Friday, November 14, 2014

IT'S ALMOST TURKEY TIME!

We will all be running next week to wrap up many areas of learning! It is important to be at school all day every day. The temperature is quickly dropping, so please be sure that your child is dressed appropriately. 
 On Thursday, your child should have given you a bright green "Emergency Dismissal Plan" for you to complete and return ASAP. With winter approaching, we need to know how your child will be going home in the event of inclement weather.

You are invited to join your child for Thanksgiving lunch at school on Wednesday at 11:40. On Tuesday and Thursday, we will be picking up sack lunches to eat in our classroom.

This week your student was introduced to a strategy for dividing multi-digit numbers by a single digit. An explanation and example of the strategy was sent home with their homework. Students need to understand how partial quotients help us divide large numbers. I know some of you may be frustrated with "Chunking & Chipping" but please try to be supportive and refrain from showing your child your way of dividing. We will get to traditional "long division" later. We will be learning some other division strategies in the classroom, also. Students will apply their learning to solving word problems and explaining their solutions in multiple ways which include area models and drawings. Please continue to remind your child to practice basic multiplication facts and division facts. From this blog, your child knows how to gain access to some fun practice games.

Today I sent home the study words for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. We will conduct spelling bees in our classroom to determine our representatives in the Addison Spelling Bee for fourth and fifth graders. The school winner will represent Addison at the Cobb County Spelling Bee. From there, the winner will go to the State Spelling Bee. Wouldn't it be great if the national winner came from 306 Listening Lane at Addison Elementary? 
I have posted Sort 15 at SPELLERZ (CODE: UTP772) and at SPELLING CITY.

Our study of some of the European explorers will conclude with the presentation of the students' posters. This week, I sent home the expectations for the poster project. Posters are due on December 2 and will be presented orally. Thank you for helping your child prepare. We are learning about Columbus, Cabot, Balboa, Hudson, Ponce de Leon, and Cartier and the ways the world was changed because of their explorations and discoveries. 

Grammar: We will be focusing on pronouns next week and their correct usage. Proper English, please!

 
Simple Machines are supposed to make work easier for everyone! We will continue our study of simple machines (lever, pulley, wheel and axle, inclined plane, screw, and wedge). 

 
Watch for information about the Thanksgiving Holidays Reading Challenge. Remind your child to check out a good chapter book or two to read during the break. We are fortunate to have both the Mountain View and Gritter's public libraries nearby. Take advantage of what they have to offer. 

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