Mrs. Basinger

5th Grade News

In Language Arts we have started our novel study on "The Sign of the Beaver". We are going to be focusing on why an author chooses certain words to create different feelings. Another area of focus will be on bias. Mrs. Sokolowski's class is reading another novel that complements ours for this purpose. Each book portrays Native Americans in different ways. The classes will come together at times to discuss biases shown towards Native Americans displayed by characters in the book and at times by the authors. 

In Math students are working on a geometry unit. We are developing an understanding of how angles are related in geometric shapes. When given support, the students are showing success. However, I have noted that they are not independent on this skill yet and you may need to help check over homework!  

4th Grade

Since we just finished a mega-long novel, our class is focusing on short stories and nonfiction text. We will be working with the science text and incorporating their rock study into their language arts lessons. I am really excited about this as I love studying geology!  

We returned from the Christmas break to a review of multiplication and division. I have encouraged students to explore different strategies and to also check their answers with a calculator after working problems out by hand. Students need to be comfortable with completing math problems by hand and by calculator. Next we will be moving into geometric principles. My plans are to have a unit in place on data analysis to go along with the Olympics. Help get your child excited by discussing the commercials advertising the upcoming Olympic games in February. 

3rd Grade

Finally it is time to start our enhancement class for 3rd Grade students and I am excited!  We will be learning to do model drawing in math as well as developing mental computations. The class will also work on short stories and we will analyze them to get deeper meanings and explore authors' intentions. I am really looking forward to working with the third grade students!  

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Please feel free to contact me any time. I appreciate all the support that you offer your children and the restraint that you sometimes have to show in allowing them to solve problems on their own. 

Following is my daily schedule: 

8:00-9:00 4th Grade Reading

9:15-10:15 5th Grade Reading

10:20-11:20 5th Grade Math

11:20-11:50 Lunch

11:50-12:30 Planning

12:30-1:30 4th Grade Math

1:30-2:25 K-3rd Grade

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