Spelling Bee Results

Congratulations to all of our class Spelling Bee participants!  It takes a lot of courage and spelling skills to participate.  Another big congratulations to our classroom Spelling Bee winner, Kenyatta!  It was a close bee with Lyra as the runner-up.  We made it all the way to the 7th grade list! 

A Sneak Peek into Next Week...

I can't believe it is already winter break time!  This year has been flying by so quickly.

NWEA:  Students will take the winter NWEA this Tuesday and Wednesday.  If your child will not be at school, they can make it up when they return.

Spelling Bee:  The class spelling bee will take place Monday 12/17.  The spelling bee is optional, but I encourage all students to participate.  The winner of the class spelling bee will go on to participate in the school-wide spelling bee in January.

Reading:  We will review our character lessons this week, and we'll continue to practice determining the theme and supporting it with text evidence.   In the writing block, students will learn researching skills.  They've begun a short writing unit about a personal passion.  We will find resources this week and begin taking notes and planning for a final product.   Additionally, students will work on a social studies writing activity.

Math:  Students will continue working on a holiday decimal project this week.  They will develop skills adding and subtracting decimals.  They will also learn to "shop" on a budget!

Social Studies:  Students will explore the Great Migration and learn about it's impact on Chicago.  They will also discuss the World's Fair and Daniel Burnham.   Throughout the week, students will also have time to work on their ABC book.  By the end of the week, students should have 18-20 ABC book pages completed.

A Sneak Peek into Next Week

Reading:  Students will continue to study static and dynamic characters as they read stories from Every Living Thing.  Lessons will focus on determining events that cause a character to change and supporting the theme with evidence from the text.  During the writing block, students will begin to investigate topics they are passionate about learning.  This will eventually lead to a writing project.  Encourage students to notice topics and ideas that interest them outside of school as they will be adding to an on-going list.  Friday, students will participate in a fun activity involving #bettertogether.

Social Studies:  Learning about the Great Chicago Fire will kick the week off in social studies.  Following those lessons that center on causes and effects, students will learn how immigrants contributed to the development of Chicago.  They will also have time to work on their ABC book project.  Students will also learn to identify setting details in a text.

Math: In the math block, I'll instruct lessons around decimal notation and computation.  Towards the end of the week, we'll begin a fun winter project that will extend into next week as well. We need holiday catalogs for this project- please send them to school with your child!

Read Aloud:  We finally finished The Birchbark House.  Next week, we'll begin our next read aloud, The Important Thing About Jellyfish.

Ms. C's last day with our class is next Friday, December 14th.  If you see her in the hallway, please wish her well in her future career as a teacher.  We were lucky to have her in our class this year.

Important Reminders

12/14 Progress Reports go home
12/20 30 BT + project check-in

Fort Dearborn

 

Each team built a replica of Fort Dearborn in Social Studies this week.  Students will post a photo of their design and a brief explanation on their student blog this afternoon.  Please check them out if you get a chance this weekend!  

Catalogs

We really need catalogs for a project we will begin late next week.  Please send them in if you have them laying around your house.

A Sneak Peek Into the Week...

Literacy: This week students will study characters and how they change.  Students will search for clues to learn about a character's personality (characterization).  The clues reveal themselves in the characters feelings, actions, sayings (dialogue), thoughts, and what others say about the character.  I remind students to use the acronym FASTO to help them remember where to look for clues.  In writing, students will publish their final opinion writing piece.

Math:  Students will be instructed on strategies for comparing fractions.  They will also begin exploring decimals.  Students will practice comparing decimals to the tenths place.

Social Studies:  Last Friday, we introduced students to a longer project we will work on mostly in school.  Students were given their ABC book project.  Each day they will have a short period of time to work on their ABC books.  Additionally, we'll continue to use Just Add Water to study how Chicago became the city it is today as well as different text structures in non-fiction writing.

This Friday, the primary grades will participate in big morning meeting assembly.  Please ask your child about it on Friday after school!

Finally, next week will be Ms. Cecchin's last week with us!  She will be doing observations and slowly phasing out her teaching responsibilities.  If you see her in the hallway, please remember to wish her the best of luck in her future career.  We love having her and we will be sad to see her go.

This Week in Our Classroom....

Math: We will begin unit 3 in math this week.  Students will review equivalent fractions. Students will understand how to identify equivalent fractions and how to distribute equal sharing. I will review different strategies students can use in order to solve for equal sharing. Students will be encouraged to use drawings as well in order to help problem solve.

Literacy: In reading, we are going to start our character study unit. We will be using the book, Every Living Thing, by Cynthia Rylant during this unit. Students will practice summarizing a fiction plot structure. They will read several short stories and identify the plot elements within each story, then they will use the elements to write a summary. Students will also learn to study a character’s thoughts, words, and actions.  The students will receive a character study packet that they will be using throughout the unit. In writing, we are continuing our opinion writing unit. We will be learning how to research articles to use as evidence in support of our opinion. The students will be choosing their own topic to research and form an opinion on. Once they’ve researched articles and found one to use, they will write another opinion essay.

Social Studies: We’re continuing to learn how Chicago came to be the city it is today. We will be investigating why Chicago was a great place to build a community, what attracted people to Chicago, and who Chicago can thank for its beginning. We will continue to use the book Just Add Water as we go through our investigations. The students will be introduced to a choice board where they will choose one of our first three investigations and do a mini project on it.

Wednesday, November 28th Skinner North will have a Better Together Festival from 1:10-3:05.

Please send in any old catalogs you may have lying around the house!  We need them for a project.