Newsletter 4-1-12

I can't believe it's already April! We had such a busy week last week and we are ready for another! Even though it is a short week, we have a lot of units to wrap up before spring break.

The Week Ahead:

Religion:

Circle of Grace permission slips will be sent home on Monday. Remember, this lesson is over safety in the media. We will be doing these short personal safety lessons this week.

Vocabulary:

Unit 14 vocabulary test is on Thursday.

Math:

We will be completing the last two lessons in chapter nine (9.9 and 9.10) on Monday and Tuesday. We will review with a study guide on Wednesday and the math test 9 will be on Thursday.

Reading:

The kids got the information for the April/May book report last week. The kids will be completing an author study. This book report will take two months to complete. They will pick an author that they have read and are interested in. They will need to have read one book by this author before-hand and will read two additional books by the same author. The kids will be working on different assignments with the author throughout the two months. Some projects will be completed at home and some will be completed at school. Check out your kid’s rubric (orange paper in binder) for more information and due dates.

We will continue to read from our class novel, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and complete comprehension activities in their reading logs. The kids are really loving this book!

Social Studies:

We will continue to work on chapter eight this week over the American Revolution.  The kids really want to reenact the Boston Tea Party—so stay tuned for a video of their amazing performance.

Science:

We will finish up our unit over simple machines. The kids will be working on building their last simple machine, the pulley. Then we will go on a simple machine scavenger hunt. We will review on Tuesday. There will be a short and simple test over the simple machines on Wednesday.

Table Talk Questions:

1. Give your child some real-world questions dealing with area, perimeter, and volume.
2. Play a family game of sparkle with your child’s chapter 14 vocabulary words! Your child can explain the rules---it is a favorite game in my classroom!




3. Ask your child about their April/May book report. What author are they interested in doing? What three books have they chosen (remember- 1 book can be a book that they have already read and 2 books must be new.) Help them plan out and set deadlines so that they can finish all the books on time and write their three summaries at home. Maybe you can print them out a calendar to help them stay organized!