Wow ! The weeks are just flying by! Things are busy here at school, but I wanted to give you all a quick update! First of all, I hope you all heard great things about the Madison trip. I'm attaching a few pictures from the capital. It was long day, but I think it was a great learning experience for the kids! If you see any of the board members, please thank them for supporting the trip. Also, special shout out to Jenn V. and Betty V. for chaperoning. Secondly, MAPS testing is all wrapped up. Results should be coming home at the end of the year! Finally, I've attached a few pictures of the raffle baskets and the project that we worked on for the auction. Hopefully you can attend and take home one of the awesome raffle prizes! It's finally right around the corner! After much anticipation, the Madison field trip is in only 2 weeks! Hopefully you have all seen the permission slip form, which gives a rough outline of the day. I 'll send out more details as we get closer, but until then, let's just hope for good weather! Class notes: SS We have wrapped up the Midwest region, and have moved on to the Southwest, home of beef cattle, deserts, and oil production. We should be having the unit test some time next week. With only 4 states, memorizing abbreviations and capitals should be a bit easier. RLA, We are finalizing our research paper, so look for that to be coming home next week. The kids have a wide variety of topics, and I'm excited to see them all presented! In grammar we are reviewing verbs. I impressed them all with being able to recite the helping verbs that were drilled into me by Sister Deborah at St. Jude. I won't make them memorize all 23 of them, but do try to ask them if they can remember the "big 8"(has, had, have, am, is, are, was, were) In reading, we are starting a new novel called "Inside Out and Back Again", a story based on the real life events of a young girl that immigrated after the Vietnam War. Watch for a lot of interesting conversation about that! Have a great week! Hooray! It finally feels like spring out there! I don't know why, but these winters seem to get longer the older I get. But now my tulips and daffodils are popping up, and that certainly puts a smile on my face. We're in the home stretch of school, and these last two months are going to be a flurry of activity, so be sure to stay up to date via the website. Reminders: Penny Wars end tomorrow. We've been getting "bombed" all this week, but I hear the kids are saving up to fill our bucket tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Thanks to all for donating, as well as dropping off socks for the sock drive. SS We have started what will hopefully be the easiest region, the Midwest. As you can see by the tests that are coming home today, many kids are still struggling with locating the states and the capitals. Although I do give them time in class to use the websites and study, it would be even more helpful if they could practice at home. The links are on the prior postings from March. RLA. We have started working on our research paper. At this age, we transition from just looking up facts about a topic to using "Inquiry Questions", or questions that guide our research. For example, instead of researching just facts about something, we focus our research on "What skills and training are required to be a smokejumper?" , or "What are the effects of greenhouse gases?" So far, we are just researching and taking notes. We will be starting the writing process next week. Be sure to ask your lovely what they are learning! That's it for this week...enjoy the weekend! As we listened to Father Mike yesterday at mass, he spoke about our lives being like round-a-bouts. He reminded us that as we go through life, we make decisions, and if they are wrong we can be forgiven. We will go around again and be able to then make a different decision. Lent is a season where we try to refocus our effort of growing closer to God. As for me, I'm going to focus on more prayer, more service to others, and less Twitter :). In the classroom, your child received a paper egg with 40 positive efforts they can do for Lent. Ask them about it, and perhaps you can help them find opportunities to grow closer to God during this important season. Classroom Notes: SS: We wrapped up our first region of the Northeast, and now we are on to the Southeast. Your kiddo has a map with the states and capitals labeled, as well as note cards with key vocabulary. Those are both easy study tools. They can also use the websites listed below. It has been so exciting to watch them virtually explore different parts of the US! www.mrnussbaum.com/united-states/south/ https://online.seterra.com/en/vgp/3212 RLA: We are continuing our work on non fiction. It may seem like no homework is coming home, but we are busy working on our interactive reading notebook. I'm going to ask that it come home tomorrow so you can see what we have been up to. Please sign it and return it Monday. In Grammar we are working on plurals and possessives. Religion: We learned a little bit about the history of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, and its significance in New Orleans, which also connected to our SS unit of the Southeast. On Tuesday, we watched a video about the symbolism of the "King Cake", and then made our own. I hope no one broke a tooth when biting into the baby! Oh my! Snow days...cold days....sick days....field trip days...where have I been? Rest assured, we've been busy here in 4/5! While Catholic School's Week was short, we had some fun while it lasted, and I hope you heard great things about our trip to NWTC. (see pics below). Just think...in a few short years you'll be starting to think about college planning! I know you've all heard it before, but these years go by in a blink, so treasure every moment. On that note, here's what's happening! Class notes: RLA: We are working on determining main idea and supporting details when reading non fiction articles. While most kids love to read fiction, expects say that 70% of their reading should actually be NONFICTION, as that is what they need to read as adults to function in the workplace. Therefore, most of the rest of the year will be spent reading as much non fiction as we can get our hands on. It will also double as a way to learn about a topic for our research project, which we will be starting soon. Stay tuned! SS: We wrapped up WI History at semester, and are now focusing on geography and regions of the US. As a part of these units, we will be going "old school" and memorizing the states and capitals. We are starting with the NE region and the kids have been making maps and taking notes about the geography, economy, and people of that area. To prepare for the test, they can be studying their notecards, maps, chart on the back, and using the websites listed below. The test will likely be next Wednesday or Thursday. Enjoy these sites! www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm online.seterra.com/en/vgp/3003 This week has just seemed to fly by! The field trip was awesome, but just like any kid anywhere, the most fun was had just building stuff with the empty boxes! Thank you so much to Mrs. Carew for driving! Reminders:
RLA: In Grammar, we are working on our noun unit. In reading, we are working on inferring. When you read with your child, inferring is an important skill you can easily practice with them. Ask them some of these questions: Why do you think …..? Why did …..? How do you know that …..? What might happen if …..? Why do they …..? How do you know? Do you think …..? Why do you think that? Why does the author use the word …..? What is the author implying? What message is the author trying to give? Can you guess the meaning of …..? What probably caused …..? Have a great week! Hooray! It's field trip time! Thank you so much to Sabrina's mom, who has volunteered her time to drive us to the Paper Discovery Center in Appleton. As we continue our study of manufacturing and the paper industry, I think this will be a great opportunity for our children to see the rich history here in Northeast WI. Reminders: Tuesday: field trip Friday: end of quarter Friday: early dismissal at 11:30 Class notes: Social Studies: As we approach halfway through the year, we are wrapping up WI and moving on to Geography. The summative assessment on Chapter 4 will be next Thursday, 1/17 RLA: We completed Unit 1 on Sentences, and have started Unit 2 studying "Nouns". In reading, we have been reading non fiction these past two weeks and using text features to pull out important ideas. Happy New Year to all! I am one of those people that always looks forward to the year year. I'm ready to put all the business of the holidays behind me, clean the house, and just enjoy the quiet. Resolutions aren't really my thing, but my goal this year is to find more balance in life: time for my kids, my husband, my jobs, and my hobbies. Everyone needs a goal, right?
Reminders: Short week this week, nothing new to report! Whew! We're almost in the home stretch! The kids are super excited about the program tonight, and I personally think our little part is the best!(I may be a little biased :) I brought this little tradition to St. Joe's from a different school that I taught at, and it's always been near and dear to my heart. We have practiced A LOT, so hopefully you enjoy. Reminders:
Class notes: SS: We have been working this past week with a website learning all about the 12 most influential WI citizens. The kids created online timelines, and then yesterday made their own set of online trading cards. I have attached the links below so you can see how they turned out! I do want them to learn a bit about these amazing WI people, and we will be having an assessment next week Tuesday. Study those trading cards! http://ideamapper.wisconsinbiographies.org/#/charts/Sabrina.C/20181213-145611/timeline ideamapper.wisconsinbiographies.org/#/charts/CarterK/20181211-183838/timeline ideamapper.wisconsinbiographies.org/#/charts/LINA/20181211-184001/timeline ideamapper.wisconsinbiographies.org/#/charts/Hayden/20181211-191306/timeline ideamapper.wisconsinbiographies.org/#/charts/Dakarai-Strain/20181211-190925/timeline RLA: We' re enjoying the last section of " The One and Only Ivan", and also studying the 4 types of sentences : simple, compound, complex, and compound complex. Keep practicing grammar on Mr. Naussbaum's site. There is never enough review! As we begin the season of advent, we begin to sharpen out faith with the preparation for Jesus' birth. The 1st Sunday of Advent symbolizes Hope with the “Prophet’s Candle” reminding us that Jesus is coming. In the classroom, we created an advent wreath outside our door, and we are more aware of how we treat others, in the classroom and beyond, while we wait in hope for Jesus' birth. Classroom notes: SS: Last week's test is in this week's Thursday folder. We are now researching important citizens of WI, creating story maps after learning about them, followed by our own trading cards. Hopefully this will give students a new perspective on the many influential people that have made WI what it is today. RLA: New reading logs went home this week. Keep on reading! We are still reading"The One and Only Ivan", while challenging ourselves with new vocabulary. We are working to sharpen our grammar skills(specifically punctuation and capitalization), as this was one of our weaker areas as a class. If your child enjoys working on a computer or tablet, one great website with lots of grammar games is www.mrnussbaum.com/ . We have played a few in class, and kids seem to enjoy them, so feel free to load them up at home to reinforce what we are working on in school. Enjoy the week and stay warm! www.mrnussbaum.com/ |