Friday, October 31, 2014

Trick or treat!

Congratulations on finishing term 2.  I am excited to announce that 4 of our students won a writing contest.  These students entered a fairy tale mash-up contest at Little Shop of Stories, and they were selected as winners last night.  I will have a picture of the winners on Monday!  Congratulations to this fabulous team of students who demonstrated commitment, creativity, and enthusiasm!

End of Term Info
I'm so excited to see all the amazing presentations the students created!  They all look amazing.  We will be using these projects to practice our presentation skills for Literary Cafe.  We wrapped up our assessments today.  I will do a full term wrap up later this weekend.

Be safe tonight!  I look forward to seeing pictures and hearing about the amazing adventures students have this weekend.

Mrs. Prophet

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Slow Motion!

Hello Everyone!

I wish this week could move in slow motion, but we can't stop time.  Monday was gone in the blink of an eye.  We are having another great week in Room 262!  The students are working to complete our Civil War Scrapbooks.  Also, don't forget that our Biography Project is due on Friday (if you have turned in a flash-drive, I will be sending those home with you by the end of the week).

New Adventures This Week

Math - We are working on long division.  So far, students have worked on problems with single digit quotients, double digit quotients, and triple digit quotients.  We will be developing our understanding of remainders and decimal division tomorrow.  We will also review their study guide tomorrow in small groups during math time.  The end of term assessment is on Thursday.

Social Studies - We finished fighting the Civil War.  It is now time to begin discussing Reconstruction.  Students will be working on a Sharecropping activity tomorrow.  I also have a surprise in order for them to experience what life might have been like during this period of time.  We will have our Reconstruction assessment on Friday mcorning.

Science - We have wrapped up our studies of cells, genetics, and microorganisms.  We will play a review game of jeopardy tomorrow, as well as review the study guide information.  Our end of term assessment will be on Thursday.

ELA - Students completed the end of term writing assessment today.  Students also began work on the end of term UOI assessment.  I am impressed with the progress the students are making in their writing.  Many students still need to complete a battle essay by the end of this week.  Next term, we will have an intensive focus on spelling and grammar skills during workshop.  

Reading - We will have our Reading assessment tomorrow.  Students need to make sure they know the different types of text structure used in informational text.  Some students were confused about the differences between sequence and chronological.

Text Structures to Know 
-Sequence:  Steps in order (does not show time - think step by step, directions)
-Chronological:  In order of time (dates, timeline, ages)
-Problem/Solution:  Basically cause & effect with an opinion, and an answer.

         -Cause/Effect:  Explains reasons why something happened, or explains the effects of     something
        -Compare/Contrast:  Shows what’s in common and what’s different

Parents - Students received information in their red folders from the office about ordering pictures.

Important Dates
October 31 - Author Visit
November 6th - Village Gathering  (I will send out more information in our weekly email)
November 11th - Tybee Parent Meeting  (6-7)
November 19th - Literary Cafe

Have a great night!

Mrs. Prophet

Monday, October 20, 2014

Monday Monday

Hello!

And we're off!......another great week has begun in Room 262.

New Adventures of the Week

Reading:  We are working on identifying and analyzing the text structures of informational text (problem/solution; cause/effect; chronological order; sequential order, main idea/supporting details; compare/contrast).  Students were introduced to new graphic organizers that can be used to analyze text.  We will continue working with these structures for the next two weeks.  We are also continuing our work with vocabulary and spelling skills.  Students will have a reading assessment next Wednesday.

ELA:  We will continue to work on grammar skills this week.  We also will be utilizing a daily journal to help with the process of developing ideas.  Additionally, students are working on developing their research and writing skills this term.  They just finished working on an essay about a Civil War battle.  They will also apply this knowledge next week during our end of term on demand writing assignment.  Students are also using their research and writing skills to complete an in-class social studies project about the Civil War.

Math:  We will be jumping into division this week.  We started working with division last week and we will continue our work for the next two weeks on this skill.  Students will have their end of term math assessment next Thursday.  Please look for the math study guide on Thursday afternoon.

Science:  We are continuing our work on genetics.  We will be focusing on inherited traits vs learned behaviors.  Students created a dog from a fake DNA panel today.  We had very interesting discussions related to this activity.  Students will have a Science assessment next Thursday.

Social Studies:  We are finishing up the Civil War on Wednesday with our end of unit assessment.  Students should have received a study guide last Friday.  We will begin working on Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, and sharecropping after our assessment on Wednesday.  Students will be tested on the new material next Friday.

Graded work will be sent home next week with the red folders.  I apologize for not getting that information out today.

Assessment Schedule (study guide schedule)
Wednesday (10/22):  Social Studies Civil War Assessment (study guide sent home - Friday 10/17)
Wednesday (10/29):  Reading Assessment - text structures (study guide sent home - Wednesday 10/22)
Thursday (10/30):  Science - cells and genetics (study guide sent home - Wednesday 10/22); Math (student guides sent home - Thursday 10/23)
Friday (10/31):  Social Studies - Reconstruction (study guide sent home - Friday 10/24)

Also, don't forget that we have our field trip to the Atlanta History Center tomorrow.  The buses will be leaving at 9 am.

Have a great night.

Mrs. Prophet

Monday, October 13, 2014

Thank Goodness It's Monday!

We had another great Monday in Room 262!  Here are our areas of focus for the week.

Reading:  We are working on connecting people to important events.  This will be done in a variety of ways, but our main focus will be connecting the leaders (President, Generals, etc) to the events of the American Civil War.  Students will be required to provide textual evidence to support the connections that they are making.  We will continue to build our fluency skills, and some students will be taking another fluency assessment.

ELA:  We are continuing to develop our researching skills.  Students have spent the last 3 days researching different battles of the American Civil War.  They have been asked to write an essay from their research with little guidance.  I am assessing their abilities to write informational text in order to ensure that we address the needs of each individual student.  Students will begin an in class research assignment on Wednesday (Civil War Student Textbook).  We are still building our grammar and spelling mechanics.

Science:  We had a quiz today on cells and microorganisms.  We will begin working on genetics tomorrow.  We are focusing on inherited vs learned characteristics.

Social Studies:  Our studies of the American Civil War will continue this week.  Our focus this week involves important people and events.

Math:  We will have our mid-term assessment in math on Wednesday.  Students received a study guide today.  The information on this assessment will be algebraic expressions, multiplying multi digit whole numbers, multiplying multi digit decimals, and estimating products.  This is not an assessment that should create stress for your student because this assessment will be used to determine progress to this point.  We will begin working on multi digit division after the assessment on Wednesday.

Parents - All graded assessments (with comments) will be sent home next week in the red folders.  Also, remember to return permission slips and money for our field trip to the Atlanta History Center on October 21.  

Have a great week.

Mrs. Prophet

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Candy Cells

Thanks to everyone who donated candy for our cell creations.  It was a great learning experience.  We will be using the left over candy in the next few weeks as part of an inquiry lesson in sharecropping.  Here are some pictures from our candy cell creations.






Monday, October 6, 2014

Fall is Awesome!

Hello All!  I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.  I was traveling this weekend so I was unable to update on Friday.

Blog Update Info
I am making a change to the days that I will update the blog.  My updates will continue on Mondays to ensure you know what we will be working on for the week, but I will only do a very short update later in the week to share important and exciting information.  I will also continue to send out the weekly emails on Thursday.

Past Adventures

Last week, we had a lot of fun learning about microorganisms in Science.  Students were able to select areas throughout the school and swab for microorganisms.  We are currently waiting to see what will grow in our petri dishes.  We checked our dishes today and we definitely had some interesting things growing inside.  Students also got to look at a slide of frog blood under the microscope today.  
Some students swabbing the dumpster for microorganisms

Setting up the experiment.  































In Social Studies, we finished working on the causes of the American Civil War, and began discussing the war timeline.  Students began to work on researching famous abolitionists.  By the end of the week, we were ready to begin discussing the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of South Carolina.

We focused our math studies on multiplying multi digit numbers.  Students were taught several different methods to effectively solve multiplication problems with larger numbers.  All students will eventually have to solve the problems using the standard algorithm (the method that most people learned when they were in elementary school).

During ELA, we began to work on the research process.  Students are learning to develop effective research questions.  This information is going to be used to create a booklet about the American Civil War.  The students have also been learning a new method of note-taking called power outlining.

In Reading, we continued working on expository text.  We have focused our studies on determining 2 or more main ideas and figuring out the information that authors use to support those ideas.  We are continuing to build our vocabulary and spelling knowledge.

New Adventures

Science - We are going to observe our petri dish growth this week.  We are also going to begin discussing the differences between animal cells and plant cells.  On Friday, we will be building candy cells.  We will also have a quiz on microorganisms on Friday.  

Social Studies/ELA - This week we are focusing on the American Civil War.  Students will complete the war timeline on Tuesday and begin creating a map of the battles.  On Wednesday, students will begin to study the important people.  We will begin working on an in class project on Thursday that will be used develop our research and writing skills.

Math - During our math lessons this week, we will be working on multiplying multi digit multiplication problems with decimals.  Students will need to continue working on the different models during math instruction.  We will have multiplication quiz on Friday.

Reading - Our reading focus will shift to discovering how the perspective of an author can change or impact the account of an event.  This will be done through non-fiction texts about the Battle of Bull Run.  Some students will be working on the elements of fictional text.

Parents - I will be sending out an email on Wednesday with a list of candy/food materials that we will need to create our candy cells.  Also, many students still need to return their field trip forms and payments.  Please do so as soon as possible.  

Don't forget that it is Spirit Week at F.AVE!  Check out the weekly school newsletter for the specifics.  

Have a great week!  Let me know if you have any questions.

Mrs. Prophet

We're Going to Be Friends!

Here we are, no one else We walked to school all by ourselves There's dirt on our uniforms From chasing all the ants and worms We clean ...