Math: We took timed tests today and wrapped up our talk about Discovery Assessment.

Science: We wrapped up lesson 4 and played some classification games.  We also discussed latitude and longitude.

Literacy Block: We worked on writing and talked about verbs.  We watched Schoolhouse Rock and read to self.  Handwriting Week 5 will be checked on Monday when I return.


Mark chart slips will go home on Monday.


Students with 0-1 marks for the month of September will have special games at Miller Park tomorrow!

Math: Discovery Assessment analysis. Timed tests from last week went home.  Tomorrow students will try to get their personal best on 100 multiplication and 100 addition tests.  Practice, practice, practice!

Science: Lesson 4 TRL and review due tomorrow (LOTS of class time was given to work on this).

Literacy Block: Handwriting, Week 5, Wednesday is due tomorrow.  Today we practiced Read to Someone skills.  We also Read to Self.

Completed Planners need to be signed tonight.  They should not have blanks.

Math: We continued to discuss Discovery Assessment.  We played Terrific Triangles (see link under the math tab... it's free software!).

Science: We wrapped up Lesson 3 (classification of plants) and began Lesson 4 (classification of animals).

Literacy block: Handwriting, Week 5, Tuesday is for homework tonight. We continued discussing Discovery Assessment, completed Noun Town, and completed Read to Self/Someone.

Picture proofs went home today!

Math: We started discussing Discovery Assessment results today.  Please continue practicing facts.

Science: We wrapped up Lesson 3 today.

Literacy Block: We discussed Discovery Assessment results.  We also started paving the roads of Noun Town.  Handwriting, Monday, Week 5 is tonight's homework.

Mark charts went home tonight.  Please sign and return.

Tutoring

This just in:
The McLean County Urban League offers free tutoring every Tuesday and Thursday, from 4:00-6:00 PM at Mt. Pisgah Church. It is located at 801 W. Market Street. The service is provided by ISU and IWU students and is open to everyone on a drop in basis-no appointments needed. They are available to tutor students in all subject areas.

Art Class Website

Did you know that Mrs. Pitcher has a website?  Check it out!  There are pictures of the Pinwheels for Peace project the students did.

Math: Times tests today.  Please keep working on automaticity of facts.

Science: Lesson 3: Classification of plants.

Literacy block: Discovery Assessment; Work on Writing; Read to Self; specific nouns; please work on Week 4's Handwriting which will be checked on Monday.

No mark charts this weekend.  They will go home on Monday.  Have a good weekend!!  Mrs. Plato will have a guest teacher tomorrow.

Math: We took our first Discovery Assessment tests today.  Students have two math worksheets to finish tonight that involved basic facts and puzzles.  I also provided two practice timed test sheets of 100 facts for addition and 100 facts for multiplication.  We have our timed tests tomorrow since I will be out on Friday.

Science: We finished lesson 2 on classification of animals.  Lesson 3 discusses classification of plants.

Literacy Block: We discussed how to choose a partner for Read to Someone and how to choose a spot in the room to make it work. We modeled good ways to do this and bad ways to do this.  We had time for building Read to Self stamina.  We also started a chart of specific nouns.  Handwriting, Week 4, Wednesday is due tomorrow.

Completed planners should be signed for tomorrow.

Math: Students learned how to use the calculators for our room.  They then previewed the questions for tomorrow's Discovery Assessment.  Keep practicing facts!

Science: Students finished up lesson 2 on classifications of living things.  In their green booklets, they need to finish the review for chapter 2 (most students completed it in class).

Literacy Block: We discussed the "I Heard You Say" method for Read to Someone.  We built stamina for Read to Self and Work on Writing.  Handwriting, Tuesday, Week 4 should be completed for homework.

Math: Reviewed Distributive Property; Practice 1-4, choose 3 from the first section, 5 from the second section, and 3 from the third section for homework tonight.

Science: We started Lesson 2 (classification) and watched a Brain Pop today. Weldon Springs permission slips due tomorrow.

Literacy block: We discussed how to take a multiple choice test in reading.  We practiced our skills with our Discovery Assessment test.  We then chose between Read to Self and Work on Writing. Complete Handwriting for Monday, Week 4 tonight.

Miller Park!

For today's Friday Fun, we went over to Miller Park.  Some photos will be posted soon under the Pictures tab. Most of the class was completely caught up on their work and had behavior that was strong enough to be able to go!  That took some work!

Math: Timed tests today.  We also checked homework and did a quick check on lesson 1-4.

Science: We finished up our word webs for lesson 1 and did some pre-reading activities for lesson 2.  We also discussed our first field trip: Weldon Springs.  Students have a sheet that needs to be signed and returned by Tuesday.

Literacy: We worked on Read to Self, and we finished our places for Noun Town and Verb Village.

Get mark charts signed this weekend.

The end of another week

Can't believe this week is almost over!

Math: I gave students last week's timed tests and a couple of copies of blank tests to practice tonight.  They also need to finish up p. 15, #2-3.  They should have brought home notes from class to help them with these.  We are wrapping up  our exploration of the distributive property.  Timed tests in multiplication and addition will take place tomorrow.

Science: We completed word webs with Lesson 1 vocabulary.  We also took our media center book check out during science today since we missed it on Tuesday.

Literacy block: We learned a new skill: Check for understanding.  While we read, we should every now and then stop and be able to recall who was in the story and what was happening to them.  We practiced that with read to someone partners.  Handwriting for Thursday, week 3, is due tomorrow.

Parent conference forms are due tomorrow.

Reading is Awesome!

This group is a fantastic bunch of readers!  What fun it is to watch them grow!

Math: We began working with arrays to "see" the distributive property.  Students should continue practicing their facts every night.

Science: We wrapped up lesson 1 with the review and we worked on word webs for the vocabulary.

Literacy block: Handwriting for Wednesday, Week 3 is due tomorrow.  We discussed and practice how the Read to Someone rotation would work.  Here's a video of the kiddos in action:

They were building stamina for when I am teaching and conferring with other students.  They sit EEKK (elbow to elbow, knee to knee) and take turns reading aloud.  The target was that others should not be able to hear them, but they should be able to hear their partner.  They practiced for 3 minutes today, and definitely hit the target.

We also read 31 minutes (great stamina!) and started to review nouns.

Planners must be signed tonight!

A real community

What a great class!  I really am feeling them forming a real community this week--looking out for each other and helping when needed.

Math: We learned about some important properties in math: zero property (the product of any number and 0 is 0), commutative property (3 x 6 = 6 x 3), and identity property (the product of any number and 1 is that number).  Tonight, students are asked to complete a Core Content Review sheet.  Students should continue practicing their facts every night.

Science: We read about cells and their "place" in living things.  We got to explore a virtual model of a cell online. On the science and math pages, I have added a link to the math and science books.  To log in, students should type BL in front of their username (it's a 5-digit number after the BL).  Their password is the same as their network password.

Literacy Block: This is quickly becoming my favorite part of the day.  Students built their stamina to 30 solid minutes of reading today!  Impressive!!  Today we learned about EEKK and how to use this strategy when reading to someone during Daily 5 CAFE.  We also took time to share what we wrote, if students wished to do so.  Handwriting for Tuesday is due tomorrow.

What season is it?

We're back to 90 degree weather again, I guess!  Lots of sneezing going on in our room...including me!

Math: We jumped in to Lesson 1-2 today.  It is REALLY important for students to be practicing their multiplication facts throughout this topic.  p. 11, #31, 32, 33, 34, and 36 were assigned for homework tonight.

Science: We observed an onion in "real life" as well as at the cellular level.  We drew  and wrote our observations.  We also started reading Chapter 1.

Literacy Block: Handwriting, week 3, Monday is for homework.  Students should take special care with this--it's months of the year, and they can be tricky to spell.  We completed 27 minutes of Read to Self time today.  We also completed 8 minutes of Work on Writing, which seemed like not a lot of time as far as the students were concerned.

We had school pictures taken today. Everyone looked great!

Dreary Friday

A cold and rainy Friday!  We had fun in the gym after lunch, though, with an out of the blue for students who had their work done.

Math: Timed tests today.

Literacy Block: Made tribute flags; watched informative, kid-friendly video about 9/11; Handwriting for Friday, Week 2 needs to be completed this weekend

We took Langauge and Social Science SAT-10 tests today to wrap up our testing.

Mark chart slips went home today for parent signatures.

A Wet Carnival

Mother Nature shut down our carnival a bit early last night, but the book fair was still going strong until 7.It was great to see so many students there.

A few quick reminders about today:

• Fact Family Triangle Practice Sheets are due today.
• Handwriting for Thursday, week 2 is due today.
• Any late work the students have is due so they can enjoy Friday Funtime.

Looks like a rainy one.  If students wish to bring something for inside play this afternoon, they are welcome to do so.

Gorgeous Wednesday

Hopefully, you have time to enjoy this fantastic weather.

Math: practice Fact Family Triangles; students should work on speed of recall; we took math tests for SAT 10 in math today.

Science: in class, we completed a compare/contrast activity about bamboo and moss

Literacy Block: We learned about the John J. Harvey fireboat and its role in helping on 9/11/01.  We learned several skills that will help with comprehension (cross checking, flip the sound, back it up and re-read).  Handwriting for Wednesday, week 2, should be completed tonight.

Completed planners need to be signed tonight.

Carnival and Book Fair tomorrow from 5-7!

Hello, Autumn!

Even though we still have two weeks before it's official, I'll still say, "Happy Fall!"  What great weather!

We started the Stanford Achievement Test, Version 10 (SAT 10) today.  The students participated in the portion of the assessment that deals with reading: Word Skills, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.  Tomorrow, they will take the math portions of the test.

Math: We had a group intervention for subtraction with regrouping.  We seemed to struggle with that a great deal on daily reviews, so I did some reteaching.  Some students still need to finish practice work with that this evening.  Students have a packet of math papers and an explanation of those papers coming home this evening.  They also received a new Fact Family Triangle review sheet.  They should spend 10 minutes a night, at minimum, studying their Fact Family Triangles.

Literacy Block: We were so excited to be able to take out books from the library today!  Plus, we have increased our stamina to 22 minutes of solid reading.  Outstanding!  We also practiced work on writing for 7 minutes.  For Handwriting, students need to finish Monday AND Tuesday.  Also, some students will begin Title intervention services tomorrow with Mrs. Welke.

Our school carnival and book fair are this Thursday from 5-7.  Hope to see you there!  I'll be at the book fair.

Scholastic + Kellogg's + Wal-Mart = Free Books!

For every two Kellogg's products with special codes on them, purchased at Wal-Mart, you can get a free book coupon from Scholastic for a book valued up to $5!  Great deal!  Follow this link for more information.

It's a hot one

I know the students have been very disappointed that the past few days have been so hot that they have had indoor recess.  Having taught for part of my career when air conditioned buildings were not the "norm," I have to say that I am eternally grateful for the air conditioning that we enjoy.  I hope they can get outside next week, though, as all kids need to run around and be active!

Math: We complete timed tests for multiplication and addition this morning.  The students were given 5 minutes to complete 100 equations.  What a great job they did with addition!  We will be working on subtraction with regrouping on Tuesday, as the class as a whole (except for a few) seems to be struggling with this skill, according to the assessments we have done.  Any practice you can do at home with this would be fantastic.  Here's a website that can be of help: http://www.mathplayground.com/howto_regroupI.html  Video and games provided!

Science: We went over the Vocabulary Preview for Chapter 1.  I was completely impressed with student abilities to predict word meanings based on context clues!  We also practiced making word webs for vocabulary and we reviewed what a Venn diagram can be used to do.

Literacy Block: We practiced Work on Writing for when we begin rotations.  The students have done a great job building their stamina.  They are up to reading for 20 straight minutes--on task, with urgency, reading the whole time.  I am tremendously proud of them.  We started writing for 3 minutes, and they were truly disappointed when the timer sounded.  We were able to practice for an additional 5 minutes, which pleased them very much.  Students should complete Friday's Handwriting assignment for week 1 for Tuesday.

Mark chart summaries were sent home for parent signatures.  Students should have them in school on Tuesday.

Thanks to those of you who ordered from our Scholastic book order this time around.  We also have Book Fair coming up!

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Parent Night

Hello!  Parent Night is at 6:30 PM tonight!  Hope to see you there.

Math: Fact Family practice sheet due tomorrow.  Practice 1-1 due tomorrow.  We are getting ready to jump into multiplication facts, so speed of knowing the facts will be pretty important.

Science: We began Chapter 1 today by previewing the vocabulary.

Literacy Block: We discussed "good fit" books.  Ask your student how to decide if a book is a "good fit."  Handwriting for Thursday, week 1 is due tomorrow.

Book orders are due tomorrow, if you are interested in ordering.
Monday is Labor Day.  No school!