The Week of November 2, 2009

Dear Parents and Students:
Reminders for this week:
~Robert Crown field trip = Friday, November 6th
STUDENTS NEED TO BRING A LUNCH on Friday, November 6th
**We might not get back in time for the hot lunch program. Milk will be available.
.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

.

SPELLING: Lesson 10 and "word of the week" This week's test will be on Thursday due to our Robert Crown Field Trip on Friday.

.

ENGLISH: Unit 2 Nouns (Project Challenge students will be receiving alternate assignments

during this unit.)

We will also be sharing our most recent "Mind Movers" creative thinking/writing

thinking.

.

READING: We will be discussing elements of Tall Tales and writing some fun exaggerations.

We will also be doing activities with analogies. The analogy sheets can be

challenging and students may have to use dictionaries or dictionary.com., as well as,

work carefully!

.

SCOOPer Reading:

1st Trimester goals are due Friday, Nov. 13th. All students who have goals

to be completed have received many reminders! Only one book activity can

be turned in at a time. Many students have already completed their goals!

.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 6 "Life in English Colonies". Lesson one will emphasize how

colonists worked and traded. The children will be getting directions for

our classroom TRADE FAIR on Tuesday. Parents, please go over this

sheet/directions with your child.

TRADE FAIR = Tuesday, November 1oth

.

SCIENCE: We are finishing Chapter 5 this week. The last section we are going to cover is

energy pyramids.

Chapter 5 test will be the week of November 9th.

Your child has made vocabulary game boards which is a great way to

review/reinforce the Ch. 5 vocabulary words.

A sheet that contains information about what to study will be given to the students.

.

Jr. Achievement = We will have or fourth session with Mr. and Ms. Paleka this week.

The students have been learning a lot about "Our Nation" and businesses.

.

MATH: (Miss Trefonas's Class)

Chapter 4 Lesson 2 - Order of Operations & Lesson 3 - Properties & Review

*These concepts tend to be difficult.....review at home would help !

Monday, Nov. 13th = Chapter 4 Quiz over L1-L3

The Week of October 26, 2009

Dear Parents and Students:
It was nice to see many of you at the Book Fair. Thanks to the many families who purchased books for the classroom.
Also, thanks to all of you who have sent in treats/prizes for our classroom rewards.
.

REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK:

~Parents, please fill out and return the sheet about your student being absent and work being sent home. DUE MONDAY!!

.

~HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION = Thursday, October 29th!

Thanks to Mrs. Balinski for coordinating the parent helpers!

Thanks to Mrs. Stanuch, Mrs. Balinski and Mrs. Fisher or coming in to be parent helpers!

Thanks to Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Kling, Mrs. Dourdourekas for providing treats!

Thanks to Mrs. Van Geertry for providing drinks for the students!

.

***Students need to bring supplies to decorate their pumpkins for our contest!

A student per grade level will win a BEST BUY gift certificate for having the #1 pumpkin!

If any parents would like to send in any extra craft items, feel free to send them with your child!

Parade is @ 12:30! Parents are welcome to attend the parade!

.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

.

SPELLING: We are not doing spelling this week! This is not a trick but a treat!

.

ENGLISH: We will go over the Unit 5 "Capitalization/Punctuation" review sheet on Monday.

Test = Tuesday! I encouraged all students to bring home their textbooks and review over the weekend.

We will also be sharing our "Mind Mover" creative thinking/writing activities.

.

READING: We finished the White Giraffe ! The students are completing their summary journals which are due Monday. Today, Friday, as a class, we were able to summarize the entire book in less than 25 words. We also had a great group book discussion.

The children will be doing an end of the book activity for White Giraffe this week.

.

Next, we will work on the reading skill of visualizing using some tall tales.

.

SCOOPer Reading: Wow! I have had some great book talks while meeting with your child to discuss the book they read and the activity they did.

DUE DATE = November 13th!

.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We are finished with Chapter 5 and will be filling out our "HOW TO STUDY SHEET" Monday. TEST = WEDNESDAY!

I encouraged all students to bring home their textbook over the weekend to start reviewing!

.

SCIENCE: We are learning about food chains and food webs.

Your child has begun a vocabulary word game board to study/practice vocabulary words for this unit.

.

MATH: (Miss Trefonas's Math Class)

Chapter 3 Review = Monday

Chapter 3 Test = Tuesday

Next, we begin Chapter 4 "Algebra Expressions & Equations"

~We will be taking notes and doing many "together" problems in our math spirals.

~Review at home would be helpful during this chapter!

The Week of October 19, 2009

Dear Parents and Students:
Some reminders.......
~Book Fair/Affy Tapple Sale/Spirit Wear orders = Thursday, October 22nd - 6:30 - 8:00
~Art to Remember packet must be returned with or without an order - Due October 20th.
~Character Counts Responsiblity slips (optional) are due at the end of the month.
.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

.

SPELLING: Lesson 8 "review lesson". No pretest or word of the week this week.

. Workbook due Thursday. Multiple Choice Test = Friday.

.

ENGLISH: We are finishing Unit 5 Capitalization/Punctuation this week. Our last lessons are how to use and capitalize titles and abbreviations correctly. The test will be Tues. Oct. 27th.

.

READING: We will be finishing White Giraffe this week and our summary journals.

.

SCOOPer Reading: Book Goals for the trimester are due Friday, November 13th.

.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Jr. Achievement begins! Jr. Achievement is a not-for-profit organization financed by businesses. The purpose of Jr. Achievement is to educate and inspire students to value free enterprise, business, and econmics to improve the quality of their lives. Our volunteers, Ms. and Mr. Paleka, will be visiting our classroom once a week for the next 6 weeks. Ms. Paleka works for Harley Davidson Financial, and Mr. Paleka works for Tellalabs. They have been the volunteers for my classroom for the past 8 years! I'm sure your student will be sharing some of their experiences with this program during the next few weeks!
.
Chapter 5 Lesson 3 - We will learn about the Puritans & Lesson 4 is about all of the 13 English colonies.
The test will be the week of October 26th.
.
SCIENCE: LEAVES are due Monday!! The children should have a lot of fun with this project!
Chapter 5 - Lesson 2 "How energy is passed through an ecosystem"
.
MATH: (Miss Trefonas's math class)
Tuesday = Quiz over lessons 1 - 5 in chapter 3.
We will cover lessons 6,7,9, and 10 this week. We will be dividing by 2 digit numbers.
Homework sheet will be given on Friday.

The Week of October 12, 2009

Dear Parents & Students,

~No School Monday = Columbus Day

~Leaves......has your child started collecting and preparing leaves for our science project?
The leaves are due Monday, October 19th. This assignment can not be left until last
minute. The students have a direction packet and should share/discuss it with you.
.
~Robert Crown field trip slip will be given to your child on Tuesday. We will be going to
the "Michael & Linda" program. The permission slip goes into further detail.
Also, please indicate on the slip whether or you'll be attending the parent workshop.
.
~Halloween!!! Mrs. Balinski, classroom party coordinator, has contacted all the party
helpers. As part of the Halloween festivities,students need to bring things from home to
decorate their pumpkins which will be judjed for a contest with prizes. They are about 3 -
5 pounds each and will be provided by our P.T.O.
These items are not allowed: paint, and sharp objects such as knives or
carving tools.
.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

.

SPELLING: Lesson 7

.

ENGLISH: Comma project due Tuesday!

We will also be learning how to use quotation marks correctly.

.

READING: We will be reviewing the reading skills of homonyms and homophones.

White Giraffe.....continuing to read this adventure and summarizing chapters.

.

SCOOPer Reading: Your child's goal is due 11/13. I have enjoyed many of the discussions I have had with your child when meeting with them.

If your child meets their goal prior to the due date, they get to read just for the "fun of it" and not have to do any more activites until the next trimester.

.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 5 - Lesson 2 "New England Colonies" & Lesson 3 "The First Colonies"

.

SCIENCE: We are continuing to learn more about photosynthesis and learning about producers and consumers.

.

MATH(for Miss Trefonas's math students):

~Chapter 3 - Lessson 3.4 "Zeros in the quotient"

~Quiz Thursday over Lessons 3.2 - 3.4

~Homework sheet with problems from wb pages 3.1 - 3.4

The Week of October 5, 2009

Dear Parents & Students:
Some reminders for this week:
~Lunch in I.M.C. = Thursday, October 8th. We have lots of students in our class participating!!
~Project Challenge = The afterschool program begins Tuesday, October 6th!
~see SCIENCE....the students have a project that they need to begin!
.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR CLASSROOM:

.

SPELLING: Lesson 6

.

ENGLISH: Unit 5 "Capitalization & Punctuation"

This week we will look at the different ways we use commas. We will also review interjections.

.

WRITING: We have been doing some "mind mover" creative writing in our writing spirals.

Have your child share one of their activities!

.

READING: We are continuing the book White Giraffe and working on summarizing.

.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Chapter 5 - We will be learning about the first permanent English colony.......Jamestown and other European colonies.

.

SCIENCE: Monday = Science test......Study sheets with parent signature earns bonus points!!

We are starting the next chapter and learning about plant structures and photosynthesis.

.

IMPORTANT...on Weds. the students are going to be getting directions for the leaf project we will be doing. Please make sure your child shares what they need to do with you because they need to collect and prepare the leaves according to the direction sheet.

LEAVES ARE DUE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16th.

.

MATH: Chapter 3 Division

We will cover lessons 1-3. This includes long division and interpreting remainders.