Ms. Watson’s Weekly Newsletter April 14, 2015 Welcome Back! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Spring Break. The students came back to school yesterday recharged and ready to learn! It was so nice to have a relaxing week at the beach with my family but I must say, I am glad to be back in the classroom! Please see the newsletter below to see what’s going on this week! Social Studies In social studies students learned about maps and globes and how to read them. Students had to create their own island and include a map key, a compass, and a scale. Science In science students learned about the different layers of soil. For their left side students drew a diagram of the soil layers. Students got to create a song, rap, or poem about soil. To the left are students who created acrostic poems about soil in their interactiv e notebook s!

Happening This Week… Dates to know… -4/16/15 Math study guide sent home -4/16/15 Science Quiz on Soil -4/17/15 Vocabulary Test Lesson 3 (Wordly Wise) -4/17/15 Mother/Son Event from 7:00-9:00p.m. -4/21/15 Math unit test on Measurement and Elapsed Time -Next week – report cards and MAP data sent home! EOG Dates: -5/26 Grades 3-5 Reading EOG -5/27 Grades 3-5 Math EOG -5/29 EOG Make-ups for students who were absent Important Information and Reminders Math This week we begin elapsed time. We will spend two more days practicing elapsed time. We will spend two days reviewing measurement and elapsed time. One of the days we will be playing jeopardy and the other we will be doing math workshop. Next Week students will be taking their unit test on measurement and elapsed time. Students’ study guide will be sent home on Wedneday. It is due on Monday. We will go over in class. Next week we will begin our last unit in math, which is unknown equations. Reading This week students will have two EOG review lessons. One is on finding the main idea and one is on sequencing and cause and effect. Students who don’t show mastery on these standards will be retaught and will re-test. Remember, these are not counted toward their grade. On Wednesday we will begin our folktales unit. Students will learn about fables, myths, tall tales and more. The students are so excited about this unit! Writing This week we will continue with out poetry writing unit. This week the students will write antonym diamante poems where they contrast two opposite nouns such as the desert and beach. Students will write silly poems called limericks. Finally, students will write Tanka poems. Next week we will wrap up our poetry unit and the following week students will work on publishing their poetry book. Science – This week the students will research different types of soil more in depth through a jigsaw method. Students will use the IPADS to research their assigned soil type in order to become experts and teach others in the class. They will create a poster about their soil type to share with the class. Social Studies –This week we continue with our geography unit. Students will learn about absolute versus relative location. Notes from Ms. Watson Mother/Son Event – It is not too late to sign up! We would like 100% participation. Friday is the last day to sign up. So far, we only have three boys from our class who have signed up! It is not a dance, it will be a fun filled event that even the boys will enjoy! EOG Prep Reading Homework Guide: 4/13 – 4/17 Lesson 3 Drama: “The Man and the Alligator” pg /20 – 4/24 Lesson 4 Analyze Literature: “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” pg /27 – 5/1 Lesson 5 Informational Text Articles: “Too Cute” pg /4 – 5/8 Lesson 6 Persuasive Texts: “The Dangers of Video Games” pg /11 – 5/15 Lesson 7 & 8: Historical Texts: “Children on the Oregon Trail” pg and Scientific and Technical Texts: ”What Happens When an Ant Trail is Blocked?” pg /18 – 5/22 Lesson 9 & 10: Analyze Informational Texts: “Clowning Your Way to Good Health” pg and Analyzing Texts Across Genres: “Amy’s Blue Ribbon Project” pg Wish List We are in great need of… -8x11” paper -Glue Sticks -Pencil Sharpener -Clothes Pins