October 20, 2010

AR TESTS

Students are excited about taking AR tests. Some are not sure if there is a test for the book they want. They can check it out at home by keying in the name of the book at this web site: http://www.arbookfind.com/default.aspx. They will have to take the test at school. The AR information that was sent in your child’s Wednesday Watch folder was printed about 2 weeks ago. Many of the students now have taken more tests than indicated on the paper.

 Parent-Teacher Conferences

 Please look for your orange slip in the Wednesday Watch folder. If your time does not work, please call me so we can reschedule. I have no times available on Thursday. However, another day (Monday or Tuesday) can be arranged before or after school. I am usually at school until close to 6 PM.

Reading

 We will be staring book clubs/literature circles again this week. That means your child will most likely have a “job” to do for the reading each day. Please watch for this in their assignment notebooks.

Science

We are beginning a unit on atoms and elements.

Social Studies

Students will be pretesting Chapter Two this week. Fifth graders are working on their tag board animal continents independently while I work with fourth graders. Fifth graders have a list of criteria for their continents. This is a performance outcome for the first chapter (on maps).

Field trips

Fourth graders have a trip to Alberta Bair scheduled November 3^rd @ 9:30. Field trip permission forms will be coming home soon. Please call, email, or blog if you can help with this field trip.

Spelling lists  Fourth graders REALLY did well on last week’s pretest! The challenge is out to the 5^th graders!!

4^th grade spelling words Unit 8  October 25^th-29^th Vowel Sounds oo

BASIC: bloom, tool, shampoo, stool, proof, prove, group, foolish, booth, raccoon, groom, roof, soup, cookbook, put, wool, brook, bush, crooked, hook

CHALLENGE: bulletin, cocoon, cushion, proofread, marooned

REAL-WORLD VOCABULARY: Cooking

 ingredients, vinegar, recipe, healthful, colander, grater, shred, appetizer

4^th grade spelling words Unit 9  November 2^nd – 5^th   Vowel sounds /ou/, /o/

BASIC: aloud, south, proud, tower, howl, allow, drown, amount, cloudier, bald, hawk, faucet, claw, stalk, false, dawn, pause, fault, cause, couple

CHALLENGE: applaud, foul, browse, gnaw, doubt

REAL-WORLD VOCABULARY: Reciting a Poem

Poetry, oral, mood, pronounce, emphasis, rhythm, monotone, expressive

5^th grade spelling words Unit 8  October 25^th-29^th More vowel + “r”

BASIC: earth, twirl, burnt, further, worthwhile, nerve, squirm, alert, murmur, sturdy, reverse, worship, research, peer, smear, appear, pier, weary, career, volunteer

CHALLENGE: yearn, engineer, interpret, dreary, external

REAL-WORLD VOCABULARY: The Human Body

esophagus, muscle, abdomen, intestines, skeleton, organs, cartilage, ligaments

5^th grade spelling words Unit 9             November 2^nd – 5^th   Homophones

BASIC: steel, steal, pore, pour, who’s, whose, aloud, allowed, lesson, lessen, manor, manner, pedal, peddle, berry, bury, hanger, hangar, overdo, overdue

CHALLENGE: canvass, canvas, sight, site, cite

REAL-WORLD VOCABULARY: The Law

Courtroom, ordinance, attorney, innocent, citation, illegal, jury, guilty