Mrs. Freeth's Schoolnotes UPDATE

Friday, February 5, 2010

I will be updating schoolnotes again on Sunday, but I just wanted to give you all a "heads-up" before this snowy weekend.

A couple of things...

* The Rome Test is scheduled for TUESDAY.  Even if we don't have school on Monday (which of course we don't know yet) we will still have it on Tuesday or the next day we return to school.  So... your child should be bringing home the REVIEW Sheet (study this carefully, because it truly tells most everything that is on the assessment), Social Studies Folder (with worksheets, maps, etc...), and History/Geography book for reference.

*  A Valentine's Class List is being sent home today - our small celebration will be Thursday after lunch. (I will be taking a personal day on Feb. 12th and will not be in school.)

*  A MATH pack on Geometric Solids is being sent home today and should be worked on this weekend.  Completed solids should be brought in on Monday.

* Your child will be bringing home his/her Biography book this weekend to read and record questions/responses in their response booklet.

* Your child should be able to tell you what set of MULTIPLICATION facts they are on... Continue to study!  Use some of the websites listed below in Schoolnotes OR continue to use flashcards.

Thanks and enjoy your snowy weekend!

Sincerely,  Mrs. Freeth

Sunday, January 31, 2010

I hope you all had a great weekend!  The next 2 weeks promise to be busy as we finish up the Roman Empire, work on more concepts with the EYE/VISION and Light/Color, and wrap up some Geometry Concepts. 

Thank you again for returning ALL *'d papers from your child's Monday folder!

UPCOMING Dates

Thurs., Feb. 11th - Valentine's Party

Monday, Feb. 15th - NO SCHOOL - Presidents' DAY

Feb. 22nd - 6 HOUR Reading LOG due.  (No written responses will accompany this log.  Please see my note attached to log when it is sent home tomorrow.) Please CONTINUE TO READ AT LEAST 15 minutes per day.

 Tests/ Quizzes/ Important Dates

Tues., Feb. 2nd - Math MAP Testing

Friday, Feb. 5th - Unit 19 Spelling Test

Tues., Feb. 9th - Roman Empire TEST - Study guide will be sent home on this Thursday.

 ORAL MULTIPLICATION QUIZZES - Weekly "oral" quizzes will be given on Tues., Wed., Friday. Please sign and return your child's individual update.  Thanks!

**DAILY PRACTICE is necessary to make progress on these facts.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Technology Class - Mrs. Cornett and the MAC Laptops visited us on Wednesday.  She reviewed rules for handling a lap top and brought us to the pbs.org website.

READING

We will continue our text-based writing on Martin Luther King and will finish up Horatius at the Bridge.

Also, students have chosen biographies to read in school and at home.  Written Reading responses are expected for each chapter.  Students will discuss their discoveries and questions in their small book club group that is also reading the same biography.      

Our Reading block will also include our Social Studies readings this week. 

SPELLING - Unit 19 Core Words : example, heard, several, change, answer 

MATH

We will continue working with Geometry concepts as we continue to investigate the terms: congruency, polygons, quadrilaterals, vertex, angles and line segments.  We will also be incorporating the concepts of flips/slides/turns and symmetry this week.  We will also work on identifying 3 D Solid figures.

WRITING

On Thursday we will be reading our completed biographies to our first graders in Mrs. Bovankovich's class.  Since the first graders interviewed us too, we will be hearing their reports as well.   

SOCIAL STUDIES

Continuing the Roman Empire...

Lesson 11 - The Buildings of Rome - this reading and diary entry will be done at home, Lesson 12 Gladiators and Chariot Races (compare/contrast with a Venn Diagram), Lesson 13 Pompeii, Lesson 14 - The Romans and the Christians, Lesson 15 - Decline of the Roman Empire, and Lesson 16 - East and West.

Some of these readings will be completed at home and notes on main ideas will be recorded and shared the next day.

A study guide will be sent home on Thursday.  This final test will be comprised 95% with multiple choice questions.  There will also be a map with several things to label.  AND there will be 4 sayings (students choose 2) to explain. 

SCIENCE

Dr. Blackburn will be visiting us again tomorrow.  He will hopefully be bringing in either a cow/deer eye to disect.  We are very lucky to have such an expert with us to explain the inner workings of EYES!  We will also be doing several activities with reflection and refraction.  The terms opaque, transparent, translucent, visible spectrum (think colors of the rainbow) will be explored. 

As always, please continue to communicate with me in your child's agenda, through a note, or e-mail.  If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me.

Have a great week!  Sincerely,  Allison Freeth