Week of 10/28/13-11/1/13

Highlights for the Week of 10/28/13

 in Mrs. Bell's Classroom!

Spelling - More Short and Long Vowels
The final test for this week's lesson will be on Friday, 11/1. Cursive and workbook pages or challenge work will also be collected that day.

Reading - I Can Identify the Format of a Mystery
Mysteries will be the focus in reading next week. We will begin by learning vocabulary words that are typically associated with mysteries, such as “suspect”, “evidence” and “suspense”. All students will read and study “The Case of the Purloined Pachyderm”.  While reading this mystery, and other mystery stories, students will be studying the format of a mystery, and using the reading strategies of monitoring and clarifying. Students will take mystery vocabulary  QUIZ on Thursday, 10/31. We will also take a look at idioms - a type of figurative language. Students will create their own page for a classroom book about idioms.

English - Capitalization and Punctuation
Abbreviations, commas in a series & other uses for commas are the topics that we will cover in English this week.

Social Studies - The Narragansett
We will begin our study of the Native Americans of the Northeast.  Students will learn about the culture and traditions of the Narragansetts. They will also learn about the Iroqouis Americans, and will compare and contrast their culture with the Narragansetts. On Wednesday, students will receive guidelines for a project in which they will illustrate a Narragansett Village. The project will be collected on 11/4. There will be a QUIZ on Monday, 11/4, that will cover lesson 1 of chapter 5.

Science - What are the Life Cycles of Animals?
This week, we will finish the lesson about life cycles of animals with a look at metamorphosis. Students will take an open note/book QUIZ on lesson 3 of chapter 2 on Wednesday, 10/30.  

Math - Mrs. Bell's Math Class
Unit 4 begins with a look at Multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000.  We will then move on to rounding to estimate products, and modeling how to use place value to multiply.

Don't forget...
Week of 11/4 - Parent/Teacher Conferences (Homeroom Students)

The Halloween celebration will be on Thursday, 10/31. The traditional PV parade will begin at 1:15, and parties will start at 1:30. Students must be able to put on their Halloween costume in 5-10 minutes by themselves. Fourth grade will have designated classrooms for girls to change in and for boys. They will NOT be allowed to change in the bathroom. No props that resemble a weapon should be brought to school. THANK YOU to all the parents who are helping to make this a special afternoon for our classroom!

Have a "Spook-tacular" Halloween!
Mrs. Karen Bell