Week of 10/20/14

Highlights for the Week of 10/20/14

 in Mrs. Bell's Classroom!

Spelling - More Short and Long Vowels
The final test for this week's lesson will be on Friday, 10/24. Cursive and workbook pages or challenge work will also be collected that day.



Reading - "What does it Mean to Show Courage?"
I continue to be impressed and excited over the students' progress with close reading. This week we finished up the close read of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Not only are they gaining confidence in their ability to tackle difficult text, but they are learning that if they persevere there is nothing that they can't decode. Below are some pictures of some our junior archaeologists digging deep into the text of this famous speech:

During the week of 10/20, we will complete the study of Dr. King's speech, and move on to a biographical piece about singer Gloria Estefan.

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 Northeast

The rough draft of the NE Descriptive writing project is due on Monday, 10/20. Students will be typing their final copies in class early in the week. We will also begin creating a map of the United States. This is a year long project in which we add each region as it is studied. The next unit that we will cover in Social Studies is the Narragansett, the Native Americans of the Northeast region.



Science - "How are Animals Classified?"
The worm races were a HUGE success. I was very pleased to see the creativity displayed by students in creating their tracks. However, I was most proud of the good sportsmanship that the children showed when cheering for their classmates during the races. Here are some pictures from that memorable afternoon:

The next topic in Science will be "How are Animals Classified". We will begin this unit with a look at vertebrates.

Math - Mrs. Bell's Math Class - Topic 3: Place Value
Students will take a QUIZ on lessons 1-4 of Topic 3 on Monday, 10/20. On Tuesday and Thursday, they will be using the sports attendance data that they have created to create spreadsheets and graphs that will provide a visual representation of how to compare and order large numbers. The last two concepts in this topic include rounding whole numbers and the problem solving strategy of making an organized list.  Look for the Topic 3 TEST to be scheduled for the week of 10/27. Below is a picture of our math class making a "human number line" using numbers between 100,000 and 900,000.

Don't forget...

Week of 10/27 - Parent/Teacher Conferences (Homeroom students only) 

Mrs. Karen Bell