Geographic and Cultural Regions

Rain Shadows

Interdependence

Mountains

Lake Effect Snow

Tornado Alley

Hurricanes

Music Blog

Ms. Fox has a great blog about music class and choir! You can check it out to learn more about what the class is doing in music, and about upcoming musical events for the entire school. You can find it here: http://stsylvestermusic.blogspot.com

September 18, 2015

The students were really excited to meet their buddies in Mrs. Garza's class last Friday! You can see pictures of them below drawing portraits of each other.

Students did a great job on their times tables test test! Our next test will be on the 2s next Thursday (since we don't have school on Friday). We also have our spelling test on Thursday, this time on the word list that students will create themselves on Monday.

In science class, we have our chapter test on Wednesday. Study guides need to be filled out by Tuesday, when we'll play our review game. Remember, if you'd like me to check over your child's study guide earlier than that, I'm happy to do so!

In social studies next week, we'll be using the iPads and apps like SonicPics and Drawing Pad to help us review what we've learned about the United States and its landforms, regions, and climate. Our social studies test will be Tuesday, September 29. The study guide for that is actually on the back of the science study guide, so all the students already have it! That one will be due on Monday, September 28.

Students are almost done with their first writing piece. I've seen lots of topics, ranging from riding on the 606 to baseball games to hamsters. We discussed Wednesday how revising means making changes in your writing, like adding more details, taking out sentences that don't fit, and finding better words. Most students have already completed revising, but those that haven't will need to finish over the weekend.

Next week in reading, we're going to begin doing guided reading. I'll place the students into four groups based on reading ability, interests, and effort and give each group a different book. I'll meet with each group 2-3 times a week. If students don't finish reading the section assigned for them in the book during class, they will need to read it at home. They can read this book as part of their reading log so this shouldn't be extra homework.

September 10, 2015

We went to the computer lab today and many students finished publishing their first KidBlog posts! They're very excited about this, and anyone who'd like to log on at home and continue writing or commenting is welcome to. You can find our the site here. I did change the address to make it easier for students to type in, so if you bookmarked this before, please update it!

Don't forget we have a math test tomorrow on place value and comparing numbers. We're going to take the test in the morning right after computer class (and before we go to our first buddy activity). Here's a sample question: Using the digits   3   8    4   5    2   make the largest odd number possible. Next week, we're going to begin taking timed multiplication test on Fridays. The first one will be on the ten times table.

In science, we're studying animals and how they're classified. We talked yesterday about what a scientific argument was, and students debated about what made something an animal. Right now, it looks like our test on animals will be September 24. I'll pass out the study guide for this next week.

Students have been doing a great job writing in their notebooks. They've written lots of seed ideas in their notebooks, and we talked about how you can include pictures, too. We came up with a list of why we write stories and will begin taking our first set of stories through the writing process next week.

Thank you to everyone who came to Back to School Night last week! If you weren't able to come (or didn't see the list) and would like to have your phone number or email added to our family contact list, please let me know by Wednesday, September 16. After that, I'll copy the list and send it home.

Finally, if you'd like to order any books from Scholastic, the order forms are due this Monday. You can order books online, too, by clicking here and entering our code: GWZT3.

Kidblog

Hi, Parents! Thank you for everyone who came to Back to School Night tonight. You can find the link to the Kidblog page that I discussed here. We're going to learn how to use this tomorrow. If you weren't able to attend the Back to School Night and would like to get our join code so you can see the students' blogs, please just let me know!

Also, we will have our first test next week in math. It will be on Friday, September 11, and will be about place value, finding patterns, and comparing numbers.