Week of 9/23/13 - 9/27/13

Highlights for the Week of 9/23/13
in Mrs. Bell's Classroom!

Spelling - Short & Long "i" and "o"
The final TEST for this lesson will be on Friday, 9/27. Cursive and workbook pages OR contract work will also be collected that day.

Reading - Author's Viewpoint
This week we will be focusing on the reading skill of determining author's viewpoint. Author's viewpoint refers to the author's opinion of what is important, or the attitude toward the topic. The author might give his/her opinion directly, or the reader might have to infer the information by finding clues or other information that the author provides. We will work on this skill by looking at some fun poetry by Shel Silverstein that expresses his point of view towards topics such as the dentist and school.  We will also continue our study of how to skim and scan using this week's Time for Kids magazine.

English - What is a Sentence?
On Monday students will be completing their "Snapshot Sentences" project that is a review of the four types of sentences.  Please be sure to send a 4 X 6 photo to school that day. Subjects and predicates is the next topic in our English unit, and that means that Mr. Morton will be coming to town! Ask your child to sing one of my favorite Schoolhouse Rock songs for you this week. We will be focusing on complete subjects and predicates, and simple subjects, and simple predicates.


Social Studies - Land & Water in the Northeast

We will begin our study of the Northeast by taking a look at the land and water of the region. We will also look at the mountain ranges and coastline. Students will be taking a map QUIZ on Thursday, 9/26.

Science - The Scientific Method
Be sure to check out the pictures of students working with their straw models at the end of the blog. We will begin the worm unit this week. On Wednesday, your child will bring his/her worm to school in the habitat that he/she has made.  We will discuss how to make the habitat on Monday.  We will be observing the worms all week.  Look for the track information for worm races to come home on Thursday.

Math - Mrs. Bell's Math Class
Students will take a QUIZ on lessons 1-4 of unit 2 on Monday.  Topics covered on the quiz will include 
Addition Properties/Subtraction Rules, Patterns in addition and subtraction, Mental Math using compensation and compatible numbers, and Estimating using Rounding and Front-end Estimation. Topics for the rest of the week include Addition and Subtraction, Subtraction across zeros,  and a Problem-Solving technique called "Draw a Diagram".

FYI...

Picture Day is on Thursday, 9/26. The final magazine turn in day is 9/24

Below are some pictures of the "junior architects" constructing and testing their straw models...

Happy Weekend!

Mrs. Karen Bell