Dear Parents & Students,
We had a wonderful Pumpkin Day - thank you so much to all of the parents
who came and helped out that morning, and to those who sent items in.
Students were immersed in the study and science of pumpkins and a great time
was had by all!
We finished our novel study on Bunnicula and finished the unit by
watching the movie. Students enjoyed the conversation we had in which we
discussed how the movie and the book were similar and how they were
different. We are now beginning Theme 2 in our anthology which is on
Traditions. We will have a few family type homework assignments with this
unit, as we talk about and learn about our family traditions.
In grammar we are moving on from subject and predicates, and will be
learning about common and proper nouns. The dioramas were such fun to look
at. We are continuing our conversations about speaking skills. This month's
book report is on a historical fiction book. We discussed the
characteristics that make up this genre. Students checked out books for
their reports at the library last week, and we talked about the book report
for the month and showed the student's samples. Feel free to stop by and see
a sample of the project if you would like to. Directions for the report have
already gone home, so if you have not received them, please let me know.
We are working on adding adjectives to our writing to make it more
descriptive. Last month we wrote color poems, using our senses. Then we
went back and circled the nouns in our poem, and students had to add
adjectives before the nouns to increase the description of the poem. These
are posted on the Student Work page, so be sure to check them out! We are
also working on compare/contrast paragraphs this month.
This month we are beginning our Letter Writing Journals. The purpose of
this is to practice letter writing skills, to increase writing fluency and to
instill a love of writing in your child. Your child will begin by writing
you a letter. They will bring it home and you will have one week to respond
to them in the journal. The purpose of this is not to focus on errors, but
rather to focus on the enjoyment that can be derived from writing.
We are finished with Unit 2 in math and are moving on to Unit 3.
In Social Studies, we are finishing up our geography unit. During the
year, students will be working on an Orange County report in class. We will
be reading material, summarizing it in our own words and putting it into
report format. This will teach the students about report writing skills as
well as help them learn and retain the information we are reading. Along
these lines, we have also begun our Study Skills lessons. We discussed the
ten things that successful students do. See if your child can name any of
these for you.
We have started our first science unit on Matter and Energy. Students
love this unit because there are a lot of hands-on experiments with it.
We have uploaded pictures on the Class Photos page and poems on the
Student Work page, so be sure to check them out. I am also working on
updating the wish list page and calendar page. We really appreciate the
support so many of you have shown by sending items in from our wish list -
thank you! We are thrilled to see so many of the students working on Mastery
Club and participating in the Mind Expanders. For those students who are
going to be doing the Word Masters tests this year, don't forget to study
your word list at home. The test date will be here before you know it!
Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Gerbosi