Mrs. Wilson's Blog: October 2018

Monday, October 29, 2018

Flat Stanley is also "making the rounds" in Colorado!

Thank you to our Mystery Reader who donated a brand new book for each child!

The kids were so excited to each receive a chapter book today from Scholastic! Thank you to our Mystery Reader parent who donated the books!

Flat Stanley is traveling around the world! Look at the postcards that came in the mail today from Reagan's uncle!

Flat Stanley visited the birthplace of William Shakespeare in Statford-upon-Avon in England!

Flat Stanley also went to the Matterhorn in Switzerland!

And Flat Stanley got pretty close to a Brown Bear overseas!

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Place Value Pumpkins!

Our class has spent the last few weeks working hard on place value. We have learned how to break apart numbers into hundreds, tens, and ones. In addition, we have practiced writing numbers in expanded form. For example, 523 = 500 + 20 + 3. If there is a zero in the tens place, such as in 608, you would write it like this: 600 + 8. We will be practicing place value throughout the year and this week we are learning how to add two digit numbers WITH regrouping!

Friday, October 26, 2018

Helping Out kids at UMASS - Thiago's mom came in with toys and bags to bundle up for the kids at UMASS in Worcester. In all, we put together 75 bags so the kids could have a happy Halloween next week!

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Just a reminder that you can renew your magazine subscriptions online at www.gaschoolstore.com School ID: 259077. Though we are not doing a full magazine drive this year, the school will still get a percentage of all renewals or new orders placed online. If you were going to renew anyway, please consider doing it through this website.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Spelling List Change

Tomorrow I am going to try an "old trick" to help students improve their spelling test scores in class. Students will take a pre-test on their new spelling words for the week. The pre-test will come home on Monday and students will need to write all misspelled words three times each and return to school the next day. Students who receive 100 percent on the pre-test will receive five extra words to study (so they will have 17 words on the test on Friday rather than 12). I have used this procedure in the past and found it very effective in helping raise students' test grades in spelling. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Thank you for all of your help at home!

Taking a Look at the Week of October 15 - 19

Last week in reading we discussed the essential question "How do families work together?" We read two stories about families who work on farms and how they make a living by selling their goods to the markets in the city. We also discussed what it means to be a consumer and a producer. For example, consumers are people who buy things at Shaws,Walmart, or Target. Producers are the people who make the goods. Students compared and contrasted two different families, and learned how to take notes using a Venn diagram.
In math we learned about compensation, which is an easier way to add numbers that are easy to add. For example, if given the problem 28 + 16, it might be easier to say 30 + 14. Add two to 28 to get 30, and take two from 16 to get 14. Then you can easily add 30 + 14 in your head. We also learned about what a hidden question is in problem solving, and reviewed how to break apart numbers when adding two digit numbers within 100.
In writing, we are continuing to write narrative essays. Students wrote ways that they are helpful, and I will share this with you at Parent Teacher Conferences in November. They also learned how to write an effective lead and an interesting closing. This year we will be working on adding detail to our writing, and this coming week we will be learning about nouns in grammar.
Please let me know if you would like to be a reader in our Mystery Reader program! It's going strong and the kids would love it! If you can't be available to read, perhaps a grandparent can read to the class!