October 13th, 2010

Book Orders


I will send in book orders on Wednesday, October 20th. Online orders will be submitted on the same day

Congratulations, Hannah B!


Hannah was the intermediate winner for the Walk-Bike to School Week at Poly Drive. Our class had 23% participation for a total of 50.22 miles. Of that total, Hannah biked 25.2 miles! Thank you for your dedication, Hannah!


 Parent-Teacher Conferences

In the Wednesday Watch folders is an orange notice about Parent-Teacher Conferences. We know that many of you have children in other schools, so we are getting our notices out earlier than usual. If you would choose a day & time that you think will work best for you and return them, we will have the confirmations back to you next week. If you need a different day before or after school, that can be arranged as well.

Reading

 All literature circles have finished their books. We are taking a break this week and diving in to reading more expository information in our Social Studies books and Time For Kids news magazine.

Science

Students began writing scripts for short video clips about dry ice. Script writing is another format of writing that, while not a tested item, is unique in form and style. All students will get a copy of their video when they are finished.

Computer update

All of the desktop PCs have their new hard drives. We hope to get more memory installed soon as well. LOTS of cords will be the biggest challenge right now. We are drilling holes in the tables to run them through. Hopefully,  we'll be using them soon.  :-) 

Social Studies

Thank you for the wonderful artifacts! The students really enjoyed sharing them, the stories that went along with them, and wearing their social scientist hat. One 5th grader commented to me as she was leaving, "I wish we could have done that activity, too."

Fifth graders are creating their own animal continents on large tag board and demonstrating understanding of geographical terms, features, and location (longitude and latitude).  Fourth graders are beginning a short unit on map skills before our study of US state regions.

Field trips

A huge THANK YOU to Linden Haunt for going to the NILE with the 4th graders this week. The students shared several things they learned with the 5th graders when they came back ("Did you know there is more than one kind of corn?")

The 4th graders will have another trip to Alberta Bair in November. I will post more about that next week. A parent volunteer to accompany them would be appreciated. They will go with the other two fourth grade classes.

Quotes from my substitute

Please read what my substitute said about spending a day in my class on Thursday. These were her opening words on her note to me:

“This class is by far the most polite, thoughtful, and respectful class I’ve taught! However, as you said, they are the chattiest group of students I’ve seen in a long time, too. ….They truly are a great group of students.”

And at the end of her note (at the end of the day!):

“These are the greatest students! They really like to talk! If I called them on it they readily stopped visiting and did pay attention. As to the marbles in the jar, they definitely deserve some (many) for their work, kindness, and helpfulness. As to their chattiness~~they could do better. However, it was a joy to be with them. They are awesome students!”

This is a tribute to you as parents. You do have wonderful children, with kind hearts and compassion for their peers, as well as adults.

I love my job!

Terri

Spelling lists—Test will be on Wednesday, October 20th

4^th grade spelling words Unit 7 Oct 18-20^th  Short u sound, yoo, oo sounds

BASIC: bunch, crumb, trunk, trust, stuck, brush, young, fruit, argue, crew, tune, juice, refuse, truth, clue, amuse, suit, rude, dew, rescue

CHALLENGE: computer, mustard, tissue, customer, attitude

REAL-WORLD VOCABULARY:  Computers

desktop, icons, scroll, select, keyboard, delete, software, highlighted  

5^th grade spelling words Unit 7  Oct 18-20^th Vowel + “r” sound

BASIC:  glory, adore, aboard, bore, warn, torch, soar, absorb, perform, former, aware, dairy, vary, barely, beware, stairway, carton, pardon, barge, armor

CHALLENGE: discard, forfeit, orchestra, gracious, hoard

REAL-WORLD VOCABULARY: A play performance

tragedy, costumes, rehearsal, dialogue, director, climax, ovation, intermission