Finishing our Posters

Today we completed our "Creepy Creatures" posters that provide facts and information about some animals, reptiles, and mammals that are known for their frightening behavior.

We also read a non-fiction book about Skeletons, and we took our Unit 10 Spelling Review Test.  The spelling tests are in your child's take home folder to show you tonight.  Grades were great!!!

Book-it (optional) is due tomorrow. A new calendar for November will be sent home.

Our classroom Halloween party will be tomorrow.  We are looking forward to it, but we will have a little bit of "work" time tomorrow when we switch to Block1 and Block 2.  Friday newsletters will still be sent home tomorrow.

Please use good judgment in helping your child prepare their Halloween costume.  See the Nelson Ridge newsletter for guidelines.  Weapons of any kind -- even pretend weapons -- can not be brought to school.  Masks should not be worn to school but can be put on for the party.  Students have 10 minutes to change in/out of costumes.  Hair color can be put on at home, but it will not be allowed to be applied at school.  Make up should be saved for after-school wear.

Creepy Creatures

Today we worked on creating our fact-based posters about the creepy creatures from our reading story.  We also read about other creepy creatures, such as bats, wolves, owls, and snakes.

Students also reviewed for tomorrow's Unit 10 spelling test.  We had fun solving word searches to review our spelling words.  Students in our class made their own extra-credit word searches for classmates to complete.

We will plan to have a Unit 2 Social Studies test NEXT Thursday, November 6th.

Quick reminder about snack time:  I realize that students will be having some fantastic candy treats from their Halloween trick-or-treating.  However, I will encourage these treats to be kept in their lunch boxes until lunch time.  Morning snacks should remain on the nutritious sided.

Book-it is due to your child's HOMEROOM teacher on Friday.  Book-it is OPTIONAL.  A new November Book-it form will be sent home.  The goal is to read 300 minutes each month.

Frightful Animals

Students have a homework assignment to reread "Frightful Animals," which was a selection from National Geographic Explorer for Kids.  They researched and found important details that will be presented in a poster format for our class.  We learned about the European owl, the Gila monster, the goliath tarantula, the spotted hyena, great white shark, and blood python.  Creepy!

We will have our Unit 10 spelling test on THURSDAY.

Optional Book-it is due on FRIDAY.  A new November Book-it form will be passed out on Friday.  The goal is to read 300 minutes per month (about 10 minutes a night) to become a stronger and more fluent reader.

Review Unit 10

Today we discussed and practiced our spelling words for review unit 10.  We will have our spelling test on THURSDAY since Friday morning we will be pretty busy with Halloween activities.  We did complete Spelling workbook pages 39 & 40 in class, and many students chose to create an extra credit word search that will be distributed in class later in the week.

We also read pages 58-63 in Social Studies and took a review quiz over the material.  Students are ALWAYS encouraged to use their books for these review quizzes.  We will look at having a social studies test at the END of NEXT week.  We are learning a brief overview of  US History in this chapter.  It is a full, action-packed chapter!

Book-it (optional) is due on Friday.  A new November Book-it form (also optional) will be sent home on Friday as well.

Block 2 has started reading the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.   Block 1 is continuing to read Little House on the Prairie.  

Prepositions

Today we worked on completing our Preposition Treasure Maps.

We also took our Unit 9 Spelling Test, and we agreed to have our Unit 10 Spelling Test on THURSDAY due to a half day of school and Halloween on Friday.  This coming week's spelling words are all review words from Units 6-9.

Here's the spelling list:
Spelling Lists

Block 1 worked on "Type to Learn" today.  Block 1 is reading aloud the story Little House on the Prairie.  

Block 2 had LRC (Library) today and also completed reading Bunnicula.  We watched an old Bunnicula cartoon and will start reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in Block 2 next week.

OPTIONAL Book-it (300 minutes of reading for the month) is due Friday.  A new sheet will be given out for November.

Preposition Treasure Maps

We read a variation of The Three Little Pigs called "The Three Pigs Revisited" on pages 226-231 in our Stortytown book.

We also completed review spelling pages 37-38 to prepare for tomorrow's test.

Our grammar skill is focusing on prepositions this week.  We started creating buried treasure maps using prepositions to describe the location of the treasure.   We will continue our maps tomorrow.  Funbrain has many enjoyable grammar games to play at home.

http://www.funbrain.com/tour/gg.html

We've been discussing computer vocabulary words and internet safety tips.

Readers' Theatre

We practiced our fluency skills by rereading Three Little Cyber Pigs on pages 217-223 in our reading book as we reviewed internet safety rules.  We also took our story selection test and vocabulary test.  We worked together to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of the Mother Goose characters in this modern version of the Three Little Pigs.  We used the information from our "Top Hat Organizers" to help complete the essay question at the end of the selection test.

We are also continuing to read Unit 2, Chapter 3 in social studies, pages 58-63.   There is no test date in sight yet.  This is an action-packed chapter that takes us through American history from Early European Settlers to the Civil Rights Movement.  

Our grammar skill is working with prepositions.  Prepositions combine with a noun or pronoun to show location, time, and movement. ( I walked over the bridge and under the tree to Grandma's house. )

Our unit 9 spelling test will be on Friday.