Welcome to a Magical Year!

Events for Week of November 23 - 25, 2009

Monday
Tuesday	Vocabulary Unit 7 Quiz
Wednesday	Science Chapter 5 Test Fantasy Book Report Book Due - bring book to school Out of Uniform - bring .50 to be out of uniform
Thursday	Happy Turkey Day
Friday	No School

NOTE:  There will be no Spelling homework or Spelling test this week! 

  Math:   We are working on Unit 4.  It focuses on decimals.  We will:

Know

      -           base-ten place-value system to decimals

      -           basic concepts, notation, and applications for decimals

      -           relationships among metric units of length

Understand

-           decimal place value

-           comparing and ordering decimals

-           decimals in money

-           decimal addition and subtraction

DO

-           read and write decimals through the thousandths

-           find multiples of numbers less than 10

-           find factors of numbers

-           convert “easy” fractions to decimals

-           estimate sums and differences of decimals

-           measure to the nearest centimeter

Students will be completing two projects during this unit.  The projects will be completed during school.  Students will choose which project to complete, such as a poster, children's book, song, or topic web.

 Spelling:  On Mondays, students take a Spelling pre-test.  Words that the student misspells are added to their Weekly Spelling list.  Students then chose "Challenge" words so they have a total of 20 words each week.  Weekly Spelling assignments are given to the students on Monday.  The students should complete each assignment in their Spelling notebook.  The notebook will be collected on Friday morning.  Students are expected to review and practice their spelling words each day at home.  The students will give each other their Spelling tests on Friday.  If a student loses or forgets, challenge words and weekly assignment sheets are attached below as a link.

Reading: We will be working on reading comprehension skills this week. 

Book Reports - Each student must complete a book report each month.   This grade is included in the Reading Grade.   Each month the students will read a book from a different genre and complete a project.   The project will usually be completed during school time, however, there may be times when the students need to bring supplies from home.

Students are expected to read chapter books at their reading level. Therefore, all book report books must be approved by the teacher before the students begin reading.   Students must also have their books at school on the day that we will complete the project.  

For the month of November, students will be choosing a fantasy book.   The reading must be finished by Wednesday, November 25, 2009.

Writer's Workshop: We will continue our study of nouns with plural nouns.  Then we will discuss irregular plural nouns.  Irregular plural nouns are words such as goose/geese, mouse/mice, and die/dice.  The students have begun writing a children's story.  We will be publishing the stories into books, including illustrations.  We will then be sharing our stories with the first grade students.

Social Studies: We are beginning our study of the Southeast.  We will fill out the states and capitals map on Monday.  There are only 4 states in the Southeast:  Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico.  We will read about the Grand Canyon and the Sonoran Desert.

Religion: We have begun Chapter 6, Baptism in Christ. The students have learned about some of the signs used during the Sacrament.   The students will understand that through Baptism we become members of the Catholic Church and we become responsible to continue the mission of Jesus.