Adverbs

The adverb test will be next week.  Here are a few ways to be reviewing:

This website offers several interactive games. The games focus on the three most common questions that adverbs answer.

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/e4topic.cfm?TopicID=35

These are several sentences that provide practice identifying an adverb. After identifying all of the adverbs, the answers will help to explain what the adverb identifies.

http://www.grammaruntied.com/blog/?p=1560

Here are two practice quizzes identifying if words are adjectives or adverbs:

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/adjective/quiz237.html

http://www.quia.com/quiz/799986.html

This is a quiz choosing between the adjective good and the adverb well

http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/370.html

These websites provide some practice with comparative adverbs (which we will be learning more about next week).

http://www.eflnet.com/tutorials/advcompsup.php

http://www.eflnet.com/grammar/compsupadv1.php

3rd Nine Weeks: Week 4

It certainly feels like winter!  Your children are more than welcome to bring hats, gloves, and scarves to school.  I like to have a few minutes of recess to release some energy and soak up some sunshine, but of course only if the temperatures are reasonable!

Reading:  This week we will be looking at sequence and how important it is to notice the sequence of events in stories.  We will also be finishing Number the Stars and discussing the bravery that Annemarie and her family show throughout the story as they help their Jewish friends escape to neutral Sweden.  We have learned a lot about World War II in our discussion of this book and the kids have truly been passionate about the events they are reading about.  I encourage you to discuss this book with your children!  Our vocabulary words this week are: implored, subsided, consumed, scornfully, enraged, intently, withering, strained, and gestured.

Spelling: The focus this week is on words that end with the /j/ and /s/ sound, such as dodge and glance.

Language: Adverbs continue to be our grammar focus this week with a focus on good and well as well as changing adjectives into adverbs.  There will most likely be a test on Friday of this week.

Math: The students are continuing to work on their division menus this week as they put into the play the different division strategies they have learned.

Alabama History: We will be discussing the five capitals (yes, there were five different capitals) of Alabama and why the capital moved so frequently.  We will also what life was like in early Alabama around the early 1800s as well as the economy of Alabama at that time.

Science:  We will finish our discussion of technology benefits from space travel and begin our exciting unit of electricity later in the week!

3rd Nine Weeks: Week 3

It will be a shorter week this week because of our celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but we will still have lots to accomplish!

Reading: We are continuing to read Number the Stars and the children are becoming very eager to see how the story will end.  They have become very passionate about this event in history and the bravery that Annemarie and her family are showing in the face of the German soldiers.  This week, we will focus on contrasting and comparing to see similarities and differences in characters and settings.  Our vocabulary words this week are: surge, recurring, gleamed, condescending, linger, rummaging, pleading, protruding, and commotion.

Spelling: The focus this week is on words that have k, ng and kw sounds.

Language: This week, the students will be learning about adverbs; specifically what they are, what they do, and how they can improve our sentences.

Math: We will continue to look at strategies for solving division problems this week as we focus on the long division strategies that you were probably taught growing up.  The children will then use these strategies as they work through the division menu that we will be working on this week.

Science: On Wednesday, the children will present the information that they learned about the specific technology that they have researched having to do with space exploration.  Have your child share their presentation on Google Drive with you!  We will also look more closely at the advances made possible because of space exploration and how Alabama has played a role in some of those advances.

Alabama History: We will wrap up our study of how Alabama became a state and discuss Alabama's moving capital.

Schoology Assignments

Since it is still something new for us, I wanted to give the students a quick reminder about Schoology:

The students have until tomorrow (Monday) night to complete their two article readings and comment on them.

A new assignment having to do with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has just been posted to Schoology.  They have through next weekend to complete it.

There is currently a discussion board open on Schoology as a place for students to share their ideas about our team name/costume for the Owlmazing Race.

Schoology is a new endeavor for our class, but I believe it will be very beneficial and I want the children to get used to logging in at least once a week.  There is a free app for Schoology that can be downloaded on personal devices or the children can access Schoology through the Shades Cahaba home page.

When I Grow Up

This afternoon, I gave the children a writing assignment. I asked them to write about their hopes and dreams for the future. In truth, it was meant to be a simple prompt and then used to recap nouns, verbs and adjectives, but the children turned it into a beautiful writing assignment and I just wanted to share them. Can you spot your child's writing?

SCE TV

In this week's episode, get the weekend's chilly forecast, hear more about some creative STEM projects, learn more about the activities that we will be doing on Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and get a sports update.

http://goo.gl/2IsKA

3rd Nine Weeks: Week 2

This week, we welcome Miss Hereford, from UAB, who will be with us through the end of April.  We are thrilled to have her in the classroom with us!

Reading: This week we will continue to read Number the Stars.  It has been a true joy to watch as the children become fascinated with this historical fiction tale of friendship and bravery, and watch as they become outraged by the way a group of people were treated simply because of their beliefs.  Their passion is such a blessing to see!  We will also focus this week on separating the main idea from the details.  Vocabulary words for this week are: suspicious, tentatively, eased, seldom, reluctantly, tame, distorted, sprawling, and exasperation.

Spelling: This weeks' words are ones that involve changing the final y to an i before adding another ending.

Language: Our grammar focus this week continues to be adjectives as we wrap up this study with a test on Thursday.  Our focus this week will be on articles and proper adjectives.

Math: This week the students will be learning a variety of different strategies they can use for division.  We will be learning the same method that you learned in school, but also strategies such as breaking the number apart and repeated subtraction.

Social Studies: We are learning more about how Alabama became a state, the steps to statehood and what life was like in Alabama in the early 1800s.

Science: This week, the children will complete and then present their research findings on different technological advances that have been made possible because of space exploration.

Adjectives

We will have a Language test on Thursday focused on adjectives.  Here are some things the kids need to know and ways they can review:

What is an adjective?
Students must be able to name and identify adjectives.


Here is an online quiz to test that knowledge: http://english-zone.com/grammar/adjective-find01.html


Using comparative and superlative adjectives: adding er or est and spelling the adjective correctly, or adding more or most.
Practice on when to use comparative and superlative adjectives: http://www.k12reader.com/adjectives/Comparative_or_Superlative.pdf
Practice on comparative adjectives: http://www.k12reader.com/adjectives/Comparative_Adjectives.pdf  Make sure to use the answer key and ensure you spelled the word correctly!


Using the correct article of a, an or the.
Here's a game to practice using the correct article: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-games/articles

Using capital letters for proper adjectives.
On this website, you can play a variety of games that all have basically the same questions: decide which word in the sentence is the proper adjective: http://reviewgamezone.com/game.php?id=7091  My personal favorite is the bouncing balls game! :)

Technology

The world around us is changing and evolving faster than I can keep up with, but I am going to do my best to keep these eager minds aware of the latest developments to keep them actively engaged in learning and in the advances around them.

Last week, Mrs. Miller and I introduced the kids to several new websites/applications and I must say, the kids were truly intrigued.  They were so excited to learn and explore the new technology.

I wanted to let you know a bit about this technology as well.  Please know that I am learning more about these resources (and how they can best aid instruction) right along with the students, so I would openly encourage your feedback.

Google Docs
Some of you may already be aware of this resource that will truly benefit the education world.  In all honesty, it is similar to an online storage center where you can upload and create documents and presentations that you can then access from anywhere.  There are several benefits to this that I am already seeing in the classroom: 1) Students may work on something at home and at school without worrying about transferring the data back and forth.  2) Students can share their work with other students and all collaborate on one piece of work on different computers at the exact same time.

Last week, the students began researching different technological advances made possible because of space travel.  It was SO much fun to see the students so engaged and excited about their projects as they worked side-by-side one another but all researching in different ways.

To access Google Docs, the children can sign in to any Google homepage, but it is easiest to go through the SC Homepage then Student Resources.  This way, children do not have to remember the long sign-in of @apps.homewood.k12.al.us

Schoology
This is a secure online community for our class where I can create assignments, post practice quizzes, and where we can have online discussions.  It is also a place where students can easily message me if they have questions or problems with assignments or homework.  I am just beginning to explore this excellent tool and I have no doubt that I will continue to find more and more benefits.  The students have their first assignment on Schoology this week: they are to read two online articles and then respond to them on Schoology.

Access Schoology in a similar way to Google Docs.

Newsela.com
This is a very neat website where children can search for articles and/or I can assign news articles.  It is through this website that the children are to read their two articles this week.

Discoveryeducation.com
This website is also a wonderful resource for the children.  This website is full of resources for teachers and students including video clips on just about everything from how to do math problems or how lasers work.    I can also assign items through the website, so if there is something I think the children would benefit from seeing, I can assign it to them.

I am excited for all of the new technology resources and eager to put them into action in the classroom.  Thank you for your help and support in this venture!

3rd Nine Weeks: Week 1

Welcome back!  I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday with your children, enjoying time together celebrating and relaxing.

Report cards will come home on Thursday, so please be on the lookout for those so that you and your child can sit down and discuss those together.

In the Tuesday Communicator this week, I will be sending home your child's AR record for the past nine weeks and his/her reading goals are on the yellow sheet (that you may keep) in the Tuesday Communicator.  Please take some time to look over both of these with your child and discuss some ideas for reading goals for the upcoming nine weeks.  We will be setting those reading goals together later in the week.

Reading - This week we are starting another classic, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  The story is a historical fiction novel based on the Nazi occupation of Denmark in the 1940s.  It is a beautiful tale of bravery and friendship as two young girls deal with the struggles that surround them during this scary time.  We will be learning more about the history behind the story, as well as the author, looking for signposts in our reading and also learning more about text and graphic features found in nonfiction writing.  Our vocabulary words this week come from chapter 1 of the novel: hesitated, incident, sabotage, occupation, civilized, contempt, defiantly, hoodlum, and residential.

Spelling - Words this week will focus on the final long e sound found in words such as colony, chimney, prairie and injury.

Language - We will continue our study of adjectives this week as we look specifically at comparative adjectives.

Math - This week, we will be diving head first into division.  We will be looking at divisibility rules, estimating quotients and a variety of ways to solve division problems.

Science - We will be talking about space exploration this week, but specifically how it has affected our daily lives with the introduction of new technology made possible by space exploration.

Alabama History - Our focus this week is on the great state of Alabama and how we became the 22nd state in the nation.