Week 22

Welcome to February. We had a wonderful week last week, the students worked hard and then on Friday were rewarded for their efforts. I have done the initial scoring of the block assessment and found the students have done well.

This week we will be moving on to an exciting unit with the theme "What's Cooking." Here are some of the things we are learning this week:

Daily Grams: 
Capitalization of roman numerals, and how to capitalize direct quotations, will be some new concepts.
Punctuation will review how to write lists, dates, friendly notes and a reminder that all sentences end with the proper end mark. (We still forget to put periods at the end of our sentences).
Parts of Speech: Adjectives (telling which one), adverbs (tell when), adverbs (tell where),  conjunctions, and possessive pronouns.
Sentence types is using the technical terms for statements = declarative sentences, questions = interrogative sentences, and commands = imperative sentences.

Spelling:
I almost forgot to update the words on SpellingCity.com. After review weeks, I find that the routine is broken not only in class with the students but also with me as I prepare for the week. This week's words use the aw sound. I almost confused the students this morning when I introduced this weeks words, I forgot that there are several ways to spell that sound. Here are the different ways to spell that sound: "a" as in ball, "aw" as in pawn, "au" as in pause, "ough" used in words like bought, and an additional phonogram "augh" is used quite frequently in common words like daughter. Have some fun with these words, I find it beneficial to use the words in sentences when practicing the spelling of the words, it helps the mind remember which way to spell it when we can associate a connection.

Reading:
The biggest thing we will be concentrating on this week is how to make inferences (guessing what will happen next). Have you ever read a story that ends with a silent ending, and you always what happens next, that is what we mean when we talk about making inferences. Another skill we will focus on is comparing and contrasting. This week we will look at how the main character, Rooster is different from the other characters like Pig. This skill can be used when you read with your child at night, because the child can relate with the character identifying how the character reacts to their situations. For example when I was a lad I always felt I had a connection with Encyclopedia Brown. Though my sleuthing skills never resulted in solving the next big case, I was always comparing myself with Encyclopedia.

Part of this week's focus is on the following verbs known as helping verbs:

 

I consider this a new skill, although we either use it correctly in our speech or we hear it when it is used incorrectly. A redneck would say, "I is going home." When we know that we should say "I am going home." Anyway I will be challenging the students to memorize the Be words: "am, is, are, was, were," the Do words: "do, does, did," and the Have words: "have, has, had."

Math:

We are working on division, and making great progress on our multiplication timings. The students are getting better at recognizing how to do multiplication backwards - to divide. 3 x ___ = 12 is the same as 12 divided by 3.  I know there are a lot of you helping them to break down the barriers in being able to understand this concept, thanks for your hard work. We are actually taking the Math Block Assessment, I feel the students are ready for this test. We will be taking it Tuesday, Thursday and Friday if needed.

Science:

We are studying earthquakes, we should have talked about this a few weeks ago, when it was relevant with the Haiti earthquake. The students should be able to give some good examples, about earthquakes. I know some of the students have even lived in other states susceptible to earthquakes.  This Thursday is the Science Fair for all 3rd - 5th grade students. I know of at least five of our classmates that are working on their science fair projects. Good Luck!

History:

Yes, I do want the students to draw a map of how to get from the school to their home. I will be checking on Google Earth to see if we can get home. The object is to help the students become aware of their own community, and in relation to maps, to see if they can accurately communicate directions to someone else.

If you look at our calendar we have the following coming up during February:

• Thursday, February 4th, (12:45 - 1:45 - time to see the projects) 3rd - 5th Grade Science Fair
• Friday, February 12th - Manners Day (Valentine's Party - at the end of the day).
• Grandparent's Day
• 5th Grade - Feb. 2nd
• 4th Grade - Feb. 9th
• 3rd Grade - Feb. 16th that is the day after President's day.
• 2nd Grade - Feb. 23rd

Thanks, that is all for now.

Mr. Ronald Fisher
3rd Grade Teacher
Century Elementary School
ronald.fisher@besd.net
http://mrfishersthird.blogspot.com