November 15

This week we celebrated Veteran's Day with an assembly.  The students enjoyed honoring those who have served or continue to serve our country!

Our first field trip was a success!  Last Friday we went to Cahokia Mounds.  We didn't have a lot of time to spend there, but we had fun!  The kids loved climbing to the top of the mound.

We have another field trip coming up on December 2nd .  We will be going to Busch Stadium and participating in the CAPS program.  CAPS incorporates baseball into a variety of hands on learning activities.  This is a very fun field trip!  Permission slips went home on Wednesday.  Please send these in sometime in the next week or two if you haven't yet.

In math, we are finishing up Chapter 3 and 4.  We started dividing by one digit divisors, and now we have learned to divide by two digit divisors.  The test will be coming up later this week, and study guides will be coming home on Tuesday.  Please be on the lookout for these.  This week in one of the math centers, students planned a road trip and had to stick to a budget.  This was a way for them to have fun while practicing multiplication.

In writing, we are focusing on writing informational pieces.  Students have been researching Native Americans, and they are choosing a topic within this subject to write about.  Before starting the unit, we reviewed note-taking and paraphrasing.  After doing a little research, students organized their thoughts and ideas about Native Americans on post-its.  Then, they used their post-its to categorize the different topics they could write about.

In reading, we are are also focusing on informational texts.  Our mini lessons have focused on point of view, fact and opinion, summarizing, and text features.  By combining these topics in reading and writing, students are getting a firm grasp on how non-fiction pieces are organized.

In science, we are finishing up the water cycle and weather tools.  On Monday, we made water cycles in a bag.  We taped them to the window where they could get sunlight.  After a few days, students observed how evaporation, condensation, and eventually precipitation happened in the bag.  Our test on the water cycle and weather tools will be coming up soon.  Look for study guides to come home this week.

Here are a few pictures from the Halloween party.  Thank you so much to those that came and helped plan the party!  The kids had a great time!