Friday Already?

Busy, busy, busy is the best way to describe our school days!  It's the reason I shake my head on a Friday in disbelief that it's Friday. 

In Language Arts, students visited three skill stations to review sequencing in regards to our story, Tony and the Snark.  They had fun exchanging storyboards, placing them in sequential order, and retelling main events in their own words.  Boards are on display and can be seen at Open House.  At station two, students explored Spelling City on our blog. Every spelling list for the year has been loaded, so students may play games and take practice tests for each list they work on this year.  They now know how to access the lists for review, and there are many activities to choose from.  Word cards were manipulated at station three, where students used vocabulary to form the four types of sentences. 

Group 310 visited for more map practice today!  They were using the global grid to find exact locations of cities all over the Earth with desk maps.  We will soon move on to the geography of Africa next week!  Everyone is doing so well.

During our weekly team meeting today, the students and I talked about bullying and the general rules of sharing during team meetings.  We discussed some of the activities in which we'll participate this year.  Many seem quite comfortable sharing thoughts, so we should have lively meetings this year.

In Music, Mrs. McIlvaine has been teaching lessons about The Star Spangled Banner.  She sent me an e-mail with a test alert for next Wednesday.  All students have a study guide that they should review, and they should know the words to the song.  When I picked them up from class yesterday, they sang the song for me, and it sounded quite beautiful!

Homework:
ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!  Also,
Math - Quiz on Monday
Language Arts - Spelling and selection quizzes next Thursday.
Social Studies - Study your study guide.  Quiz on Wednesday (group 308) and Thursday (310)
Music - see above
SHARE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR FRIDAY FOLDER WITH YOUR PARENTS. 

Fun with Maps

We are having a great week and have been so busy!  The slideshow above shows some activities we've been participating in to learn more about maps.  We've learned much about tools found on maps that help us interpret the information they show. In the pictures, you will see our orange activity that helped us learn about the lines of latitude and longitude, and the desk maps we used to find exact locations using the global grid.  The periods at school fly by!  Often, when class is over, we are not ready to stop what we're doing. 

In Language Arts, we joined Ms. Rader's classes in the cafeteria to kick off our Readers' Cafe (McD's)!  Our teachers read a short story and modeled the roles we'll be taking in cafe!  It was fun to see how everything will work!  We will receive our first novel next week!  Yay!

Homework:
Math - Practice sheet
Reading - Story boards are due tomorrow. There will bevocabulary/comprehension quizzes next Thursday.
Social Studies - Study your study guide.  There will be a quiz next Wednesday.
Chorus - Chorus sheet is due next Tuesday.

Sentence Surgery

This digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

The ambulance pulled into the right place today!  The patients, all sentences, were placed in capable hands!  Each group, led by Mrs. McIlvaine, prepared needed supplies for surgery and consulted with one another before beginning.  Some groups of words didn't form complete sentences!  Some lacked subjects or predicates!  Some didn't have proper capitalization or punctuation!  In groups, the students operated, bandaged,  and gently placed their patients in beds in the recovery room.  We are sincerely hoping that all of them pull through!  We'll find out tomorrow!  Enjoy the slideshow!

We are beginning the story 'Tony and the Snark!'  Students will take the role of screenwriters and create a storyboard for the story as we read.  Who knows?  Tony and the Snark might make a great movie!  The storyboards will help us to practice the skill of sequencing on Friday during our skill stations, at the very least.  New vocabulary was introduced and a new spelling list was given!  We will work with these words throughout the week and next.

In Social Studies, we are exploring Africa using maps! We have studied so many maps, and each has shown us different information!  There is so much to learn about this place!

We had a great day!

Homework:
Math - practice sheet
Reading - Share your Family Times
Spelling - Trace + 2 due on Thursday!