Hi everyone! We have a lot going on, so thank you so much for all of your support at home!
*Important Announcements**
*Parent Survey: SPES needs your help! Please take a 10-minute survey to share your input: http://tiny.cc/spesfamilysurvey (Please submit by Friday, January 18th)
*Kids Club: Kids Club begins this week. If you signed your child up for this program, feel free to send in a snack with your child that he/she can eat while students wait to be called to their class.
*BINGO Night: Friday, January 11th is Family Bingo Night and the Silent Auction. Information was sent out by PTA via email about this fun night. The SPES Teachers have also created items to be auctioned off as part of a silent auction for this night. The event starts at 6:00 PM. We hope that you will be able to attend the Bingo night and silent auction!
*Classroom Prizes: Our class is running low on raffle prizes, and we could use some new Dollar Store prizes for our “Gotta Get It Card” drawings. Thank you in advance if you are able to send in some items!
*What Are We Learning In Class?*
*Reading:
The reading skill we will work on this week is understanding and identifying affixes (prefixes & suffixes) and roots. Students will have homework during the week to practice these skills, and there will be a classwork grade on affixes and roots on Friday 1/11. We will be spending time in class discussing the meanings of various prefixes and suffixes, and how they change the meaning of a base word. We will also learn about the meanings of common roots and how they can help us understand new words.
During small group rotations, students will meet with me in our small groups and we will continue our strategy work using leveled texts. Students will also rotate through “read to self,” writing rotations, and other classwork assignments.
We will also continue with a new word study unit this week. We will meet in our small groups to discuss the words and how we use them. Please note that students will have 2 assessment during the week. On Thursday, they will be given 10 of their word study words to write sentences for. They will need to use the words correctly and show the meaning of the word. Then students will take their Word Study Test on Friday 1/11.
*Math:
This week we will finish our unit on division. On Monday we will review three digit type B division that we did on Friday. Students will take a division quiz on Tuesday 1/8, which will cover all types of division problems we have learned so far (2 and 3 digit).
The last concept that we will do this week before our test will be estimating quotients. The important thing for you to know is that we will NOT be rounding and then dividing. Instead I will teach the students how to use the compatible numbers strategy. This means we will change the dividend to a new number which will make an “easy” division problem to complete. Please look in your child’s math notebook for the notes on how we will be estimating quotients.
Students will take the Division Test on Friday, 1/11.
*Social Studies:
This week we will begin our next unit! We will be learning about Virginia in the American Revolution (VS.5). In order for students to understand the background of why the colonists would want to separate from Great Britain, first we will discuss French and Indian War and the taxes that angered the colonists (not in their notes).
The topics students will learn about in their notes will be the conflicts between the colonists and the British that led to the Declaration of Independence (VS.5a), the role of famous Virginians during this time period and the role that everyday Virginians played during the American Revolution (VS.5b), and some important events during the Revolution including the surrender at Yorktown (VS.5c).
Please check in with your child to make sure that he or she is reviewing their notes a little bit each night.
Students will take the VS.5 American Revolution Test on Thursday, 1/17.
*Science:
Students will take the Earth, Moon, & Sun Vocabulary Quiz on Tuesday 1/8. The last topic in our unit that we will learn this week is the phases of the moon. Please check in with your child to see how they are doing with the different phases. Our class will take the Earth, Moon, & Sun Test on Wednesday, 1/16.
Have a super week!
-Mrs. Jacobsen