Spelling words Next Week

I forgot to add the schedule for spelling in my blog for next week. We are spending two weeks learning and practicing the contractions spelling words that students have had this week. If students received an 8/10 or better on their spelling test today, they will not have any spelling homework throughout the next week and will not be required to take a spelling test next Friday. If students earned less than 8 words correct on their spelling test this week, they will have the same spelling words to study again next week. ALL students will continue practicing contractions in school this coming week. Please email me with any questions!

April 30th - May4th

**TUESDAY and FRIDAY this week, we will be taking the final MAPS assessments for the year. Reading will take place on Tuesday and Math will be on Friday. If you have any questions or are interested in obtaining your student's score before they are sent home, please call or email me at any time. Here is the schedule for this upcoming week. *Math: On Tuesday, students will be having a quiz on identifying the amount of money that needs to be paid when only bills are available for use. The remainder of the week, we will be using store advertisements to find total cost of items. *Reading: Our target skill of the week is making predictions. We will review this skills Monday and Tuesday and then begin a new class novel, "Cam Jansen: Mystery of the Television Dog", on Wednesday and use this skill. *Readers Theater: The readers' theater play of the week is "Animals of the Grassland". This story follows six grassland animals and how they live and adapt to their environment. *Science/S.S.: We are continuing with our animal unit and will focus on both mammals and birds this week. Have a great weekend!!

Earth Day Pen Pal Visit

Our pen pals from Lakeview came over to visit us this morning. In celebration of Earth Day, we made our own recycled paper!! It was a lot of fun!!

April 23-27

Here is a look at our upcoming week!

*Reading: Our skill of the week is cause and effect. Throughout the week we will be using picture and sentence matching activities, as well as two stories, to find the cause and effect in various situations.
*Math: Again this week, we are continuing to practice finding change, using our calculator, when making purchases (Monday and Tuesday). The remainder of the week, we will practice determining how much money will need to pay for an item if we only have bills (no change).
*Social Studies/Science: From now until the end of the school year, we will be working on a combined Social Studies and Science unit on animals/habitat. We will begin by reviewing the continents and biomes until we begin facts about specific animal groups in two weeks. To wrap up this unit, we will be taking a fieltrip to Brookfield Zoo on May 24th.
*There will be no Readers' Theater play this week.

**Things to Remember**
-Wednesday, April 25th is an early dismissal
-During this entire week, students can bring in used books to donate to Book Worm Angels (see flyer that came home Friday)

April 16th-20th

Here is a sneak peek at next week's agenda! :)

*Math: We will continue to practice counting $1-$20 bills, in addition, to finding the correct amount of change.
*Reading: We are going to read several "Earth Day" stories, including "The Lorax" and write summaries and response journals for how we, and others, can impact/influence the environment.
*Readers Theater: Our play for this week is titled "Pop, Poppity, Pop!" This is about group of friends who have a taste for popcorn. Students will be learning about the five sense in conjunction with this play and practice descriptive writing addressing these senses.
*Science: In celebration of Earth Day which is on April 22nd, we are going to continuing learning about weather, recycling, and what makes our planet healthy. We will be making recycled paper with our pen pals on Wednesday, too!
*Spelling: All of our words this week will be related to Earth Day.

Have a wonderful week!!!!

April 9th-April 13th

Throughout this entire week, I am "on call" for jury duty. Since I am not sure when, if at all, I will be in this week, please contact either Diane Micek (dmicek@ccsd66.org) or Judy Lattimer (jlattimer@ccsd66.org) with any immediate questions or concerns. I will be checking my email in the evening if you need anything else.

Here is the curriculum outline for the week:

*Reading: This week, we will be reading a News-2-You story about the United States Post Office and the upcoming changes that will be soon taking place. Students will complete daily comprehension, language, and writing activities that relate to this topic.
*Math: We are continuing to practice counting $1, $5, and $10 bills this week. We also will be completing various money and graphing activities related to our Post Office reading.
*Science: This week, students will be completing an in class collage of one season. Students will choose their season on Tuesday and have both Tuesday and Wednesday to find pictures and descriptive words using computers and magazines. Thursday and Friday, the students will have work time to cut out and put their final collages together. The project will be collected before they leave on Friday. A rubric/description of the project will be sent home on Tuesday.
*Readers Theater: Due to a few scheduling conflict this week, students will not have a readers theater play to read this week. Instead, we will be reading an in class story and complete activities that strengthen reading comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency (which mirrors the goals of readers theater).

Here is the link to view Bill Bellis's weather report on news broadcast Wednesday evening! The picture he took during his visit with us Wednesday was included during his report!

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/weather/Copy_of_chicago-weather-report-forecast-020120404?CMP=201204_emailshare


**Reminders**
Open House is this Thursday from 6:30-8:00pm. Hope to see everyone there!


Have a wonderful Easter weekend!