9/30/15

Whew! What a day! Things were a little crazy today, as I imagine they always after being gone for a day. The correct homework was not given out yesterday, but we made sure to set everything straight today! 

Homework:

Reading: Read 20 min.

Spelling: Contract due Friday

Religion: Study for quiz tomorrow

Math: Practice Page

A note on math:

Unfortunately, children did not advance in learning mental math while I was gone, but we spent a good chunk of time on it today, and most students are understanding it more. As far as the parents helping, I have added notes at the top of the practice page to help guide. There are also notes in the back of your child's math notebooks and example problems from today in the front. I find it best to talk the strategy out loud with students and think of a real world example. 

i.e. "I was at the store the other day and there was a sweater that originally cost $52 on sale for $17 off. I didn't have a pen and paper, so I had to do the math in my head. I figured out that it was easier to subtract 20 from 52 instead of 17. 52-20 is 32. Then, I had to remember that when I took 20 away from 52 instead of 17, I took away 3 too many. In order to fix this and get the correct answer, I just add 3 to my answer. 32+3=34. So, 52-17=34."

Hopefully this helps!

Tomorrow is FISHING!

A few parents have already said that they are available to volunteer, but fortunately this field trip does not have a cap on how many volunteers we can take, so the more the merrier! If you would like to chaperone, please come to school at 8:50 and we will leave around 9:00. If you would like to meet us at the park, you may do that as well! Students are to wear gym uniforms tomorrow. Also, lunch will be normal, so do not worry about bringing a packed lunch.

Another note: The fourth graders and PreK4 (our faith partners) have asked us to go on a field trip to the Aboretum with them on October 13th. Forms will be sent home in students Friday folders.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions/comments/concerns!

- Miss Rizzo

Homework 9/28/15

Reading: Read 20 min.
Math: pg. 38 #11-30 (Students have notes in their notebooks that should help)
Spelling: Spelling Contracts due Friday
Religion: Study Guide

Just an FYI, I will be out of school tomorrow for a workshop. Let me know if you have any questions!

- Miss Rizzo

Thriday Newsletter :)

Happy Thriday (well for the students at least)!

Here's a look at what we did this week:

Math - We are taking math slow as we move through the beginning of Unit 2. We have learned the part, part, whole method for fact families and now we are learning how to use mental math to add. Most students already know how to do this, but are learning the methods behind it which seem to be a little confusing. After today though, I think we are ready to move on.

Social Studies - This week we continued learning about natural resources by learning about renewable and nonrenewable resources. This paired great with our presentation for the fishing trip next week! We had someone come in and talk about conservation. When she asked if anyone knew what a natural resource was, the whole class was ready to answer.

Writing - We are finishing up the prewriting stage and moving on to writing and beginning writer's workshops. Students have picked a "seed" story that they want to focus on for their personal narrative and we have started quick writes and rough drafts. We will continue to work on these as we learn about good hooks to begin a story, adding dialogue, and showing a moment instead of just telling it.

Reading - Our story was a short Time For Kids story this week called Champions of the World. It was  a story about a little league baseball team that won the World Series. We focused on sequencing, as students seemed to struggle with this last week.

Religion - In religion this week, we learned about God the Creator. We read and pantomimed Genesis 1:1-31. We also discussed how people are the most special part of creation. I read students one of my favorite books from growing up: "You Are Special" by Max Lucado. We compared the creator in the book to God and talk about how we were all made in His image and that He doesn't make mistakes.

MAP testing went well this week! Students were quiet (for the most part :)) and seemed to be working hard. Just remind your child that it is not a timed test so they shout take their time and not to rush!

We have a classroom reward system where we receive tallies for good work. When we reach 100 tallies, we vote on a reward as a classroom. We reached our goal at the end of last week! After voting, we decided on a visit to the park this afternoon.

Reminders:
- No school tomorrow!
- Pizza Days - an email was sent home about these last Friday but I have gotten multiple questions, so I will send a hard copy form home in their Friday Folders today. Money is due October 5.
- Fishing Trip is next week Thursday!

Email me with any questions/comments/concerns!

Thanks,
Miss Rizzo

Homework 9/22

I forgot to put up the homework blog yesterday - so sorry!

Here is the homework for tonight:

Reading: Read 20 min.
Religion: Write a Letter About God's Creation (this is a handout that they received)
Spelling: Spelling Contract due Thursday

*We have a light load for homework today because of MAP testing - it took longer than expected and ate away at our math time. Tomorrow we have a conservation talk in preparation for the fishing field trip on 10/1, so we will see what we can get done tomorrow!

If you signed up to be a chaperone for the fishing trip, you should have gotten an email from me today. If you would like to be a chaperone but did not receive an email, please let me know.

Reminders:
- Scholastic Book Orders are due Thursday
- Pizza Day $$
- Music Folder/Notebooks

Have a happy Tuesday!

- Miss Rizzo

Friday News!

Happy Friday!

Here's a look at what we did this week:

Math - We started a new unit in math this week where we have been learning about fact families and different properties of addition. In order to understand why the properties are true, we have been doing a lot of hands on, concrete, modeling. Students took a pretest for the unit at the beginning of the week and we will start math groups sometime next week.

Social studies - This week in social studies we have been focusing on natural vs. manmade resources. Next week we will move on as we dive into renewable vs. nonrenewable resources. 

Science - Our astronomy unit is continuing to ignite students' interests as we learn about Earth's moon! Students have so many questions and we often research the answers as a class. Yesterday we learned about the first astronauts to land on the moon and read an interview on scholastic with someone from NASA. We also answered students' questions about the "blood moon" and found out that we might be able to see one next week on September 28th!

Writing - Writing this week has been a lot of fun as we kick off our personal narrative unit. We talked about what exactly a personal narrative is and how we choose a good story to write about. I used the image of a watermelon vs. a seed to talk about choosing a small "seed" story. Students made an "important people/places" web about their lives in order to help them start to brainstorm stories to write for their own personal narratives. Next week will continue to have mini lessons on what makes a good personal narrative and begin some writer's workshops!

Reading - Our story for reading this week was Max Malone, a story about two young boys who find a creative way to make money. We used this story when discussing personal narratives and talking about time order words. We also focused on sequencing.

Religion - We wrapped up Chapter 1 of religion this week as we talked about the Church's art, praying the Nicene Creed, and reviewing for our quiz today. We were also able to spend some time with our faith partners for fitness week activities! Students boogied with the little ones at an all school dance in the hallway and then ran and jumped around the parking lot to get active!

Reminders:

- Remember to encourage and check your child's homework and assignment planner! We had a few too many "Oops Slips" needing to be filled out this week.

- The music teacher asked that each student bring a folder and notebook for music next week.

- Friday next week is an in-service day for teachers so there will be no school.

- No homework this weekend!

Below are some pictures from today's Field (Gym) Day!

Have a great weekend!

- Miss Rizzo

Homework 9/17/15

Reading: Read 20 min

Spelling: Contract due Tomorrow, Test tomorrow!

Science: Lesson 7 Review

Math: pg.33 #5-11

Religion: Study for quiz tomorrow! *use pg. 33 in religion book - short quiz that will look very similar to this page!

Reminders:

Tomorrow is field day!! Students may dress in gym clothes or spirt wear. They may also bring a water bottle but it is not necessary. We will be walking to the park around 8:15am!

Have a good Thursday :)

Homework and Fitness Week Remindeers

Homework for 9/16:
Reading: Read 20 minutes
Spelling: Spelling Contract due Friday
Math: Math Journal pg P2-1
Social Studies: Journal about 3 manmade resources and 3 natural resources in your community

Fitness Week Reminders:
- Must wear UNIFORMS tomorrow
- FRIDAY - Gym clothes or Spirit Wear

FYI:
We have been having a "tattling" problem this year. I have talked to the class about deciding what problems are important to tell me and what problems that they can solve on their own so we can limit the number of tattle tales to only the really important ones. Unfortunately, this has not really helped. I never want a student to feel like they cannot tell me something that is bothering them, but the tattles are becoming excessive and unnecessary (i.e. I saw blank accidentally bump into blank in the hall and not apologize (the story does not even involve the tattling student)).

In order to deal with this problem, I have created a tattle box and form. I have asked students that if someone is hurt or they feel they need to tell me something right away then they should definitely do just that. Otherwise, students are to fill out a form and place it in the "Tattle Box" and I will take care of it if needed.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Have a great Wednesday :)

- Miss Rizzo

Homework 9/15:
Reading - Read 20 minutes
English - Pg. 41 #1-5 (Please do on a loose leaf piece of paper)
Spelling - Spelling Contract due Friday
Math - pg. 31 #6-19

Reminders:
Field Day is on Friday - students may dress in gym clothes or spirit wear
Family fun run/walk this Saturday 9/19

Welcome to my new homework blog! I will try my best to update daily with homework and reminders. You can always email me if you have any questions!

Today was crazy with mass, a fire drill, gym and an early dismissal! When I had students write their homework down in their assignment notebooks this morning I thought we were going to get to more math than we did - we just took a pretest for Unit 2. That being said, students did not learn the information they need for the homework I assigned this morning, so I will teach the new concepts tomorrow and homework will not be due until Wednesday. So sorry for the late notice!! I just realized this! If your child already did the math, no worries, we will discuss tomorrow and they can check over their answers so they are ready for Wednesday.

Homework 9/14/15:
Reading: Read 20 minutes
Math: None!
Spelling: Spelling Contract due Friday

Have a great night!
- Miss Rizzo