Monday

Good Afternoon! I hope you all had a great weekend!
We are off to a good start to the week. The kids came in very well-behaved this morning and we earned 3 compliments today!

*FYI:
Picture Day is Sept. 7
Book Log for my HOMEROOM kids is due Wednesday (the kids will receive a new one Wed. with their new Lexile scores!!)
MAP Reading test is Tuesday during Computer Class
Math: Today in math we went over our test from last week. The kids did ok, but missed a few questions that I remember going over and over in class with them!! I know they were frustrated.  When going over the test tonight with your child, make sure to have them explain to you how they could have answered a question correctly.  We also completed a review sheet similar to the last page of the test as a review. Students will get extra credit added onto their grade if the new sheet is correct.  Next, we began our new unit on Estimating.  Today we worked on Front-End Estimation.  Kids used white-boards and the SmartBoard to practice and learn with.
HW: kids need to ask YOU to sign their test and bring back tomorrow; pg. 16 in 4A workbook (there is an example at the top of the page if they forget how to do the problems)
Reading: Today in reading we started with our new cycle of how we'll run our reading class.  (See the Check it Out side for more info)  We began by partner reading a mystery short story and looking for good clues to find the problem and solution.  We then participated in an activity to find the problem and solution with events leading up to the solution.  Next, students worked on reading the next chapter in their lit. book, and students had about 20 minutes to continue working on their Author Study.  Today we also were able to give half the students their fluency and comprehension assessment (which will be shown to you once conferences begin in Mid-October).
HW: Finish reading the following chapters from Lit. Books: Waffle-ch.6, Watson's-ch.8, BFG-ch.8. Also students were given vocabulary sheets from this week's vocab. from our whole group story.  Depending on which page a student has, it should say Vocab. at the top and page 1 at the bottom.

Science: Today we did a Candy Quiz - where I review everything we've learned so far in science and a child can earn a piece of candy by participating and getting an answer correct! I was impressed by everything the kids remembered! Everyone answered one question ~ ask your child what his/her question and answer was! We also began learning about Inherited and Learned traits.  Students participated in a question/tally/graph activity with this.
No HW

Writing: We began our Memoirs today.  I read 2 books that were able to help us get an idea of what we were writing and we made a list of important memories and places with the special person we chose to write about.
Have a great night,