Class Title: Chavura (meaning a gathering of friends)

Ms. Cutshaw and Mr. Smith

For the week of February 20, 2012:

Things you need to know…

1)      Be aware that students will have an increasing work/homework load from last year.

2)      Please help your child check his/her agenda and make sure he/she has all materials ready for the next school day.

3)      Students should be reading and practicing their basic +, -, and x math facts every night in addition to written homework in order to build fact fluency.

4)      Please see the email we sent on October 19^th regarding the new assessment policy. Remember that the red folder sent home is for assessments only. After reviewing and signing, please return only the reading comprehension and math tests.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email us anytime at kcutshaw@hickoryday.org and gsmith@hickoryday.org.

The school will be closed on Monday, February 20^th, for President’s Day.

Programme of Inquiry (How We Organize Ourselves)

Central Idea:

Leaders and citizens play a role in decision-making

Lines of Inquiry:

            How politicians serve citizens

            How governments enforce rules

            Rights and citizens of citizens

Teacher Questions:

            How does government affect your life?

            What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens and leaders of a community?

            What are some obstacles governments face in the world today?

This week students are…

            completing and presenting our final projects (letter and skit for 3^rd graders; letter and PowerPoint for 4^th graders).

Co-curricular Activities

Art-Students will be studying the artwork of various NC artists and completing reflections for this unit of inquiry.

Reader’s Theater-Students will be reading The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaolo and completing reflections for this unit of inquiry.

Spanish-Students will continue studying Venezuela and complete reflections for this unit of inquiry.

Performing Arts-The students will discuss the political hierarchy in the Wizard of Oz and the injustices faced by the munchkins, as well as completing reflections for this unit of inquiry.

Spelling

Weekly spelling lists are determined by each student’s individual performance on the Spelling Inventory assessment given at the beginning of the year. Therefore, we are targeting the specific spelling rules that the students have not yet mastered.

Spelling lists for the week are as follows:

Group A- (adding –ing; double, e-drop, nothing): trimming, diving, pushing, floating, running, riding, jumping, raining, mixing, taxing, popping, sliding, finding, sleeping, dragging, driving, kicking, boating, wagging, wasting, wanting, waiting

Group B- (more prefixes): preschool, explode, misspell, preview, exceed, mistreat, prevent, expose, misplace, preheat, explore, misuse, prefix, exile, misbehave, prepare, expand, mistake, predict, exclaim, mislay

Group C-(vowel alterations in related pairs): cave, cavity, humane, humanity, nation, national, volcano, volcanic, grave, gravity, nature, natural, insane, insanity, major, majority, narrate, narrative, relate, relative, able, ability

Group D- (homophones): lye, lie, aisle, isle, earn, urn, sole, soul, vein, vane, vain, wrote, rote, flair, flare, wail, whale, wale, cash, cache, faint, feint

The following routines will be in place for the entire school year.

Spelling homework routine:

Monday-say, sort, and spell words out loud

Tuesday-Create a Word Search with your words and have someone search for them.

Wednesday-Write words in ABC order in Language Arts binder

Thursday- Create a crossword puzzle with your words.

In-class ABC Center Routine:

Monday (during morning meeting)-Students will record their words in their agendas and then cut out and sort their words for the week based on the sound and spelling patterns they notice.

Tuesday-Students sort their words based on the sound and spelling pattern and then record those patterns in the spelling section of their Language Arts binders.

Thursday-Students will do blind sorts with a partner using either the Smartboard or sand trays. A partner will read a word from the other student’s list and that student will write the word in the sand and must state what spelling rule applies to that word.

Vocabulary

Students work on one Wordly Wise lesson per week in class with teacher support. If they do not finish the lesson by the end of the week, they must complete it for homework on the weekend. We collect their books and grade their lessons on Monday. In preparation for their test on Tuesday, they must make corrections to their lessons Monday night for homework. Students must make all corrections to the lesson before being allowed to take the test.  

Math

The 3^rd and 4^th graders will take a basic fact quiz every Thursday to test their automaticity with the +, -, and x facts. They will record their progress each week and will graph their quarterly progress on the computer with a line graph.

3^rd Grade Math

Monday- No School

Tuesday- Test review and Lesson 9.1: Multiply and Divide with Multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000. Objective: To multiply and divide with multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000.

Wednesday- Lesson 9.1 continued.

Thursday- Lesson 9.2: Use Mental Math to Multiply. Objective: To use mental math to multiply one digit numbers by multi-digit numbers.

Friday – Lesson 9.3: Exploring Arrays, Areas, and Fractions. Objective: To model multiplication with base-10 blocks; to explore relationship involving area; and to find fractions of fractions.

4^th Grade Math:

Monday- No School

Tuesday- Lesson 11.1: Weight. Objective: To review grams and ounces as units of weight; and to estimate and measure weights in grams and ounces.

Wednesday- Lesson 11.2: Geometric Solids. Objective: To review properties of common geometric solids.

Thursday- Lesson 11.3: Constructing Geometric Solids. Objective: To identify geometric solids, given their properties; and to construct polyhedrons with straws and twist-ties.

Friday- Lesson 11.4: Volume Exploration. Objective: To review concepts and units of volume.

Reading

We are using leveled Reading A-Z titles and literature circles during our daily reading block that relate to our Programme of Inquiry. During our reading block, the students work on developing fluency, different reading strategies, and comprehension skills in small reading groups. Our primary focus this year will be on non-fiction texts.

The ultimate goal for the remainder of the year is to enable the students to thoughtfully discuss a piece of literature with peers without much teacher intervention. This will obviously take some time to perfect, but we believe it is a skill that will serve the children well in the years to come.

The following is our weekly reading group routine. This routine may vary some for the groups using chapter books and the groups using Reading A-Z books.

Monday – Discuss the focus questions / preview the text. Begin choral reading of the text. Use the Thinkmark and Thinkmark codes (reading strategies) to generate dialogue about the text. These codes are posted in the classroom so that students can readily access them.

Tuesday – Review yesterday’s reading. Focus on comprehension skill for this week using a mini-lesson. Continue choral reading of the text while using the Thinkmark.

Wednesday – Review yesterday’s reading. Review comprehension skill for that week. Continue reading of the text with the Thinkmark.

Thursday – Students (re)read the text on their own while answering the discussion card / Thinkmark questions.

For homework on Thursday, students will reread the book at home and go through the discussion cards with a parent or sibling to prepare for their test. For the students currently in a formal literature circle, they will complete a role sheet on Wednesday night as part of their literature circle contribution (i.e. summarizer, bridge builder, question creator, etc.)

Friday – Quiz on this week’s reading and comprehension skills.

This week the students are working on the following texts:

This week, instead of our literature circles, the students will spend the first part of the day working in groups on their “Kids Are Authors” books. We want to give them ample time to ensure that we are finished and able to submit before the deadline for the contest. We will return to our literature circle texts next week.

Writing

Some weeks the students will be learning about each of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing (Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Voice, Conventions, and Presentation) and will use their knowledge of each of these traits to create their own non-fiction books in Writer’s Workshop. The 6 +1 Traits are directly correlated to the ERB standards. Other weeks we will target specific forms of writing (i.e. persuasive, descriptive, expository, etc.) and the students will have a written piece to accompany that. The students will also be assigned to a strategy group in which we will target specific writing needs. We will also conference with each student individually once a week.

The following is our weekly writing block routine for the entire year.

Monday-Whole Group Writing Instruction-The students are introduced to one of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing or form of writing. The students will also begin the brainstorming and/or story mapping process for their next piece of writing.

Tuesday-The students will meet with their strategy group and the teacher and group will discuss their brainstorming/story mapping ideas and offer suggestions for how to improve upon their ideas. Then, students will work independently and begin their rough drafts/books. The objective of each student is to incorporate one or more of the 6 + 1 Traits into their writing along with the suggestions made by their group members.

Wednesday-The students will continue working on their rough drafts/books based on the suggestions of the members in their strategy group. Individual conferences will be held on this day. If students are working on a book, they do not have to have their books completed at this time. Students may work on creating their books for up to 6 weeks.

Thursday-The students will meet with their strategy groups and will share their rough drafts with the group. The group and teacher will offer any suggestions that could help improve the student’s writing. The students will then begin their final written drafts.

Friday-Strategy groups will not meet. The students will use what they learned from their strategy group and work independently to complete their final drafts. At the end of this period, we will have an author’s chair where one student will share the writing he/she did that week with the entire class.

Other important information:

In addition to the above centers, we will also be working on the following:

Penmanship: On Fridays, students work on penmanship with a focus on cursive letter and word formation.

Science:  This week we are focusing on environmental laws and their impact on plants and animals.

Writing / Poetry: On Tuesdays, students brainstorm and begin work on a new creative writing prompt that is usually related to our Program of Inquiry. On Thursdays, students complete rough drafts or read and illustrate a piece of poetry in their poetry notebooks.

Critical Thinking / Independent Reading: On Tuesdays and Thursdays students work on critical thinking skills through games, puzzles, logic problems, and teacher-directed activities. When finished early, students are allowed to read independently.

Typing / Keyboarding Skills: On Mondays and Wednesdays, students practice keyboarding skills through the Type To Learn and/or Typing Instructor programs. At other times, students practice by typing a piece of their writing into a document to save on our school server.

Wellness: At 2:30 each day we have physical wellness, and on the first Wednesday of the month we have emotional wellness in the mornings. This week in wellness we will be focusing on team sports including sportsmanship, coordinating efforts, and differing roles.