News for 10/22

It's hard to believe we just finished our last full week of October. We have been having so much fun and learning so much. Time is just flying by (idiom, fourth grade! :D)! 

1st Grade Talent Development

First graders have had a great week continuing with Mary Poppins and learning about London landmarks.  Students have been busy making puppets for their favorite chapter from the book and will be writing about what happened, then acting it out for us.  We have talked about Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace this week as well.  We are on our way to beginning our research on landmarks in London!

2nd Grade Talent Development

Second grade has been hard at work this week. We have begun our fall ISP projects. The students are selecting a city in the world that they would like to visit. They will research the city and then present their learning in a fun way. 

We also had the privilege of skyping with Matthew J. Gilbert, the author of "The Unlucky Lottery Winners of Classroom 13". The students were so surprised and excited to have the opportunity to meet the author of a class favorite and Bluebonnet nominated book! Be sure to ask your student about the visit!

3rd Grade Math

Third graders have been exploring patterns this week.  We have made figures out of square tiles, played games and completed task cards to show our knowledge.  We have also connected what we know by making tables to show patterns and relationships between variables.  We ended the week with a workday on our ISPs by researching the countries they chose.

4th Grade Math

Fourth graders have spent the week continuing our exploration of the coordinate grid.  We have done some online practice with Desmos and studied the relationship between x and y coordinates by looking at tables.  Students are doing a great job going deeper with their thinking!  We also had a fun project late in the week.  We got a lot of bottled water donated to our school to help us out.  Mrs. Crawford was told it was 6 tons of water, but we needed to be sure!  Ask your kiddos about how we calculated the weight of those bottles and what we found out!  We ended the week with a workday for ISP by researching our libraries.

5th Grade Math

Fifth graders have spent the week multiplying and dividing fractions.  All students have done a great job and are showing mastery of the skill.  We practiced by looking at blueprints for a house and calculating the area for all the rooms, measured in mixed numbers and fractions.  Students enjoyed the challenge!  We also had a fun day of calculating how much bottled water was donated to our school in fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons.  Ask your kiddo what they found out- it was quite a generous donation! 

We ended the week with a workday for our ISPs.  Students are beginning to recreate their works of art.  We can't wait to see what they make!

3rd Reading

Third grade grade wrapped up their poetry unit this week. We began our unit on expository texts. We looked at author's purpose and identified the similarities and differences between expository and fiction texts. We also began our next novel study of "Rump" by Liesl Shurtliff. The students are already enjoying this new novel!

This week we also worked on our fall ISP projects. Each student selected a country to learn about. The students are super excited to showcase their learning!

4th Reading

Fourth grade has begun their unit on poetry. We are busy studying various types of poems and poetic literary devices. The students really got a kick out of idioms! 
This week we began our next novel study, "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library". The students are loving this book and even had a little fun solving rebus puzzles just like the characters in the book. We are really excited and looking forward to our opportunity to skype with author, Chris Grabenstein next month! It will be an amazing opportunity for our students!

We are also working on our fall ISP projects. The students are busy researching their library and planning their buildings. 

5th Reading

Fifth grade is digging into Literary Nonfiction this week. We are discussing the five elements of literary nonfiction and applying our knowledge to showcase a book. The students were given literary nonfiction books and challenged to create an engaging pamphlet that demonstrates their knowledge of the five elements and ability to apply that knowledge. 

We are also very excited to begin the creative process of our fall ISPs this week. The students are very eager to begin re-creating a famous work of art from the artist that they researched. It will be exciting to see the students demonstrate their creative abilities!

Have a great weekend, see you next week!

Important Dates:
10/30 Spooky Stories for Siblings

 in the library 10:30am
10/31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math
11/1 1st grade field trip
11/2 2nd grade field trip
11/6 TAG Referral Parent Info Night 6:00pm in library
11/9 Veteran's Day Program 8:00am
11/13 3rd Grade Field Trip
11/13 PTA Meeting and 5th grade performance 5:45pm
11/14 Thanksgiving Lunch
11/16 Kindergarten Performance 8:00am
11/16 Kona Ice after school
11/19-23 Thanksgiving Break

News for 10/15

What a week it has been! It's hard to believe that we are half way through October and finished with the first 9 weeks of school already. We've had a lot of fun learning this week and are looking forward to more next week!

1st Grade Talent Development

First graders have spent the week with Mary Poppins.  We are about halfway through the book and are loving it!  We used our Depth and Complexity icons to create a character frame for Mary Poppins and then drew detailed pictures of her.  We have also explored some landmarks in London to begin our fall group ISP.  We watched tours of the Globe Theater and Tower Bridge this week.  Stay tuned for more!

2nd Grade Talent Development

Second grade has been enjoying their next book "A Bear Called Paddington". We are exploring characters, plot, and setting as we read. This week we started creating paper puppets of the characters we have met so far. We will use these to do a video retelling of our favorite part of the book.

3rd Grade Math

Third graders have had a great week wrapping up our unit on addition and subtraction.  We finished up our project to organize a trip to Orlando and everyone managed to stay under budget!  We also learned a new game to practice subtraction- Farkle.  This is a fun game played with 6 dice and paper and pencil.  Let me know if you'd like the rules and directions to play at home.  They all had a great time with it!  We ended the week with a day dedicated to our fall ISP.  Students are all creating a hotel room themed based on a country they will research.  All students have chosen a country and are on their way to learn all about it!

4th Grade Math

Fourth graders have spent the week studying prime and composite numbers and the first quadrant of the coordinate grid.  They created slideshows in partners to show their knowledge of a set of four numbers, including pictures of all the arrays for each number.  They presented to the class and did a great job!  We learned about graphing ordered pairs by reading the book The Fly on the Ceiling, a fiction book about Rene Descartes, who invented the cartesian graphing system.  We also played Battleship in partners and played Kahoot! games to practice our skills.  We ended the week with a day to work on our group ISP on libraries.  All students have chosen libraries and are well on their way to researching all about them!

5th Grade Math

Fifth graders have spent the week studying how to multiply fractions with fractions and whole numbers.  We created pictures from pattern blocks and related the fractional pieces to multiplication problems.  We had a great time!  We also spent a day working on our fall ISPs on famous artists.  Students finished up their research papers and are almost ready to recreate the pieces of art they have chosen.

3rd Reading

Third grade grade is enjoying our unit on poetry. We are studying different types of poetry and exploring figurative language. We really enjoyed analyzing poems and sharing them with the class. It has been a lot of fun! 

We also got to have the amazing experience of skyping with Elizabeth Eulberg, author of "The Great Shelby Holmes". She will be one of the authors present at the Texas Book Festival next weekend. Her panel is scheduled for 1:30-2:15 on Saturday, October 27th at the Next Chapter Tent with a book signing after. The students really enjoyed getting some first hand insight to this awesome book. Be sure to ask your student about the visit!

4th Reading

Fourth grade completed a week of learning about and writing procedural texts. The students experienced making an owl cupcake with their homeroom classes and then wrote a procedural text explaining the process. Next week we will begin our unit on poetry.
We also enjoyed a visit from Mrs. Hougham for our counselor lesson on conflict resolution.

5th Reading

Fifth grade completed their fall ISP essays about a famous artist this week. This was in conjunction with learning about informational texts and connected to our novel study of "Chasing Vermeer". Next week we will be moving on to literary nonfiction.

Have a great weekend, see you next week!

Important Dates:
10/22-26 Red Ribbon Week

10/26 PTA Fun Run 6:00pm
10/30 Spooky Stories for Siblings
 in the library 10:30am
10/31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math
11/1 1st grade field trip
11/2 2nd grade field trip
11/6 TAG Referral Parent Info Night 6:00pm in library

News for 10/8

It has been a fast and furious week but we have been busy, busy. We are hard at work and have many projects and lots of learning happening.

1st Grade Talent Development

First graders have spent the week continuing our Mary Poppins adventure.  We explored character traits of Mary, and thought about what makes her unique.  We also talked about our group ISP for the fall.  Students will be researching different landmarks in London to tie into the setting of Mary Poppins.  We spent a few minutes watching a video of London's famous landmarks.  They are all excited to start learning!

2nd Grade Talent Development

Second grade wrapped up their novel study of "The Unlucky Lottery Winners of Classroom 13". They really enjoyed reading about all of the challenges the kids in the book faced. We have moved on to our fall group ISP project. We are reading "A Bear Called Paddington" and will base our project around this book and the theme of travel. The students are enjoying the book and are practicing elements of fiction as well during our reading. We are exploring characters, setting, and plot as we move through each chapter.

3rd Grade Math

Third graders have spent the week practicing adding and subtracting decimals and whole numbers up to the thousands place.  We analyzed errors made in problems involving decimals by reworking the problems correctly and offering strategies to correct the mistakes.  It was fun to see their brains work in this way! We also started a small project involving planning a vacation to Orlando.  Students all have a budget and have to make choices about flights, hotels, fun activities, car rental, and food for their trip while staying as close to their budget as possible.  We are having fun!  Students also spent Friday working on our group ISP for the fall.  They are creating blueprints for the hotel rooms they furnished a couple weeks ago.  This goes along with the book The Hotel Between.   Ask your kiddo what they are up to!

4th Grade Math

Fourth graders have spent the week studying prime and composite numbers.  We started by looking at the Sieve of Eratosthenes, a method discovered by an ancient Greek mathematician.  We continued our learning with some technology integration.  Students were assigned four numbers in partners, and are creating a slideshow showing all of the arrays for each of their numbers.  They will present their learning to the class next week as we dig deeper with our learning of primes and composites.  Students finished the week Friday by beginning our group ISP for the fall on libraries.  Students are working together to research a famous library and will be creating a model.  This goes along with a book our Reading TAG students will read soon- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library.

5th Grade Math

Fifth graders have spent the week adding and subtracting fractions.  We have done a couple of fun activities that have stretched their brains a bit!  We ended the week with some work on our fall group ISP.  Students are all researching a famous artist and will recreate one of their works of art.  This goes along with Chasing Vermeer, a book the Reading TAG students read with Mrs. Henrichs.

3rd Reading

Third grade grade wrapped up their novel study of "The Great Shelby Holmes". We work on our unit on poetry this next week. We will be learning about the elements of poetry as well as exploring different forms of poetry. 
Third grade is also starting their fall ISP projects this week. We are reading aloud the book "The Hotel Between" and the students will be designing a hotel floor plan in math class. The will also design a door with a perspective drawing that will lead to a place in the world that they will be researching. This all follows the same premise in the novel we are reading aloud. The students are very excited to see where they will go!

4th Reading

Fourth grade has continued their unit on Informational Text and Nonfiction Text Features. We discussed sequencing and its role in informational text. We also learned how to write a response after reading an informational text. Next week we will be moving on to procedural text and will be completing some fun assignments along with this unit. 
We also launched our fall ISP projects today. The students will be researching famous libraries and building models. This will correlate to our next novel study, "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library".

5th Reading

Fifth grade completed their novel study of "Chasing Vermeer". We have moved to our unit on nonfiction/informational text and have started researching famous artists. This will tie into our fall ISP projects as well. We will continue exploring informational text next week and will be looking at text features to support our research and begin to integrate them into our essay. 

Have a great weekend, see you next week!

Important Dates:
10/12 PTA Movie Night 5:30pm
10/17 Parent Book Study 7:45am in library
10/17 Bush's Chicken Spirit Night

10/19 5th Grade Field Trip
10/19 Kona Ice after school
10/22-26 Red Ribbon Week
10/26 PTA Fun Run 6:00pm
10/30 Spooky Stories for Siblings
 in the library 10:30am
10/31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math
11/1 1st grade field trip
11/2 2nd grade field trip
11/6 TAG Referral Parent Info Night 6:00pm in library

News for 10/1

We can't believe October has already begun!  We've had a great week full of learning and excitement!

1st Grade Talent Development

First graders have had a great week continuing with our Mary Poppins adventure.  We are through chapter four of the book, and have enjoyed reading about all of the adventures Mary has!  We spent some time this week discussing what "extraordinary" means, and how Mary makes ordinary items extraordinary.  The kids all had great ideas for how to make items in their lives extraordinary too- such fun!  We ended the week with a social/emotional lesson on how to deal with bad days.  We read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We talked about finding happy in moments that seem not so good, and created some happy faces to pass out to others who look like they need them.

2nd Grade Talent Development

Second grade is finishing up their novel study of "The Unlucky Lottery Winners of Classroom 13". We have really enjoyed this book! We have created our own island like two of the characters. We are also working on writing our own chapter at the end of the book.

This week we also began our fall group ISP project that will be shared at STEAM night in January. We will be basing this project on the book "A Bear Called Paddington". We will be focusing on a travel theme and we can't wait to see where this will take us!

3rd Grade Math

Third graders have spent the week practicing their addition and subtraction skills.  We finished up the first part of their hotel project by adding up the dollar amounts for the furniture they chose for their hotels.  Students will be using this information to tie into the fall ISP group project on the book The Hotel Between.  Stay tuned for more exciting information about this!

We ended the week practicing adding and subtracting decimals with some fall carnival themed task cards and lots of discussion.  We learned just how important it is to line up those decimal points!

4th Grade Math

Fourth grade has spent the week wrapping up our first two units of the year with our first DCA.  Grades are posted on Home Access Center for your viewing.

We started our next unit- Patterns and Expressions as well.  Students are busy practicing how to put PEMDAS into action and follow the order of operations in expressions.  We have played games, done puzzles, and created expression flags to decorate our hallway to show off our skills!

5th Grade Math

Fifth graders spent the week wrapping up our first two units of the year.  Students practiced their graphing skills by creating their first name on the four quadrant grid, listing their ordered pairs, and having a partner follow their directions for recreating their name on a new grid.  It was fun to watch their brains work in this way!  We reviewed classifying numbers by doing a "cupcake walk", complete with prizes, too!  We took our first DCA of the year Thursday and went over it on Friday.  Grades are in Home Access Center.  We started unit 3 by practicing adding fractions to end the week. 

3rd Reading
Third grade wrapped up their novel study of "The Great Shelby Holmes" this week. We really enjoyed this book and the great characters. We also researched some famous landmarks in Washington DC as a part of our Social Studies work. The students learned about and presented a tourism poster for the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, the White House, and the Natural History Museum. 

4th Reading
Fourth grade wrapped up their nonfiction text features projects this week. We are moving on to Cause and Effect in informational text. We will study sequence and main idea next week.

5th Reading
Fifth grade completed their novel study of "Chasing Vermeer". We have begun our informational text unit by researching a famous artist. This will be a part of our fall ISP group projects this year. The students will present a paper and oral presentation about their artist in the next few weeks. We will also be tying in an art project that will be presented at STEAM night in January.

Have a great weekend, see you next week!

Important Dates:

10/8 Fall Conferences- Student Holiday
10/9 Student Holiday 
10/19 5th Grade Field Trip
10/22-26 Red Ribbon Week