Week of November 28th

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving break. I will definitely be counting each one of these kiddos as a blessing this year! Remember to read over the break. Also, your child can work on math facts and skills by logging onto Xtra Math, ST Math, or Front Row!

The kiddos were genuinely excited about their NEW dictionaries that the Rotary Club donated to them! It was pretty cute to see how happy they were!

When we return on Monday, November 28th, we will be on Unit 2, Week 5 in our Wonders Series. Our essential question is: How do people figure things out? This week's genre is poetry (specifically limerick and free verse poems). We will read the following poems: "The Inventor Thinks Up Helicopters," "Montgolfier Brothers' Hot Air Balloon," and "Empanada Day."  The skills we will work on this week are: citing text evidence, author's point of view, similes, possessive nouns, and alliteration and rhymes. This weeks vocabulary words are:

In math this week, we will dive into Chapter 6: Understanding Division. Just like we did with multiplication, we will explore some different strategies to help unravel any division problem thrown our way. This week we will learn about making equal groups, using bar models, using repeated subtraction, and modeling division with arrays. Since division is simply the inverse of multiplication, students will be WAY more successful if they are working on fluently knowing their multiplication facts. Please work with your child a few minutes a night at home. It really does make a big difference!

In science, we will finish our glider trials. In December we will get to go up to the Rocky Mountain College Aviation Center, which is a lot of fun. Look for the permission slip coming home soon!

Code Word = Division

Week of November 21st

This might be the shortest week of the whole school year, as we will only spending one and half days together. I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving with their families. This is always a difficult holiday for me, as my mom passed away on Thanksgiving Day years ago. So, even though I have SO much to be thankful for, there is always a great deal of sadness I experience on this holiday, too.

Anyways, I want you to know that your child is one of the many blessings I will be counting this Thanksgiving. Truly, thank you for raising such wonderful human beings and sharing them with me. What a great honor and privilege! They bring my life so much joy!

Here are some pictures from our glider trials. I've never been able to do them outside before, but since this November has been exceptionally warm, we took advantage of the warmth and went outside! 

On Wednesday we celebrated Grant's birthday with scrumptious homemade cupcakes. Grant is a role-model classmate. He is quiet, super smart, humble, helpful, funny, polite, and has the best smile/dimples. He is a keeper and we are SO lucky to have him in our class!

Nathaniel finds some interesting reading positions ;)

He also brought in his dad's old Army hat to show us (since we had just been learning a little about the different branches of the military for Veteran's Day). Thanks for sharing, Nathaniel!

Thanks to all the dads that came for Donuts for Dads. It actually wasn't even too crazy of a day! ;) I grew up without a father present in my life, so it always make me incredibly happy to see these kiddos with such awesome male role models. They will never know who truly blessed they are!

Friday was also our Cat/Griz spirit day. We are surely a class divided. I stressed to the kids, though, that even when we are on different sides, we still love and respect each other. Right!? :) Wish some people would remember that in regards to our recent election!

This week we will do a fun Thanksgiving-themed writing, math, and reading activities. Please encourage your child to spend sometime reading over the break (remember, this can be done together!). Also, your child can practice math skills on Xtra Math, Front Row, or ST Math!  

Also, remember your child's reading log is due on Monday. LOTS of kiddos have been forgetting them at home :( 

Code Word = Go Griz!

Week of November 14th

A very happy birthday to Will! He brought in yummy airplane-themed sugar cookies! They were delicious and creative. I forgot to snap a picture :(  Anyways, we are so lucky to have Will in our class. He is quiet, hardworking, kind, helpful, and polite! 

I got to pull my first tooth of the year! Thanks, Dylan ;)

Kayoe's newborn sister is adorable!

It was so fun to watch the 4th and 5th graders'  Vetran's Day program on Thursday! 

This week in reading we will focus on the essential question: How can people help animals survive? We will continue reading Expository Texts this week. We will read the stories: "Whooping Cranes in Danger," "Help the Manatees!," and "Kids to the Rescue!" We will work on rereading texts, author's point of view, combining sentences, and figurative language. Our spelling words will have three letter blends (ex. scrubs).

 Our vocabulary words this week are:

In math we will dive even deeper into multiplication. Overall, students did a nice job on their Chapter 4 math assessment, proving they have TONS of strategies to solve any multiplication problem thrown their way. In chapter 5, we will describe multiplication patterns (using input/output tables), finding unknown factors (algebra/unknown variables), using the distributive property to problem solve, and multiplying with multiples of 10. This is a pretty short chapter, so we will begin division before you know it!

In social studies, we will go back to learning about Montana Native American tribes and reservations. We took a brief break to learn about Ellis Island/Immigrants and the election process, but now we are back on track!

In science, we have now built our gliders and done one of our trials. This week, we will work with adding weight to see how that affects how far our gliders can fly. 

I am so thankful for how well the students behaved for their Guest Teacher on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was VERY impressed at their fabulous behavior. I feel so very blessed to call these twenty-seven children my students! 

Code Word = Thankful

Week of November 7th

Me and my adorable little duck :)

Evan's mom, Kalin, was kind enough to take some pictures of Bennett last weekend. She is my favorite photographer and I will cherish the pictures forever! Her kindness made me think of one of my all-time favorite quotes: "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust

Thanks again, Kalin! 

Easton was kind enough to bring us all chocolate mummies of Halloween. So cute!

TJ brought us delicious cupcakes, too! Thanks so much, Angie! :)

Here are some pictures from our Bone Bridge STEM Challenge that we did on Halloween. 

This week in reading we will a answering the essential question: How do people make the government work? Quite fitting for election week, huh? We will be reading the stories: "Vote!", "Every Vote Counts", and "A Plan for People." We will work on the skills of rereading a text, the author's point of view, prefixes, irregular plural nouns, and possessives. The genre this week is expository texts (texts that gives us information, such as textbooks, primary and secondary sources, newspaper and magazine articles, essays and speeches). 

Are vocabulary words for the week are: 

In math, we will finish up Chapter 4, which is helping us dive deeper into multiplication. We have been making flash cards for each multiple,  so please feel free to "quiz" your child at home. If they get stuck on a problem, they should have numerous strategies to help them solve any problem: arrays, equal groups, skip counting, hoping on a number line, using repeated addition, and the Distributive Property (breaking it apart into easier problems). We should be ready to take our Chapter 4 assessment by the end of the week!

In social studies, we will continue on with our virtual field trip of Ellis Island. Ask your child what they have learned about immigrants so far!

In science, we will be building our gliders and then begin our three glider trials. We will be playing around with adding weight to our gliders, seeing if that affects how far it can fly. We will also observe how different shapes of wings and horizontal stabilizers affects how well they fly.

I will be gone on Tuesday (the 8th) and Wednesday (the 9th). Students will have Mrs. Lovelace as their Guest Teacher. I know they will be on their best behaviors and we will continue on with the learning as normal.

Also, we FINALLY earned the class compliments we were working towards since the beginning of the year. So, we will be celebrating on Friday with a pizza party! Jenna's parents (who own Carbone's) have generously agreed to donate the pizza. All you will need to do is send your child with a drink! Thanks so much, Troy and Nancy!

Thank you to everyone for taking time to come to your child's conference. These 27 kiddos are so lucky to have such involved, supportive, helpful, and loving parents. They hit the jackpot indeed!

Code Word: Pizza Party!