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Announcements:
STAAR practice homework: The last packet of STAAR practice homework was sent home on Friday. Please have child return the homework by Wednesday, May 8th. STAAR assessments are coming up on May 13th and 14th. Last 9 week grading period-Please use Home Access to check on your child's grades and assignments. Typically the last 9 week grading period is the most difficult for students because they are ready for summer. Upcoming Events: May 13-STAAR assessment (No visitors) May 14-STAAR assessment (No visitors) May 21-Field Day! May 23- End of Year Party-Last day of school What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We finished our personal narratives and began our expository writings. Reading: We have been practicing STAAR reading passages in class. In addition, students have been put into book club groups. Students are reading and then discussing the chapter with their book club group. Math: We started our next unit on place value. This unit focuses on place value up to 100,000. We will also be working on financial literacy. Science: We are finishing up our unit on animal adaptations. Students created animal adaptation posters using google drawing and labeled the adaptations for that animal. Our next unit will be on life cycles. Social Studies: We started our virtual tour of 4 different cities (New Orleans, Mexico City, Cairo, and Tokyo) this week. Our focus is on how people adapt to their communities.
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Announcements:
Family Gallery Night and Book Fair- Thursday, May 2nd is our Family Gallery Night! Come and see all the work your student has been working on this year and visit the Spring Book Fair in the library! The book fair is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Classrooms open at 6:00 p.m. Last 9 week grading period- Please keep an eye on your child's grades and assignments. Typically the last grading period is difficult for students as they are ready for summer. Upcoming Events: May 2- Spring Book Fair and Family Gallery Night May 3- Fifth Grade Talent Show May 13 &14- STAAR testing-No Visitors May 22-Field Day! May 23- Last Day of School What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We are working on our personal narratives and following all the steps in the writing process. Reading: We are working on character traits and how characters change throughout the text. Math: We finished our unit on perimeter, weight, volume and capacity. Next week we will be starting our unit on extending our knowledge of multiplication and division, including the associative property and distributive property. Science: We are working on our unit of Structure and Function. Our focus is to identify and explain how structures of animals allow them to survive in a particular environment. Social Studies: We are working on describing and explaining the variations in the physical environment, including climate, landforms, natural resources, and natural hazards. Announcements:
STAAR practice homework came home on Friday and it is due by Wednesday April 10th. STAAR assessments will take place on May 13th and 14th. Run Wild for Wildlife- information came home in the Thursday folders about our Run Wild for Wildlife fundraiser. The Elsa England environment club is hosting this event for 3rd-5th graders in an effort to raise money for the conservation of forests and the protection of wildlife. Students will run during specials on Friday, April 12th. Please turn in any donations by Friday. Thanks! Upcoming Events: April 12- Run Wild for Wildlife April 19- No school May 13 & 14- STAAR assessments May 23- Last day of school What's been happening in class? Writing: We started our next unit in writing: personal narratives. Students will be writing about important personal experiences. This week we focused on the first two steps in the writing process, brainstorming and drafting. We also worked on including our five senses into our writing to make it more interesting to the reader. Reading: Students have finished researching for their PBL projects and now we are working on our final projects. Students have a choice of google slides, a newspaper article or a poster to display what they have learned from their research. Math: Last week we learned about perimeter and this week we have moved on to time. We will start with a review of telling time to the minute and the move on to more challenging problems involving elapsed time. Science: We have been working on ecosystems and food chains. This week our focus was on food chains and how energy flows within a food chain and what happens to an ecosystem if an organism is removed from a food chain. Social Studies: We started our unit on climate and land forms and how people adapt to or modify the environment (deserts, plains, wetlands, mountains) in which they live. Announcements:
STAAR practice homework will be coming home for the next 5-6 weeks. Homework will be sent home on Friday and should be returned to school by the following Wednesday. STAAR assessments will be given on May 13th and May 14th. Upcoming Events: April 12- Run wild for Wildlife- turn in donations and run during specials April 19- No School May 13 &14- STAAR assessments May 23- Last day of school What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We have been working on grammar/conventions in writing. We learned more about pronouns and subject-verb agreement. Reading: We are working on our PBL research and taking "notefact" to use on our final projects. Math: We started our unit on perimeter/measurement/capacity. For extra practice on these math concepts, students can use khan academy. There is a khan academy link on the elsa england website under student links. Science: We started our next unit on ecosystems and food chains. We learned a lot of new vocabulary and observed/discussed the relationship between living and non-living things in an ecosystem. Announcements:
Our field trip to the Westcave Preserve is on Tuesday, March 26th. We will be leaving school about 9 a.m. and should be returning about 1:30 p.m. (depending on traffic). Please have your child wear comfortable walking shoes, hat, sack lunch, snack and sunscreen. Sunscreen must be applied to your child before he/she arrives at school. Report Cards: Please sign and return one copy of your child's report card in the envelope. Thank you! Upcoming Events: March 25- Ocean Adventures Assembly March 26- Field Trip to the Westcave Preserve April 19- No school May 13 and 14- STAAR assessments What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We started researching for our PBL projects. Our driving question is "How can we educate others to reduce trash/pollution, prevent further habitat loss, and preserve our natural resources?" Reading: We are working on our nonfiction/informational reading unit. Students are reading books, magazine articles, and websites that relate to our PBL driving question and taking "notefacts" that will help with their final PBL project. Math: We continued working on our fraction unit, focusing on equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. We will be finishing this unit and taking a fraction quiz next week. Science: We finished our unit on space and took the unit DCA. Our next science unit is environments, ecosystems and food chains. Social Studies: We finished our economics unit with the Economics Fair and reflection sheet. Announcements: Economics fair is on Tuesday! Please help your child in making sure they have 35-40 products made for Tuesday morning. Students should bring their products, 4 quarters to make change, and money to use for shopping. Also, if your child has an Elsa England PTA shirt (pink or gray) please have him/her wear it on Tuesday. We are asking parents not to stay for the economics fair. Elsa England has over 1,200 students and it is just too difficult to accommodate parents. Thank you.
Field Trip Forms: All field trip forms are due on Monday, March 11th. We will be going on our field trip to the Westcave Preserve on March 26th. Libraries of Love: First grade is a part of the service learning project called Libraries of Love. They will be collecting money to help build libraries in Uganda. They will be hosting a Walk-a-thon on March 14th. Students can walk this a new hardcover book and read it with a buddy before donating it to a good cause. Record sheets are due on March 13th. Upcoming Events: March 11: Field trip forms due/ Great Books with Grandparents March 12: Economics fair March 14: Libraries of Love Walk-a-thon March 18-22: Spring Break March 26: Field trip to Westcave Preserve What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We focused on revising skills. We worked on 3 different passages looking for revising errors(adding and deleting sentences, rearranging sentences, combining sentences). We took the Revising/Editing DCA on Friday. Reading: We are continuing to work on our nonfiction/informational reading unit. Our focus is on PBL related articles, books, websites. Students will pick a PBL related topic to research and record "notefacts" and then create their PBL project. Math: Our current math unit is fractions. This week we focused on equivalent fractions and then comparing fractions. Science: We are working on our space unit in science. This week our focus was on the planets of the solar system. Students worked with partners to research each planet. We will continue our research next week. We will also take the DCA for this unit next week. Social Studies: In our economics unit, we focused on advertising. We created advertisements for our economics fair products. We will finish these advertisements on Monday. Announcements:
Field Trip Forms: Please fill out and return by March 11th. Economics Fair: Our economics fair is nest Tuesday March 12th! Students are required to make 35-40 items for the economics fair and bring their items on March 12th. Libraries of Love: All of first grade is excited to be part of a service learning opportunity called Libraries of Love. Important information about the project was sent home on Thursday. First grade is collecting money to help create libraries in Uganda. They will also be hosting a walk-a-thon on March 14th. Students can walk with a new hardcover book and read it with their buddy before donating it to a good cause. The recording sheet is due by March 13th. Upcoming Events: March 11- Field trip forms due March 12- Economics Fair- all products due March 18-22- Spring Break March 26- Field trip to Westcave Preserve What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: This week our focus was on editing skills such as capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and using correct tenses. Next week we will be focusing on revising skills in preparation for our writing DCA. Reading: We are continuing to focus on informational/nonfiction reading. We are using a number of PBL resources for this unit. Materials may be articles, books, online sources, or videos. We will begin taking "notefacts" from these materials as we research our PBL project. Math: We are starting our next unit on fractions. We will be focusing on comparing fractions and equivalent fractions. Science: We started our next unit on space. We spent this week focusing on the sun, earth and moon. New vocabulary: orbit, rotation, revolution, axis, model, sun, earth, moon. Social Studies: We talked about scarcity and availability of products (supply) and how the demand can effect the cost of the product or service. Announcements: We are taking our STAAR practice tests on Monday and Tuesday. Please have your child bring bottled water and a snack.
Field trip forms came home on Thursday, please fill out and return the permission slip and the lunch choice by March 11th. Economics fair is just two weeks away! Students are required to make 35-40 items and bring to school on March 12th. Picture day is Thursday, February 28th! Please bring order forms by Thursday if you are ordering pictures. Upcoming Events: February 25 &26: STAAR practice tests February 28: Picture Day March 11: Field trip forms due March 12: Economics Fair March 18-22: Spring Break March 26: Field Trip to Westcave Preserve What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We are continuing our unit on nonfiction/informational writing. We have been writing responses to books and articles that tie into our PBL Conservation project. Reading: We are reading nonfiction and informational articles, books, magazines that relate to our PBL conservation project. Math: We are finishing up our multiplication and division unit. We were focusing on word/story problems and using different strategies to find the missing information. Science: We finished our unit on Weather and Climate by building and testing our anemometers and wind vanes. We will be starting our new unit on Space. Social Studies: We are working on our economics unit. We are focusing on creating a simple budget and identifying ways to save and spend money. Announcements:
Economics Fair is only 3 weeks away! Students are required to make 35-40 items, so please have your student start making their products. Six Flags Reading Program sheets are due on February 22nd. Please let me know if you need a new sheet. Home Access Center can be used any time to check on your students grades and missing assignments. If you have any problems logging in, please contact the front office. STAAR practice tests will be given on February 25th and 26th. Upcoming Events; February 18-19: No School February 22: Career Fair and Six Flags Reading Sheets Due February 25-26: STAAR practice tests March 12: Economics Fair Day! All items must be completed- Major Grade! March 18-22: Spring Break What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: Students finished their fictional stories and started researching ideas for our next writing unit-informational writing. Students will focus on a topic that goes along with our third grade Legacy project on Conservation of Natural Resources/Endangered Species. Reading: Our focus in reading is also informational texts and text features. Again we will be reading and reflecting on stories and articles that relate to our Legacy project. Math: This unit of math is focusing on multiplication and division of 6's and 9's, especially in word/story problems. Please practice these multiplication and division facts at home. We will be moving on to two digit by one digit multiplication soon. Science: We continued working on our unit of weather and climate. We recorded and compared the weather in Round Rock and Amarillo for 5 days. We also built anemometers to measure the speed of the wind. Social Studies: We focused on the differences between producers and consumers, goods and services and the how businesses make a profit. Announcements:
Valentines Day Party and Supplies: Our Valentines Day party is this Thursday, February 14th. Please check out the link below to sign up to donate an item or volunteer. Thanks! Valentines Day Party Sign up Valentines Boxes and Cards: If your student is decorating a Valentines Day box or bringing Valentines cards, please bring your items on Thursday. Also please check the updated class list. Thanks! Economics Fair: Our economics fair will take place on March 12th. Students are required to make 35-40 items to sell at the fair. Six Flags Reading Program: Please fill out the form and return by February 22nd. If you need another copy, please let me know. Upcoming Events: February 14- Valentines Day Party (1:30-2:30) February 15-Bluebonnet Breakfast for students who read and passed 10 books and quizzes February 18-19- No school for students February 22- Career Fair March 12- Economics Fair March 18-22- Spring Break What's Been Happening in Class? Writing: We are finishing our fiction writings. Students are revising/editing their first draft or completing their final draft. We will start our new unit on informational writing next week. Reading: We finished up our unit on traditional literature. We focused on story elements like plot and theme. Specifically we read King Midas Golden Touch, Yonder Mountain and Why Mosquitoes Buzz In Our Ears. Next week we will start our unit on informational text/research (PBL) project. Math: We finished our unit on geometry and started our unit on multiplication and division. Specifically we will be working on the 9 facts, 6 facts, and 7 facts. We will also be using multiplication and division in word and story problems to ensure our students understand how to solve the problem. Science: We started our next unit on weather and climate. We will be comparing and recording weather data from two Texas cities. We will also be learning about the weather tools that meteorologists use to track the weather. Social Studies: We are continuing to work on our economics unit. Next week we will focus on goods, services, supply, demand, human capital, income, wage, education and opportunity cost. |
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