Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a nice weekend! It was so nice to have some warmer weather!
*Important Announcements This Week*
*Benchmark Assessments: We will take our last benchmark test this week. Students will take the Virginia Studies benchmark test on Tuesday, 2/5. We will not be reviewing in class for this benchmark as we did not review for any of the benchmarks, so that we can truly see what the students have learned and remember from the first semester of the year.
*Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s Day is next Thursday 2/14. This week I will send home a list of students’ names in our class so that students can begin working on Valentines. We will be exchanging Valentines this year, if students want to participate. It is completely optional. The rule is that if students would like to participate, they must create a Valentine for everyone in our class. Also, since we have many allergies in our school, please make sure that the Valentines that your child chooses does not include any candy/food. Small treats like stickers, pencils, erasers, or any other non-food items are fine if they come with the Valentine. We will be doing an engineering activity during the week of Valentine’s Day to create a container to hold our Valentines. Then on Valentine’s Day children will distribute and open the Valentines from their classmates. Our room parents sent out a sign-up on the “My School Anywhere” website asking for supplies to make our containers. Thank you in advance if you are able to donate items!
*Report Cards: Report cards will be sent home on Monday, February 11. I’m sure many of you have already seen your child’s progress for the 2nd quarter on PowerSchool, but the paper copy is for you to keep. Please keep the report card and return the signed envelope the next day on Tuesday 2/12. Thank you for your help with this.
*Assembly: Next week we will go to a very fun assembly! We will get to see the “Robert Jospe World Beat” program on Tuesday 2/12. This is one of my favorite assemblies that Short Pump has been able to do over the years, and I have a feeling the students will really enjoy it!
*What Are We Learning In Class?*
*Reading:
During our whole group lessons this week we will work with multiple meaning words. Students will analyze dictionary entries and try to determine which dictionary definition was used in a given sentence. It is important that students read carefully for the context of the word to be able to identify the correct definition in the dictionary entry. During small group rotations, students will meet with me in small group and we will continue our strategy work using leveled texts, while also rotating through “read to self” and “work on writing.”
We will start back up with word study this week. Please check in with your child this week to make sure that he or she is completing their homework carefully and correctly. Students will complete their word study sentence assessment on Thursday. Please be sure that your child is studying the meaning of the word and the word study feature so that they can correctly write sentences that demonstrate the meaning of the word. Students will take their word study test on Friday 2/8.
*Math:
This week we will continue with our fractions computation unit. On Friday, we learned how to find the greatest common factor (GCF). On Monday we will use the GCF to learn how to reduce/simplify fractions. On Tuesday we will continue our unit by learning how to find the least common multiple (LCM). Please make sure that your child is understanding the difference between these two concepts of GCF and LCM, because it is very common to mix them up.
Students will take a quiz on all fraction concepts on Wednesday 2/6. Please encourage your child to use their notebook to review in preparation for this quiz. On Thursday and Friday we will learn how to add and subtract fractions that have like (same) denominators. It will be important that students remember to always reduce their answer to simplest form! I do not expect parents to remember how to do all of the fraction concepts that we are working on this year. I tell the students each day to make sure that their notes are legible so that you all can read them at home.
*Social Studies:
We will review for the new nation test a little bit in class on Monday. Students will take the VS.6 New Nation Test on Wednesday, 2/6.
*Science:
This week we wtill complete a lab in class called “Ball on a Roll.” We will investigate how the height of a ramp affects the potential energy of a ping pong ball. Please ask your child about the lab and see if they can tell you what the independent variable (height of the ramp) and the dependent variable (distance the ball rolled) were in the experiment. Students will take a short lab quiz on this experiment on Thursday 2/7.
The Force, Motion, & Energy Energy Test will be on Friday 2/8.
Have a great week!
-Mrs. Jacobsen