Marshmallow Snowman!!

On Friday, we made Marshmallow snowman to celebrate the upcoming winter break! Everyone did a great job!

January 3rd-6th

As 2011 draws to a close, I know that we are looking forward to all that 2012 will bring. I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday break and Happy New Year!

When we return from break, we will be beginning our mini-book and novel units in reading. Each week, we will focus on a specific reading skill (similar to what we have always been doing) but additionally apply them to the books we are reading.

On Thursday, January 5th, we will be having an assembly on Martin Luther King. We will spend the week learning about Martin Luther King's life and his impact on our lives today.

Finally, in math, we will review addition and subtraction word problems throughout the entire week.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday break and happy new year! See you next year! :)

December 12- December 16th

It seems like December just began and we are already entering into our last week before Winter Break! Time is just flying by!!

Next week, we will be using various holiday stories to practice our reading strategy of the week, 'Who and What?' In math, we are continuing to work on addition and subtration at varying levels and we will finish the week with a holiday math activity. In Social Studies, we will be learning about the continents of Antartica and Australia. Since we have spent more time on the continents than I had originally planned, the culminating continent project will be completed after break.

We will be going over to Lakeview to visit with our Pen Pals on Wednesday and will be completing a holiday craft with them!

We also are all looking forward to watching our holiday movies on Friday. Fourth grade will be watching Happy Feet and fifth graders will have the option to choose their favorite movie to watch (Home Alone, Despicable Me, Muppet Christmas, or The Santa Claus).

Have a wonderful week!!!

December 5th -December 9th

It was wonderful meeting and speaking with all of you at Parent Teacher Conferences this week! I am looking forward to another great trimester!

In reading next week, we will practice making predictions. We will be writing our own stories, as well as, reading several published stories to demonstrate our knowledge of this strategy.


In Social Studies, we have offically begun our continents unit! So far we have learned a "Continents Song" to help us memorize the names of the seven continents and learned about North America. Next week, we will be exploring South America and Africa with a short quiz at the end of the week.

Finally, our new Reader's Theater play for the week is "What a Skunk Needs to Do." This play combines humor, rhyme, and fact to create a very funny and enjoyable play to perform!
**Dates to Remember**
- Bowling fieldtrip : Friday, December 9th :)

Have a wonderful extended weekend!

Thanksgiving Week

On Friday we said goodbye to Mrs. Philbin and took some time to thank her for all that she has done to help us this year! She will be greatly missed within our classroom! On a happier note, we are looking forward to welcoming Mrs. Micek back on Monday!

For Monday and Tuesday of this week, our main focus will be on Cause and Effect. This concept will not only be practiced in reading, but Science, as well. We will wrap up our seed experiment on Tuesday and check our hypothesis that we made when we first planted our seeds. In math, we will working on some Thanksgiving math problems.

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Break!

**Reminders**

*5th Grade Fieldtrip to Robert Crown: Tuesday, November 22nd

*Thanksgiving Break: No school Wednesday, November 23-Friday, November 25th

November 14-18th

We are definitely going to have a busy week here next week!

This week in reading, we are going to be practicing comparing and contrasting. We will be reading the story "Waves for You", which compares wave pools to the ocean, along with several other mini-stories.

In math, we are continuing to work with addition, varying between repeated addition and double to triple digit addition. By the end of the week, some of us will be beginning subtraction with borrowing.

On Monday and Tuesday in Social Studies, we will be on the computer researching our landforms. For the remainder of the week, we will be using our class time to put together our models. I cannot wait to see the final products!!

In Science, we will be monitoring and recording any activity/growth with our radish seeds. Hopefully we will be seeing a bud before the end of the week!

In writing, we will continue to write in our Writer's Notebooks daily, as well as, write a response to the letters we receive from our buddies. We did all have a lot of fun today meeting our pen pals for the first time today! The students interviewed each other and even got a tour of Lakeview!

Enjoy your extra long weekend!

November 7-11th

I hope that everyone has recovered from all of the Halloween fun earlier this week. It is hard to believe that we are in November already!!!

In reading, our new skill of the week is sequencing! Along with our daily reading packet and materials, we will be working together to put "clues" in order to help us solve a few mysteries within our classroom.

We will continue to work on addition next week in math, but also integrate place value into our lessons to enhance our understanding of number sense.

In Social Studies, we will explore a few more states in detail and end the week learning about the two countries that neighbor the U.S.

Also, our spelling lists next week will only be six words due to the shortened week!

Have a great weekend!!

Dates to Remember:

Rollerskating Party- Monday, November 7th- After School

Friday, November 11th: Veteran's Day- NO SCHOOL