READ-A-THON!!!!

Families, I thoroughly enjoyed conferences last week.  This is such an academically impressive class so I get to talk about great work all the time!  This last trimester is quickly upon us and the Spring will be full of fun, important events.  Today we kicked off the Read a Thon and you will see envelopes in the Friday Folder.

            Readathon is our biggest PTA fundraiser.  Funds from Readathon support a variety of events and field trips that make Grant special and fun for our students.  (e.g. Funesta, 4th grade book project, 5th grade Hannibal trip, and much more).

            The kick-off for our annual Read-a-thon PTA Fundraiser was today, Friday, February 23rd. This year’s theme is Don’t Lego a Good Book! All students received a white envelope to collect donations from family and friends (NO DOOR TO DOOR SOLICITING).  To be eligible for prizes, donation envelopes must be returned by Friday, March 9th, the last day of our Read-a-thon celebration. 

            On this day we will welcome guest readers into the classrooms, count money and award fun prizes to classrooms that raise the most money or completed the most challenges.  Also, for completing at least one challenge, students will be entered into drawings for even more prizes.

            Please remember that this is our biggest PTA fundraiser and helps us to continue all our special Grant events and field trips.  THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Academically, here is our focus for next week.

READING: working on our Ecolit literature journals.  Students will complete 1/2 of their book and Lit Journal 2A/2B.

WRITING: we will complete our final narratives and practice a few more narrative techniques.

MATH: fractions, fractions, fractions: specifically multiplication and division of fractions.

SS: 13 English Colonies leading up to the American Revolution.

SCIENCE: Matter in Ecosystem, infographic research/planning

COLONY LINKS

Colonies:

http://13colonies.mrdonn.org/ (includes ads)

History Channel

Mr. Nussbaum

Colonial Williamsburg for kids

PBS (interactive and fun)

YAY! HAPPY TO BE BACK!

It's so nice to be back in the swing of things.  We are starting to reach normalcy for Class C after all my absences and snow day and days off.  I realized I had not had a full 5 day week of school in all of January!  The kids had 8 different teachers in 9 days and THEY WERE AWESOME.  Our projects and class work kept moving right along and the class did great for our guest teachers!  So I am rewarding them with a small class party next week.  Thanks, All-Stars!

In terms of classwork, below you can read about our current focus for each class.  Also, please be sure to check the Friday Folder this week.  There are important papers such as the Grant Dispatch, library notices, scoliosis screening letter, Language Club, Chili and Game Night form, Celebration of Cultures form, a Grant School Legacy Brick Campaign form, and more!

READING:  Reading is mostly being integrated with other subjects: writing, ss, and science all have a reading component right now. However, the kids will be getting 30-45 minutes every day to work on Book Shares also.  Each student has had time and guidance choosing a book and they should have 6 completed book shares by February 19.

WRITING: Our writing time this week was filled with classroom spelling bees so we could choose our class representatives for the Grant School Spelling Bee.  Next, we will get back to our narrative writing.  We will be looking at narrative techniques in texts and using our background knowledge to craft stories of individuals on journeys.

MATH: We completed UNIT 4 and the kids did awesome on the test!  We have moved on to UNIT 5 focused on Operations of Fractions.  Students are currently working on finding common denominators to add, subtract, and compare fractions.  Eventually, we will multiplying and dividing fractions too.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We finished Discovery today!  The most successful colony will be revealed next week and we will have a little celebration for each Colony's success.  Next, our focus will be on the 13 English Colonies leading up to the American Revolution.  Our focus for social studies will lead us through Westward Expansion and Civil War time period by the end of the year.

SCIENCE: We are finishing up our matter unit and students are applying their new knowledge to planning their info-graphic.  The info-graphics are a part of our community project this year and the final products are intended to decorate our new 5th grade classrooms in the new building next year.  Our next focus will be on matter in ecosystems, and weather systems, including looking at the solar system, weather patterns, and the hydrological cycle.

Enjoy these FLASH BOOK SHARES about MLK, JR.