***Website Updated Monday, February 17th

• We have a busy week with tests. Let me know if you have any questions. 
• ReadnQuiz is due February 21st for Quarter 3.  Let me know if you have questions or concerns. 
• Please remember to keep in mind our peanut allergy when sending your kiddos to school with a snack.  

We will not have a reading story or test this week. We will be focusing on practicing how to write a good short answer using inferencing and text-based evidence. 
Students will still have a spelling test Friday, but they will not need to practice any vocabulary words since we are not reading a story. 

Students have been reading a chapter book of their choice in class the past few weeks.  They were and are allowed to take these home to read as needed.  They were instructed to have the book read by this coming Thursday the 20th.  We will be using these books to work on a book report projects in class on Thursday and Friday.  This is not something they will need to do at home unless they don't get finished in class.  

***You should be seeing vocabulary ladders coming home in Friday folders. We have been doing these weekly to help learn our vocabulary words. We start on Monday with two words, add two words on Tuesday, add two more words on Wednesday, and finish on Thursday with the final two words. Before the students complete each day's synonyms and sentences, we talk about each word's definition and the part of speech. Please know that these are not graded for the grade book. I don't expect these sentences to be perfect since we are using this as a tool to learn the words and how to use them in a sentence. I have seen an overall increase in the students' grades on their final reading tests after starting to use these daily.  
 
Here is our weekly language arts schedule.  It does differ if we are reading a chapter book or have a short week, etc.  

• Monday:
  • Introduce spelling words-Each week the words focus on a specific word strategy/concept.  We learn this on Mondays.  
  • Introduce vocabulary words-We go over what the words are and start learning them with a game and start to use them in sentences 
  • Introduce English concept for the week
• Tuesday: 
  • We learn our comprehension strategy and the genre we are focusing on for the week.  We talk about this and practice both.  Students always have a workbook assignment on Tuesdays to practice the conepts we are learning about.  
  • Practice English concept
• Wednesday: 
  • We read our weekly story together and revist the week's genre and comrephension strategy
  • Students have questions to answer after reading the story 
  • Practice English concept
• Thursday: 
  • Review spelling and vocab words
  • Students are given the chance to read this week's story alone or in a pair
  • Practice English concept
• Friday: 
  • Students are quizzed on spelling, reading comprehension/vocabulary, and English concept

We have finished chapter 8. Students will be ready for their test on Thursday.  It will cover greatest common factor, simplest form, least common multiple, word problems, the relationship between fractions and decimals, and comparing fractions. We will work on a review tomorrow in class.  I will go over the review and complete the problems with the kids on Wednesday as well as assign a practice test. 

Here is what a typical math day will look like: 

• 5 minutes of Minute Math or multiplication facts practice to constantly review what we are learning 
• 10-20 minutes of teaching time/notes
• 10-20 minutes of practice time alone, in small groups, or together as a whole class
• Around 15 minutes of independent work time on daily assessment

We will be ready for our Unit 5 Test on Thursday. Students will get their study guide on Tuesday. I will answer questions over the study guide on Wednesday.  We will also play a review game if time allows. 

We have finished chapter 11.  Students will be ready for their test on Friday.  They will get their study guides on Wednesday. 

We are going to be working in our unit on Earth and Space Science.   This week we are specifically focusing on the planets and organizing them
into the rocky planets and the gas giants.