Dear wonderful room 12 Families,
Thank you so much for the lovely baby shower last week. We love the book, outfit and gift card! It was very fun to bring Llewyn in, the whole class was very sweet to him! Spring Conferences:
This week in reading we will be focusing on R.I.8. This reading standard focuses on finding the author's purpose/point of view and supporting it with evidence from the text. Students will have a reading homework assignment this week that focuses on this standard. Writing This week we begin a new writing unit on expository nonfiction writing. During this unit students work with a partner to publish a book on a country. This unit focuses on researching and informational writing skills. Science This week in science we focus on the causes and effects of earthquakes. Students will also begin working on their wildlife stewards summit projects this week. Spelling This week’s spelling words relate to our new expository nonfiction writing unit on countries.
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Turns out we are going to have a little winter after all. Make sure to check the district website and your e-mail for school closures. The cold weather seems like the perfect excuse to hunker down and write fiction stories, just like we will be doing in class this week. Also, it's a great excuse to read a play about the Abenaki myth "Gluskabe and Old Man Winter" which explains why we have the seasons.
In order to see another play we will be venturing out this week. On Thursday we'll head to CHS to see a preview of "West Side Story" (9:30-11:30). Speaking of field trips, a permission slip will come home on Tuesday for our 4th grade trip to the Capitol building on March 13th. Also, look for the letter about our Health curriculum which will also come home on Monday. The plan is to teach our health unit March 5th- March 12th. Finally, we'll look forward towards the spring as students form groups and begin to plan projects for the 4-H Wildlife Steward Summit this May at Hoover (see last week's blog post for more information)! We will be wrapping up our Earthquake Terror book study this week and next as student teams create final projects. Spring Conferences: Conferences are March 14-16th. Individual conferences will be on March 14th or the 16th. I will be in touch with you over the next few weeks if I am hoping to have an individual conference with you, but feel free to let me know if you would like an individual conference. On March 15th, there will be student led conferences in the classroom, open house style, which I encourage all families to attend. Upcoming Dates to make note of include: · Now through February 23rd Hoover Post Office for Students and Families (look for more information coming soon!) · Friday, February 23rd HPTO Read-a-Thon Wrap Up Celebration today (time TBD) · Friday, March 2nd EXTRA Early Release at 12:40 p.m. for all students · Wednesday, March 14th NO SCHOOL – Parent/Teacher Conferences · Thursday, March 15th NO SCHOOL – Parent/Teacher Conferences · Friday, March 16th NO SCHOOL – Parent/Teacher Conferences · Monday, March 26th NO SCHOOL – Spring Break (through Friday, March 30th) This week’s spelling words are homophones: words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.
It's a busy week at Hoover! The Hoover Post Office is operational this week (and next), so come on in and send some letters. We also have a really neat assembly on Friday with Wildlife Safari Ambassadors coming to visit Hoover. In addition there are OBOB battles and our classroom Valentine's celebration (get those mailboxes ready!)
Spelling: This week and next week there will be no spelling. I am giving students time to write letters in the morning to send through the Hoover Post Office. However, I will expect students to write 2-3 thoughtful letters throughout the week in exchange for no spelling work. Writing This week in writing students are working on editing and revising their fiction stories. Next week students will work on publishing these stories in the form of a picture book. Reading This week we continue to explore the fiction narrative genre and story elements. This week we will read examples of myths. Science This week we continue to explore "how the earth changes". Particularly, this week we will investigate why some volcanoes explode, while others do not. 4-H Wildlife Stewards Summit You may have heard that the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Summit is being hosted at Hoover this year on May 3rd. This is a very exciting event that I want to encourage all students to participate in. To participate students form teams (2-4) members, complete a natural science related project or experiment in our school natural area/habitat. Finally, groups present their project as a poster or oral presentation. (There is also an individual option to present art from a field journal or videography). There are a numbers of requirements to complete the project and I am including some information here. I plan to devote an hour of class time per week to this project. I would love in class parent volunteers to support student projects and it would be great to have parents support student teams as they work on their projects outside of school.
Wow, a full week of school! This feels like a rare thing in the winter months. I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend, stays healthy and enjoys the Super Bowl. E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!! (I grew up 20 minutes from Philly!)
Reminders and Updates
This week we continue our fiction unit with a focus on conflict, theme and answering text based questions. We will be reading Bat Boy & His Violin by Gavin Curtis. Also: Read for Read-A-Thon pledges should be collected this week. Book Study We began Earthquake Terror at the beginning of the school year. The class elected to wait till I got back to finish the book. We will spend the next couple weeks in book teams finishing the book and completing a related project. We will use this book study to review fiction story elements: setting, characters/ traits, plot, conflict, theme, and genre. Vocabulary and figurative language from the story will be included in our study. Students will also practice strategies for summarizing narrative text. This week we will read chapters 11 and 12. Writing This week we continue the writing our Fiction Writing Unit. We will focus on some "show not tell" strategies, which is important for creating vivid narrative writing. We will also read Ahmed's Secret, a great example of vivid narrative fiction! Science We continue "How the Earth Changes Unit" which focuses on erosion, deposition and earthquakes. Later this transitions into a related unit on Civil Engineering. If anyone has a background related to these topics, I have enjoyed having guest speakers in the past and would love to have you! This week we will learn about tectonic plates and faults. Number Corner February's number corner focuses on angles; including identifying types and measuring angles using a protractor. Spelling This week’s focus is a variety of “r” sounds at the end of words. The sounds are: “er”, “eur”, “or”, “eer”, and “ure”
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