May 5 OAKS Reading Testing Begins
May 7 Out & About
May 8 Make Up PE
May 9 Garden Work Party
May 19 Last Library Visit
May 30* All School Meeting (Plovers will present) - corrected from last week's newsletter
Homework Due Thursday, May 8th - More details posted on the Homework Page
1. Read for at least 30 minutes per day.
* No reading response letter due this week
3. 3rd Graders complete pages 64, 65 & 66 in Math Practice Book
4th Graders complete pages 63, 64 & 65 in Math Practice Book
Upcoming Out and Abouts - Chaperones Needed
This week, we will begin our outdoor skills and emergency preparedness unit! On Wednesday (not our usual Out & About day), we will learn about setting up tarps and tents at Tom McCall Forest. Please sign up on VolunteerSpot if you would like to join us!
Volunteer Opportunities - Sign up on our VolunteerSpot page: http://vols.pt/drMimF
I would like to have some extra snacks available on OAKS testing days. If you are able to donate a healthy snack (bananas, cheese sticks, granola bars, or something else easy to distribute and eat) for the class, please sign up on the breakfast donation page. There is currently no one signed up for snacks on the following testing days: Wednesday 5/7, Wednesday 5/14 or Thursday 5/18.
Words Words Words!
The students' job is to look for these words in their reading or listen for them in conversation. If they find one of our words, they should record the sentence or bring the book with them to Morning Meeting. Try using these words at home and see if your Plover notices!
1. Announcement
2. Distant
3. Admit
4. Progress
5. Decision
6. Council
7. Instinctively
8. Exhausted
Math Notes
Last week in Third Grade Math, we talked some more about test-taking strategies and continued to review our major concepts from this year - addition and subtraction with re-grouping, reading graphs and charts, geometry, multiplication story problems and representing fractions. Students had opportunities to practice independently and with a partner at 8 different math centers. On Wednesday, we played geometry jeopardy outside! Groups of students had to use their bodies to demonstrate their understanding of geometry vocabulary such as: parallel, perpendicular, congruent, acute, obtuse, rhombus, trapezoid and octagon.
Third graders will begin testing on Wednesday, May 14. Testing is administered in the computer lab in short sessions, and students have the opportunity to work on the same test over multiple sessions so they can work at their own pace. Please help support your third grader by: encouraging them to do their best, making sure they eat breakfast and bring a snack, and helping them get plenty of sleep. If you have any questions or concerns about the state math test, please contact Laura at [email protected].
Last week in fourth grade math, we began our study of decimals and their relationship to fractions. Students watched videos, practiced place value skills, drew decimal arrays to demonstrate thinking, and learned about adding decimals. We also focused our week on reviewing fourth grade math concepts in preparation for the OAKS State Test. Fourth grade mathematicians also had an opportunity to practice the OAKS test in the computer lab with their state approved tool kits. The fourth grade mathematicians are scheduled to begin the OAKS Math Test on Monday May 12 between 9:30-10:30. If you have any questions or concerns about your mathematicians and "The Test", please let Becky know ASAP ([email protected]).
With the bonus points we've earned this year through Scholastic Reading Club purchases, the Plovers were able to get over 70 free books for the bookstore! WOW!!! We unpacked the boxes and unwrapped the free books, bookmarks and posters at Morning Meeting today. These new books will look great on the rotating book display the school has agreed to donate to our bookstore!
I have decided not to assign a reading response letter for homework this week, mostly because we will be taking the OAKS reading test and I want Plovers to be able to read for pleasure at home. Also, some students may need to work on their Oregon Trail rough drafts at home. Their introduction sections were due last Thursday and the middle section of their journals will be due this Friday. In this middle section, students must write journal entries from at least 3 different landmarks along the Oregon Trail. In these entries, they should also include facts they've learned, such as information about food they might have eaten while traveling (which they learned about on our Out & About last week!) or illnesses that were common among wagon trains.
If you would like to see a sample of a completed story, please click here (keep in mind that this is a final, edited copy, not a rough draft). I have also included two photos below from one of our mentor texts, How To Get Rich On The Oregon Trail by William Reed. Students can use ideas from these journal entries and illustrations to help them with their own writing. All writing that students take home MUST be returned to school DAILY; students will be working on their rough drafts in class every day.
Communication
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone, come into the classroom before or after school, or call me before 8PM at home.