Ms.Jackson

Week of January 16, 2011

Wow! It's hard to believe we are over half way through the school year. Your child is well on their way to becoming a big Fifth Grader. I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful holiday. As we move into second semester, I will be expecting each student to perform at a more independent level. It is important to reinforce this skill at home also. Each student should work toward a stronger focus on academics to be ready for fifth grade. Let's keep up the good work and give 100% in all we do each day.

 

CONGRATULATIONS to:

Justin for being our Terrific Kid in December – He works hard each and every day. He comes prepared for class ready to learn each day.

Our Terrific Kid for January is Nellie – Nellie has made excellent progress in fourth grade so far. She continues to be enthusiastic about learning and goes the extra mile to excel in subjects that require additional work for success. She is a great example for the students around her.

 

 

January 20: Bingo Night 6-8PM

January 24: Chick-fil-A Family Night/Sprayberry location

January 27: 100th Day Celebration, SPIRIT DAY/WEAR YOUR NICHOLSON COLORS, Chick-fil-A biscuits on sale for $3

Calendar Change!

Due to a county wide modification in the testing schedule for Gifted Services, the TARGET 'Open House' scheduled for Thursday January 19^th has been cancelled.  This meeting for parents of newly identified TARGET students will be reschedule for early February.  Thank you for your patience as begin the testing process of students in first, third and fifth grade.

 

Gym Floor Update~ We are almost half way to our goal for the new gym floor.  In the Spring, Nicholson will be having their Spring Fling Run to help raise additional funds for the gym floor. More information will be given at a later date.

• A brand new fence was installed over the Winter Break. Check it out! Thank you to Mrs. Katie Schulz-Ditchen for writing the grant to purchase this great addition to Nicholson. 
• School Improvement Survey~The 2012 School Improvement Survey window is open and staff, parents and community members can participate online via the following link:http://www.cobbk12.org/sisurvey. The survey will be accessible through any computer with Internet access through Friday, February 10th.

 

Academics:

Math: This week we are starting a new unit on fractions. We will be reviewing fractions this week and will be going onto equivalent fractions, mixed numbers and improper fractions. These are concepts that the students have not learned yet, so please continue to use the math journal as a reference. We will be working on these concepts for the next couple of weeks.

Don't forget to use the IXL website to review the standards we are learning during this unit. On the page to the left titled "IXL Website" you will find a link to the website. The username is your child's school number and then add @nicholson. The password is stars. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Spelling/Grammar: The students will be having their Sort 9 test on Thursday the 19th. After this sort we will be working on prefixes for the next two weeks.

Reading: During our reading groups this week we will be reviewing locating main idea and details while we read. I have divided the students into four groups and we will be reading historical fiction texts about the Revolutionary War. These books are longer novel studies, but they will help the students gain valuable background knowledge about this period in social studies.

Writing: Most students have completed their informational writing on Native Americans. This week we are beginning to learn the nuts and bolts of persuasive writing. We reviewed the standards for this nine weeks and they gave me interesting examples of their powers of persuasion in their everyday lives. I cannot wait to see how they use these skills in their final papers.

 

**We will be writing in our Parent Journals this Friday and they are due next Monday or Tuesday.

 

Science: We have almost completed our study of the colonies and we will begin force and motion toward the end of the week.

 

Week of December 19, 2011

The students have been working hard the past few weeks since Thanksgiving Break, and I am very grateful! Now we are counting down the days to Winter Break. Less than 1 week to go. We still have lots to learn in the next week, and I have high expectations for my students to stay focused and motivated until the Break. Please encourage your child to complete homework nightly and to keep reading. Please realize that this is the last week of the grading period and the grades earned this week do count toward their final grades. Thanks for your support on this.

 

For those of you that volunteer, please make sure you log your volunteer hours in the booklet on the desk in the lobby. The goal for our school is it to reach 2,500 volunteer hours for the whole year. We are well on our way, and we appreciate all you do to make Nicholson shine brighter!

 

Dec. 19^th – 21^st – Relay for Life Candy Cane Gram orders

Dec. 20^th – Spelling Bee for 4^th and 5^th graders, 8:15 a.m.

Dec. 22^nd – Pajama Day & Class Breakfast Party @ 9:15 a.m., Candy Cane Grams distributed, Sing-a-long 1:00 p.m., End of Grading Period,

Dec. 26 – Jan 6^th – Winter Break, School Closed

Jan. 9^th – Staff Workday – No School for Students

 

Academics:

Math: This past week we completed our study of Geometry. This week we will be taking the pretest for the math skills of the third nine weeks. Many students are now in the hundred and the hundred plus club. If your child still struggles with basic facts please practice over the winter break.

Please encourage your student to utilize the wonderful gift PTA has purchased for us, membership to the IXL website. This is a great way for your child to practice different standards I have taught them in class. On the page to the left titled "IXL Website" you will find a link to the website. The username is your child's school number and then add @nicholson. The password is stars. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. All students do benefit by using this website, because all skills for each standard are available for review.

Spelling/Grammar: We have completed all the spelling tests for this nine weeks. Please remember if your student struggles, it is imperative that he or she practices using Spelling City on the computer. This site has a feature to help your child learn to spell each word. When we come back after break, we will begin with Sort 9. I will give out the word cards on Tuesday, we will take a pretest on Thursday of that week. If your child does not do well, please use these test results to help them study for the posttest on the following Thursday. I use this same two week format for each sort.

Reading: This week we are still working with nonfiction texts. We have reviewed text features and will also be reviewing cause and effect in nonfiction texts. Please encourage your child to read nightly. I have seen so much growth in many of the students, and I have noticed that these are students that are continually exceeding their reading goals each month. The next reading goal will be the week after the break.

Writing: We have almost completed our writing unit on informational writing. We have been writing our nonfiction papers on the Native American tribe studied during social studies. The students who have finished this paper have chosen a new topic and are completing book jackets or posters along with a written product. We will finish the first school week of the new year. Our new topic for the next nine weeks will be persuasive writing.

**We will return to writing in our Parent Journals on the Friday after the break.

Social Studies: We have finished with the Early Explorers and are now learning a bit about the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies of the US.

 

Week of December 5, 2011

It's hard to believe we are almost half way through the school year. It will soon be Winter Break. We have a lot to accomplish before then, so please continue to hold high expectations for your child in staying focused and motivated in their school work.

 

Academics:

Math: We have finished up division and have started our study of geometry. Most students remember the basics of geometry that were taught last year. This week we began plotting coordinates and most students really enjoy this topic because it is like locating things on a map. As the week continues, we will learn to measure angles and identify triangles by their side length and angle size. With each concept we are reviewing or introducing in class, notes are taken in a math journal as a resource for the students to study at home to help them. The students are encouraged to take their math journals home each day to help them with their homework. If you see your child struggling with their homework, please ask them to use their math journal as a guide.

Spelling/Grammar: This week we'll be working on Sort 8. The sort will be practiced together in class this week, but the students are expected to practice spelling the word at home. The sort this week can be confusing so it is important that your child understand how to place the words in syllables and recognize the sound combinations to do well on the sort test. Please encourage your student to practice on spellingcity.com (click on the page titled "Spelling") to take the test. We use the same test when given here at school.

Reading: We have completed our introductory lesson on nonfiction texts. This week we began our new skill of cause and effect. The students are really enjoying their reading group instruction and I am pleased with their progress with this skill. I have been giving some assessments on nonfiction articles in Time for Kids. Please remind your student to read and locate the answers on these tests to achieve their best score. Please encourage your child to read nightly. I have seen so much growth in many of the students. The next reading goal will be the week before the winter break.

Writing: We are starting our writing unit on informational writing. We have been using our research information on Native Americans to complete these papers. Many students have struggled with writing the basic paragraphs to complete this assignment. One way to practice this skill at home is to ask your child to write a paragraph about what they read in their nightly reading. As with most skills, the more you practice the easier it becomes.

We will continue to write in our Parent Journals each Friday during the coming weeks before the break. I know that some of you struggle with completing your part of the assignment but research indicates that students that can write about a specific topic exhibit true understanding. I also know that they do love to learn about how what we are learning about related to your life. Please keep up the good work.

Social Studies: We have just completed our study of explorers and will transition into science at the end of the week. Our topic of study will be force and motion beginning with simple machines. After we complete simple machines, we will learn the basics of Newton's Laws and end with our roller coaster experiment, a student favorite!

 

 

Week of October 3, 2011

• Field Trip money and permission form are due by this week. We will be going on October 31^st and will need all money and permission forms turned in to determine if we will be able to continue with the field trip or not. If you have not turned in your form or money, please do so as soon as possible. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
• Parents~ Quick note before reading the curriculum expectations for this week...if you have not had the opportunity to join our PTA this school year, please take a minute to consider. The fee is minimal, but monumental to the impact of events that we can offer here at Nicholson. If you would like to join and need information or a form, please shoot me an email at susan.jackson@cobbk12.org and I will get you the necessary information! Thank you for your participation and for giving NES the opportunity to REACH for the STARS!

   

  CONGRATULATIONS!!

  Elise was our Terrific Kid for the Month of September. Her positive attitude and hard work makes her a wonderful example for everyone around her. Way to go!

  Also, we have our new Student Council Representative and Alternate. Patrick will be our Representative and Anna Julia will be our Alternate. I know these two will represent our class well here at Nicholson.

A Message from our School Counselor, Ms. Adia Fields:

The Thanksgiving and Cobb Christmas programs sponsored by the Center for Family Resources will host their annual registration on Tuesday, October 4^th and Wednesday, October 5^th from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. The registration will be held at the Cobb Civic Center located at 548 South Marietta Parkway, Marietta, GA 30060. For more information about the program, please call the Center for Family Resources at 770 428-2601 ext. 414 or contact our Professional School Counselor, Ms. Fields at adia.fields@cobbk12.org.

Academics:

Math: Please continue working on math facts with your child. We are finishing up 2 by 2 multiplication and will then be moving onto order of operations. The better your child knows their math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) the easier it will be for them in computation and understanding of these math concepts.

With each concept we are reviewing or introducing in class, notes are taken in a math journal as a resource for the students to study at home to help them. The students are encouraged to take their math journals home each day to help them with their homework. If you see your child struggling with their homework, please ask them to use their math journal as a guide.

Spelling/Grammar: This week we'll be working on Sort 4. The sort will be practiced together in class this week, but the students are expected to practice spelling the words at home. Homework assignment will be given using the spelling words incorporated in grammar. Please encourage your student to practice on spellingcity.com (click on the page titled "Spelling") to take the test. We use the same test when given here at school. We have been working with subject and predicate and we will begin different types of sentences next week.

Reading: We are working on main idea and details. The students are reading about weather and have been completing a graphic organizer to locate the main idea and supporting details in this text. We will be doing activities throughout the year to develop this skill. This month, I will meet with each student to help them choose an AR reading goal for October. We will be discussing what they could do to reach their goal for this month. Some of the students are quickly reading through their books just to get finished. We will be discussing in class how important it is to read use their reading strategies and pacing themselves to help them better comprehend what they read. Please encourage your child to read nightly.

Writing: We will start writing our own stories that go to the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The students will choose a picture from the book and begin writing a narrative to go along with that picture. They are using the writing process to complete their narrative.

**I'd like to thank all of you that have been so diligent in writing in your child's parent journal. Your child loves to read your responses. We will be writing to our parents this Friday.

Social Studies: We finished up map and global skills and are now moving on to Native Americans. This year the students will be learning about the Nez Perce, Kwakiutl, Hopi, Pawnee and Seminole Native Americans. Standards: SS4H1 The student will describe how early Native American cultures developed in North America. a. Locate where the American Indians settled with emphasis on Arctic (Inuit), Northwest (Kwakiutl), Plateau (Nez Perce), Southwest (Hopi), Plains (Pawnee), and Southeastern (Seminole). b. Describe how the American Indians used their environment to obtain food, clothing, and shelter.

 

Week of September 19, 2011

It's hard to believe that we are more than half way through the first nine weeks. Please click on the following link to read important information from our principal, Mrs. Shue, regarding upcoming Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS): http://nicholson.typepad.com/shue/

• The first payment of $7 was due Monday, Sept. 5^th for the field trip to the Youth Museum. The total cost of the trip is $14. We still have not received payment and permission forms from all the students in the class. The permission forms and payment are due by the beginning of October in order for your child to be able to attend. A total head count will be taken then to see if we have enough contributed to be able to go forward with the field trip.

I will be sending home individual student Progress Reports this Monday, September 19^th. Some students will have Academic Alerts stapled to the back of the progress reports. Academic Alerts are for those students that are struggling in certain subject areas. If your child receives an Academic Alert, please read over the strategies suggested to help your child, keep one copy for yourself, and sign and return the other copy. If you have any questions about the alerts or progress report you receive, please email me and we can set up a time to meet and talk about your questions.

Academics:

Math: We have taken a couple of weeks to work on rounding and are now moving on to multiplication. We started out last week multiplying one digit by two and three digit numbers. Many of the students understood the process, and this week we'll be moving on to 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication. If your child has not yet mastered their multiplication facts, please spend time each night to practice these facts. The better your child knows their math facts the easier it will be to understand the steps in calculating these multiplication problems. With each concept we are reviewing or introducing in class, notes are taken in a math journal as a resource for the students to study at home to help them. The students are encouraged to take their math journals home each day to help them with their homework. If you see your child struggling with their homework, please ask them to use their math journal as a guide.

Spelling/Grammar: This week we'll be working on Sort 3. The sort will be practiced together in class this week, but the students are expected to practice both the sorting and spelling the words at home. Homework assignment will be given using the spelling words incorporated in grammar. The students did well with Sort 2. Please encourage your student to practice on spellingcity.com (click on the page titled "Spelling") to take the test. We use the same test when given here at school. We have been working with subject and predicate, and we will then be moving on to the different types of sentences. Each sort takes two weeks to complete. I hand out the word cards on Monday, they take a practice test on the first Thursday and the final spelling test on the sort the following Thursday. In addition, we work on the sorting of the words in class and they have a test on sorting the words on the first Friday of the two week cycle. Please email if you still have questions about spelling.

Reading: Currently the students have been completing science fiction and fantasy books during reading groups. We have been writing about the story elements (setting, character, problem, events and solution) within this genre of books. Toward the end of the week, our groups will be previewing our next topic in science, weather. The students will be learning to take notes and answer literal questions on these nonfiction titles. It is very important that your child read at least 20 minutes each night. Although my students have been taking AR tests, most of them have very few AR points. The top point earner in my class only has 6 points, READ! READ! READ!

Writing: We have started looking at great narratives to help the students see what makes the narratives so terrific. The students will be using the writing process in order to create their own narrative with a little help from the famous writer Chris Van Allsburgh. Throughout this process, we will be reviewing the elements needed to help make the narrative the students will be writing more engaging and interesting to read. We have started our class narrative using a book titled The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Ask your child what makes this story so unique. We are using a picture from this book to write our class narrative and then the students will be writing their own. They are very excited.

**I'd like to thank all of you that have been so diligent in writing in your child's parent journal. Your child loves to read your responses. Each week they will always write about the current topic in mathematics, research shows that being able to write about math improves performance. In the second paragraph, the students choose between two different topics to inform you about classroom learning. I know it takes time to write a response, but the communication is invaluable.

Social Studies: We have started reviewing map skills, and many of the students remember the material taught on maps from previous years. Terrific! We will be finishing up map and global skills, and then we will be moving on to Native Americans. This year the students will be learning about the Nez Perce, Kwakiutl, Hopi, Pawnee and Seminole Native Americans.

Week of September 7, 2011

What a great start for this school year! It's hard to believe that 3 weeks have already passed. It was great meeting all of the parents and family members that attended Open House. If you were unable to, information was sent home about the expectations and procedures for our class. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.

We also had a terrific learning opportunity about safety at our field trip to the Fire Safety Village. We heard compliments continually throughout the day from the firefighters on how well behaved our Nicholson Stars were on the trip. We not only learned about fire safety, but we also learned about bicycle, pedestrian, electrical, and stranger safety. The students will be finishing up their fire safety booklets in class and for homework, so they are completely done when the firefighters return on Tuesday.

Look to the page on the left titled "Parent Curriculum Letters" to read about the curriculum your child will be learning this nine weeks.

• The first payment of $7 is due Tuesday, Sept. 6^th for the field trip to the Youth Museum. The total cost of the trip is $14. If you are unable to make the two payments of $7, please let me know so we can set up a payment plan that works best for you. The permission forms and payment are due by the beginning of October in order for your child to be able to attend.

Just a few reminders to help us get fully into the routine of fourth grade: Remember to look at your child's agenda each night and sign it. This is the first year these students are using agendas, and we are trying to get them into the routine of responsibly using their agendas to be more organized with their school work. The students have also started recording their reading each night in the book log at the back of the agenda. Please initial each entry to show me that you have seen your child reading that evening.

Academics:

Math: We have just finished up place value, value and how numbers are written in 3 forms: standard, expanded, and word form. We are now working on rounding numbers all the way to the thousands. This week we will be continuing with rounding and will then be moving on to 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication.

With each concept we are reviewing or introducing in class, notes are taken in a math journal as a resource for the students to study at home to help them. The students are encouraged to take their math journals home each day to help them with their homework. If you see your child struggling with their homework, please ask them to use their math journal as a guide.

Spelling/Grammar: This week we'll be working on Sort 2. The sort will be practiced together in class this week, but the students are expected to practice spelling the words at home. Each day a homework assignment will be given using the spelling words incorporated in grammar. The majority of students did well on the first spelling test 2 weeks ago. Please encourage your student to practice on spellingcity.com (click on the page titled "Spelling") to take the test. We use the same test when given here at school.

Reading: We will be meeting in reading groups this week focusing on story elements such as characters, setting, and plot. I have chosen narratives because we will also be writing narratives this nine weeks. We will also be making our reading goals for the month of September. Each student will be determining their own goal (AR points) they want to reach by the end of this month. I will be guiding them in order to ensure a reasonable goal. Any student reaching their goal by the end of the month will have a special lunch with me along with a treat. If your child is reading every night for at least 30 minutes, they should have no problems making their goal.

Writing: We have started looking at great narratives to help the students see what makes the narratives so terrific. The students will be using the writing process in order to create their own narrative with a little help from the famous writer Chris Van Allsburgh. Throughout this process, we will be reviewing the 6 traits of a good writer to help make the narrative the students will be writing more engaging and interesting to read.

**Also, look for the Parent Journal to come home this week. Students will write their letters in their journal to you sometime during the week, and I will give a couple of days to have a response from a relative. Each Friday we write in our parent journals. Please make sure you respond to your student's journal so they can turn it in by Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Science: We have started the water cycle and will be finishing it up this week. We will then be moving onto the unit on weather.

Health: We will be having the firefighters visiting us this Tuesday to go over fire safety again in our home. Please make sure your child has completed the workbook (especially pg 11).

Week of August 22, 2011

What a wonderful first week of school we had! The students came prepared and ready to learn. We look forward to another great week AND great year! We have a new school-wide theme for this 2011-2012 school year which is "Nicholson Stars make a difference each day…changing the world along the way." We have spent our first week of school learning how to "fill other's buckets" through simple kind acts to those around us every day. Each student at Nicholson has been read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud. They have learned that by making good choices and finding ways to do random acts of kindness each day will make others as well as themselves happier. In turn, our school will become a brighter, happier place to be. Please extend "bucket filling" experiences to your child everyday as well, and you will see them shine brighter and brighter as a Nicholson star.

• Permission forms for the field trip to the Safety Village are due this week. We will be going on the field trip on August 30, 2011.
• Sign and return any paperwork sent home in the Cobb folder (as the kids would say, "the one with the iPad on the front")
• Open house is this Thursday, August 25^th. Please plan on attending one of the sessions that best fits your schedule
  • Session 1 – 5:30-6:10 PM, PTA Meeting 6:15-6:55 PM, Session 2 7:00-7:45 PM

Just a few reminders to help us get fully into the routine of fourth grade: Remember to look at your child's agenda each night and sign it. This is the first year these students are using agendas, and we are trying to get them into the routine of responsibly using their agendas to be more organized with their school work. The students have also started recording their reading each night in the book log at the back of the agenda. Please initial each entry to show me that you have seen your child reading that evening.

Next Tuesday, August 30^th, we will be attending the Safety Village. Everyone needs to turn in their permission forms, so we'll all be able to take part in this educational and fun field trip. An important reminder: Girls must not wear skirts on this trip. We will be doing activities that involve climbing and crawling. We will also be eating lunch there as well. We will provide a cooler for those lunches that need to stay cool.

Academics: (The page titled "1^st Nine Weeks Standards" on the left side of this blog has a list of the standard that will be taught this nine weeks. These are the concepts and skills the students will be learning this first nine weeks.)

Math: The first week of school the returning students completed the challenge presented by the third grade teachers last year of mastering their addition, subtraction, and multiplication math facts in 7 minutes. If they met the challenge, this past Friday those students received donuts as a treat for their hard work. In Fourth grade the expectation is for the students to master their math facts in 5 minutes. On the page title "100 & 100+ Club," you will find the requirements for each club. The students have until the end of January to master these math facts. Please encourage your students to practice the math facts weekly if not daily. This will be beneficial to them as they learn new concepts in math that require more than the one step problems they are used to.

This week in math we will be organizing our math journal. This is not only a resource for your child, but also for you. We will be learning new concepts and will be entering what we are learning in class into the math journal. Please refer to this journal as a guide for you in helping your child at home with their homework. The concepts we will be starting with this week are place value, value, and writing numbers in standard, expanded, and word form.

Spelling/Grammar: Every other week we will be working with a new set of spelling words to learn. Each set will have a specific spelling pattern we'll be working on. At the beginning of the week, your child will receive a spelling/grammar packet with assignments that will mainly be done for homework. Every once in a while an assignment will be done at school. Spelling tests will be given the following week during our computer time. That time will be written in your child's agenda as a reminder. Those spelling words will also be embedded into the grammar we will be learning for that week. This will give your child the opportunity to be continually exposed to using those words in everyday writing.

Reading: This week we will be discussing how to choose a book that is just right. The students will be continually making reading goals in the classroom. It is important for your child to read every night at least 20 minutes. As your child reads more, the better at reading he/she will become. The better reader your child becomes, the more your child will enjoy reading. And it's been said "The more you read, the more you know. And the more you know, the smarter you grow."

Writing: This week we'll start off by reviewing what the six traits of writing are, and we'll be reviewing the writing process. Then we'll move onto descriptive writing. We'll be focusing on strategies to form great ideas for our writing. We'll also be learning how to "show, don't tell" in our writing.

**Also, look for the Parent Journal to come home this week. Students will write their letters in their journal to you sometime during the week, and I will give a couple of days to have a response from a relative. The due date for the parent journal to be returned will be written in your child's agenda. It may not be the same day each week.

Science: This week we'll be learning about the three states of matter and will start our unit on the water cycle.

Health: We will be having the firefighters visiting us this Tuesday to go over fire safety in our home. Your child will be given homework from the fire fighters that will help you as a family be more prepared if a fire should happen in your home. Please take the time to go over this material with your child. The following week we will be going on a field trip to the Cobb County Safety Village.

Summer Blog

 

Summer BLOG for Rising 5^th Grade Students

It is vital that your child read over the summer. Research confirms that independent reading improves student fluency and comprehension. Take your child to the book store or library to find reading material. Encourage them to read at least 20 minutes every day.

"Regardless of race, socioeconomic level, or previous achievement, researcher Jimmy S. Kim found, children who read more books fared better on reading-comprehension tests in the fall than their peers who had read one or no books over the summer." (Viadero, 2004)

Summer Reading

Go to the link on our Nicholson homepage and click on media center. You can search for books that are on your child's reading level and then head to the library to check out those books. You can even see if the books are AR books or not.

 To the left of this blog you will find many different websites you can use during the summer on topics we learned about in fourth grade.

 

Students must continue to practice math facts over the summer. The concepts that students learned this school year will be built upon in 5^th grade. Basic facts are vital to achievement on computation assessments. Please keep your child practicing math concepts and basic facts throughout the summer. Read the link below for ideas on how you can help your child learn his/her basic multiplication facts.

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Teach-the-Multiplication-Tables-to-Your-Child

Printable Worksheets/Activities for Math:

http://www.math-drills.com/

For students working in the Summer Bridge Books, make sure to check out the Summer Bridge Website for additional activities. There are also games and reading lists available to everyone (even without a special "code").

http://www.summerbridgeactivities.com/index.htm

Week of May 9, 2011

It is hard to believe that school is almost out!  As we move into the last couple of weeks we have many things to finish up before the last day of school.  I always tell parents that although you are thinking about summer, we have many final assessments to complete during this busy time.  On a personal note, my son's wedding was beautiful and it was nice to enjoy this special occasion with my family.

Alert:  Students are not allowed to charge their lunch the last two weeks of school.

Math:  This week we will review in preparation for the fourth nine weeks benchmark. The students have been working hard on multiplying and dividing decimals.  Our review topics this week will include expressions, weight, graphs and median, mode and range.

Reading:  We have been learning about the works of Gail Gibbons.  As the students take time to review her books, I continue to complete our end of the year reading assessment on each child.

Writing:  Almost everyone has completed their informational writing and we are moving on to persuasive.  Most students really enjoy this genre because they have already had plenty  of oral practice in this area. 

Science:  The constellation projects are due on Thursday.  Also I think everyone enjoyed the Star Lab! That is one of my favorite activities, and I enjoy it as much as they do.

Week of April 18, 2011

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break!  The testing has gone well, everyone has been working hard and we only have social studies to complete today.  It is hard to believe how quickly this year has flown.  Although time is short, we will be working hard until the end of school. 

Volunteer Hours:  We have met our goal of 500 volunteer hours and surpassed it by over 300 hours! I want to thank everyone who has volunteered to help us reach our goal and encourage you to keep up the good work.   I was at the Great Nicholson Cleanup on Saturday and I want to thank  Abbie and her mom, Dillon and Matthew's mom for all their help in the butterfly garden.

Math:  This week we will learn how to multiply decimals by whole numbers. We will be using manipulative and pictorial representations and finally the algorithm. This skill is familiar except they must remember the correct placement of the decimal in their answers.

Reader's Workshop:  We will have a duel focus this week in reading.  We will begin our author study by learning about one of my favorite authors, Gail Gibbons.  She combines a wonderful talent for art with a thirst for all things nonfiction! In addition, in reading groups, we will be studying about author's purpose as it relates to persuasion, informing and entertaining the reader.

Writer's Workshop:  Informational writing will continue this week as we complete our drafts and work toward final papers on Colonial America.  Our next topic will be persuasive writing.  As I tell the students, they have been using this technique since they were young children.  Now we just have to formalize this skill by writing a five paragraph essay. 

Spelling:  We will work on Sort 11 this week.

Science:We will be finishing stars and constellations.  Next week we will have the Starlab at Nicholson.  I an looking forward to taking the students on an in school field trip to the stars.