the water cycle and bring it to school to display. Be creative.

The Iditarod started on Saturday. The students will be tracking their mushers out on our Iditarod walls. It is a very exciting event. We should have a winner in about 10 days. It is a 1,000 mile race across Alaska.

Question of the week?

List 3 of the famous people we learned about last week when we read their Biographies:

Tomorrow we have a Field Trip

Hello Boys and Girls, we hope you had a fine and relaxing weekend. Last week marked the ending of our fourth 6-week grading period. Following is a schedule for the next week's activities:

• Monday, March 1, 2010: Beginning of Fifth 6-week activities
• Monday, March 1, 2010: Field Trip to the Water Department
• Thursday and Friday, March 4th and 5th: 2 hour early release.
• Wednesday, March 10, 2010: Wednesday Evening Parent Teacher Conferences
• Thursday, March 11, 2010: Thursday Day and Evening Parent Teacher Conferences

Language Arts:

This week is a Genre study. We will be focusing on Biographies. We will study and learn about many famous Americans. Some are athletes, some are pilots, and one is an artist.

Spelling words concentrate on final y changing into an i befofre addind -ed, -ing, or -est.

puppies

flies

stories

skies

driest

candies

pennies

cried

ponies

bunnies

happier

funniest

tried

babies

easier

busiest

Math:

This week in Math we will finish up multiplication of 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 9's, and 10's. We start a new unit and finish up multiplication starting this week.

Science:

On Monday we will be on a field trip. The students do not need to bring a lunch. We will be back right before lunch is served. The field trip is to the Water Department in the city of Pocatello. It is a great field trip and teaches the students about recycling and being smart with earth's natural resources. We continue studying the earth's resources throughout the week.

Question of the Week:

What are the processes in the Water Cycle?

Last Week of the Fourth Six-Week Grading Period

Good Morning Boys and Girls, just a couple of housekeeping notes before we get going:

• Thank you for all of the lovely Valentine treasures. Mrs. Shore and I loved them!
• Monday, February 22, 2010: Early Release: PLC
• Friday, February 26, 2010: No School--Record Day
• Wednesday and Thursday, March 10th and 11th 2010: Parent Teacher Conferences

Language Arts:

This week our two reading stories compare and contrast the differences in a desert. The first story is a fictional piece: Alejandro's Gift. The second story in non-fiction: The Living Desert. We will review all of the skills we have been working on for the past 6-weeks. These include syllabication, base words and prefixes and suffixes, irregular verbs, and forms of the word "be". Please continute to bring your Reading Log each day so we can check it.

The spelling list focuses on a word review from the past 6-week period:

pair unhurt grinning air smiled sadly care retell babies

bear unlike cared scare hopeful parties pear remake

chopped bare unhappy joking chair friendly carried helper

Challenge: farewell flair moving libraries silently

Math:

Keep practicing your multiplication facts: We have covered: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 The students need lots of practice. We have also covered these individual facts:

• all of the 0's
• all of the 1's
• all of the 2's
• 3x3=9, 3x4=12
• all of the 5's
• all of the 10's

We will continue working on multiplication for the next 6 weeks and then start reviewing for the ISAT exam.

Hooray! Science!

We finished our Arctic/Inuit Unit and have started learning about the earth and its resources. We have a field trip planned to the water department next Monday morning. We leave at 9:00 and will be back by 11:35 just in time for lunch. Please don't forget to bring back your permission slip.

Question of the Week: What is a renewable resource? Please list at least 4 of them.

Happy President's Day

We hope you had a restful and enjoyable weekend. Thank you for all of your wonderful Valentine's gifts and treasures.

Housekeeping:
Thursday, February 18, 2010: Tears of Joy Puppetry presentation: "Rumplestiltskin"
Tuesday, February 23, 2010: Title One Math Night. Come play some games with your child at the school at our Title One Math Night
Friday, February 27, 2010: No School: Record Day
Thursday, February 26, 2010: End of 6-week grading period

Language Arts:
This week we are working on the Lion's Club Essay. We will concentrate on correct use of paragraphs and indentation and very neat penmanship. The students have already written a piece using colorful adjectives and a "grab your attention" opening sentence. It is always good to incorporate these writing conventions into a writing piece, we are just adding one more.

Spelling words for this week concentrate on frequently misspelled words:

• girl
• they
• want
• was
• into
• who
• our
• new
• would
• could
• a lot
• buy

Challenge Words:

wouldn't

world

through

while

Math:

Continue working on Math Multiplication facts for:

2's 3's 4's 5's 9's and 10's

Inuit Test will be given on Wednesday afternoon. We will start a new Science Unit on Earth's Resources.

Question of the week:

What is the gun called that shoots and animal and has special medicine to put them asleep?

What should you do if you find a baby bird out of its nest?

HAPPY 100 DAY

Thank you to all the students who

participated in our 100's day activities.

Matthew was able to write his first and last initials the most time

in 100 seconds. Kelsey was able to form the most words out of "Hundred Day" in 100 seconds. We found partners in the morning with our number shirts to count up, multiply, divide, or subtract to 100. We had a great day, and our 100 item posters turned out so cute!!

Housekeeping:

Monday, February 8, 2010: 1 hour early release. PLC day

Monday, February 15, 2010: President's Day--no school.

Wear your scout shirt to school some day this week. It is the 100 years of scouting celebration.

Next week we will begin our animal research report. These will come home to be polished and perfected before they are graded.

Language:

Our story this week is "Two Days in May". It is about some hungry deer who travel down to the city to find some food to eat. The neighbors have to come together and decide what should be done with the deer. The spelling skill and language skill we are working on is prefixes and suffixes. A prefix comes before a base word. A suffix comes after a base word. Sometimes the spelling is changed when we add a suffix depending on what the suffix is. Following is a list of the spelling words:

• helper
• unfair
• friendly
• unhappy
• remake
• careful
• hopeful
• unlike
• retell
• sadly
• farmer
• unhurt

Review and Challenge Words:

have said unimportant silently

Math:

We love multiplication. Multiplication is repeated addition. These are the facts we have covered and are working on at this point: Multiplication of 5's, 2's, 9's 10's. This week we will start on the 3's and review the ones we have already started working on.

Social Studies:

This is the last week of the Arctic and Inuit Unit. The students have learned so many facts about our neighbors in the North. The Inuit people know how to respect land and animals as they need both to survive the sometimes very harsh conditions.

Question of the Week:

What does the word horizon mean?

What are the next three numbers in this number pattern? 15432154321543215___ ___ ___

HAVE A FABULOUS WEEK!! WE LOVE TEACHING YOU!!

Did you love the Pufflings?

If you loved Nights of the Pufflings, you will really enjoy Seal Surfer; but first a few housekeeping items:

Wednesday, February 3, 2010: 100th day of school Celebration. The students will be participating in some activities throughout the day. They will also be bringing home a 1/2 sheet of construction paper to glue 100 items on. These will be displayed per classroom.

Monday, February 8, 2010: Early Release PLC day

Monday February 15, 2010: No School President's Day

February is Scout Month! Wear your shirt to school for one day!!

Language Arts: The story for the week is Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. This is a wonderful story about a boy and the new friend he makes, a seal. The spelling words for the week focus on base words with -ed, -ing, and -es endings.

cared

babies

chopped

saving

carried

fixing

hurried

joking

grinning

smiled

wrapped

parties

Review and Challenge Words:

making

stopped

moving

libraries

Math:

The students have already enjoyed advancing into multiplication. We will work on multiplication facts the entire month of February and into March. Please practice at home. We just completed multiplication by 5's and by 2's. Practice, Practice, Practice. Congratulations Mason Birdsall for advancing to Multiplication Math Facts on the Fastt Math Program. You Rock!

Social Studies:

The students will complete their Inuit/Arctic Unit this week. We have been making a booklet full on interesting Arctic facts.

Question of the week:

Find the range and mode and median of these numbers:

1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10

Theme 4: Animal Habitats

We are starting our new Reading Theme: Animal Habitats. We will be reading about puffins, seals, dear, and animals in the desert. Each student will choose an animal that interests them for our Animal Research Paper. We will work on some of this in the classroom and some of it at home. This week our story is about an amazing little bird called the Puffin. They live mostly in the northern areas of the world. The puffins we are learning about live in the country of Iceland. Did you know not very much of Iceland is covered with ice? They have four seasons just like us. I think you will love the story.

Our spelling list focuses on the vowel + /r/ sound you hear in bare, bare, hare, hair, etc...



hair
care
chair
pair
bear
where
air
scare
pear
bare
fair
share
buy
could
flair
farewell

Keep Reading and bringing in your Reading Logs.

MATH:
We are finally there!! We finished our quick unit on repeated patterns; turns, flips, and slides; and building onto a pattern. Now we are ready for Multiplication or repeated addition!! The students have been waiting for it all year. It is a long unit. The students will be practicing and repeating multiplication through the 10's. This is required on our State Standards and will be tested on the spring ISAT.

Social Studies:
Study of the Inuit people their customs and ways of life.

Housekeeping:
Monday, January 25, 2010: Early Release PLC
Wednesday, February 3, 2010: 100th day of school!
Monday, February 15, 2010: President's Day

Question of the Week:
Please use a thesaurus and list 5 synonyms for the word "say"