January 11th-15th

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." 

 — Ralph Waldo Emerson

General Announcements:	We worked hard and had a great transition back last week! Please make sure your child has a replenished supply of  pencils, glue sticks, colored pencils, markers, eraser caps, and scissors for this semester.. Thank you!  Report Cards came home last Wednesday, January 6th! Please return if you have not done so already. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday- Monday, January 18th= NO SCHOOL Looking ahead:  PTO Parent Academy is Tuesday, January 26th 6:00-7:30 P.M.   We are collecting Box Tops again.  There are two collection dates this month:   January 13 and  January 27.  Make sure you label the BOX TOPS with your child's name and homeroom teacher's name.   Prizes will be drawn in March. Thank you for your AWESOME support of this easy school fundraiser!
Language Arts:	We will be comparing and contrasting 2 different stories about Christopher Columbus this week. After reviewing our findings we will determine if we think Columbus really deserved a national holiday. We will be doing a writing assignment about this in lieu of a comprehension test. The vocabulary test will be on Friday, January 15th. The first article was assigned on Tween Tribune last Friday. "Hawaii wonders, where are the whales?" is due on Friday, January 15th. Students will need to read the article and answer the 3 questions that go along with it. We practiced opening a separate window with the the quiz so that they can easily go back and check their answers, is it is only a 3 question quiz. The assignment is a 10 point homework grade. Spotlight reader will take place on Friday, January 15th as well. The students will need to bring the book of choice they are reading to school be prepared to present the following: book title, author, main characters, basic plot, and a teacher question of choice. Several students volunteered to do it last Friday and did a fantastic job. Starting this week I will be choosing students at random, so everyone needs to be prepared! Grammar IXL skills O.4, O.5, P.1, and Q.1 (Level G) are due on Google Classroom by Friday, January 15th.
Social Studies:	We are continuing our study of the creation of the United States government this week with the Articles of Confederation. I have posted discussion/reflection questions on the social studies google classroom for the kids to respond to as a participation grade. I am looking for the kids to answer and give a reason for their opinion. I want to see critical thinking!
Math:	We began our new Unit which focuses on Place Value and Adding/Subtracting Decimals. Cumulative Review #14  came home today and is due Wednesday. We will have a Cumulative Review quiz this Friday   Last week's Math IXL was due today. A new IXL contract came home today and is due NEXT TUESDAY. This week's skills are LEVEL G: G1 (What decimal number is illustrated?) G3- Understanding decimals expressed in words; G4- Place values in decimal numbers; G14-Convert decimals between standard and expanded form using fractions. Here is a link to Cumulative Review #14 link due WEDNESDAY!
Science:	We have been working on our "Human Impact on the Environment" research project. We will finish those up this week and present them in class. At this point, students that are not finished will need to finish outside of class time. We have had 5 full class days and some homeroom time to work on these projects.  ALL PROJECTS are due NO LATER than this FRIDAY. We will also begin a new unit on matter.  .