Welcome Back!
I hope you enjoyed your time with family and friends as much as I did. I am refreshed and ready to start 2014! We started our first days back writing resolutions for the new year. Students now have an assignment to look back at the past year and find something memorable about it. They received a worksheet with instructions - the completed worksheet and picture are due on Tuesday, January 14!
Too Good For Drugs Program Begins
Deputy Seward from the DuPage County Sheriff's Department visited our classroom on Friday for our first session of T.G.F.D. A letter explaining more about the program was sent home with students. Also, students received a family homework assignment which you are encouraged to complete before our next session.
Subject Update:
- Spelling - The Lesson 15 pretest will be given on Monday. The students will be assigned homework during the week to practice their words, and a final test will be given on Friday. *Starting in January, students may only print 5 words "just in case." Please continue to work on cursive letter formation at home!
- English - We have begun our grammar unit on pronouns by distinguishing between subject and object pronouns. Next week, we will focus on how to use I and me correctly, and work with possessive pronouns.
- Reading - Students will be working with historical fiction. We will be practicing a variety of reading strategies as we work with this genre: point of view, fact and opinion, and cause and effect. 2nd Trimester Reading Project - Students should be taking notes on the "Biography Shape Booklet Notes" worksheet while reading. (This was one of the hand-outs students received about the project.)
- Science - We will be learning how people affect ecosystems.
- Social Studies - Students will be creating some of the games colonial children may have played when not in school or doing chores. Students will also try to match up some of the home remedies used during colonial times with common ailments, and look at some of the clever sayings and advice given by Ben Franklin in his Poor Richard's Almanac.
- Mrs. Strong's Math Class - We will continue in Chapter 5 by working more with rounding decimals, learning how to estimate sums and differences, and determining when you need to find an estimate or exact answer. There will be no math on Tuesday (due to MAP testing) or Wednesday (due to early dismissal).
Mark Your Calendar:
Jan. 14 - Reading MAP Testing for Mrs. Strong's Class
Jan. 15 - Early Dismissal (11:00 a.m.)
Jan. 17 - T.G.F.D. (Session 2)
Jan. 20 - No School (M. L. King Day)
