Friday, January 27th, 2017

Happy Friday Families!

Our students are continuing to settle back into their routines and have their batteries recharged!  Here are the targets and concepts we will focus on as we move on to the month of February:

Literacy* Next week, we will start to read a science fiction story called Jess and Layla’s Astronomical Adventure.  The two main characters of the story travel back in time and meet many of history’s famous philosophers and scientists!  Throughout the reading we will work on skills such as understanding text structure, using context clues to understand word meaning, compare and contrast characters—-just to name a few.

Writing* This week, our students completed a writing assessment which required students to plan and compose a science fiction story in one session.  It was especially good practice for the PARCC assessments in the Spring!  Next week, we will start to conduct research for a new informative essay.  Students will be asked to select a historical discovery in the area of space and write a their version of a science journal entry.  The essay will include facts presented in an organized format, as well as visuals to support their topic.  Students will also be asked to evaluate and cite their sources.  

Spelling* We are continuing our work with the Words Their Way program.  New homework boggle sheets were sent home on Monday.  Just a friendly reminder that each boggle choice sheet is due on Friday with three completed activities.  Please encourage your child to start working on these assignments earlier in the week rather than waiting until the night before they are due.

Math* Last week we finished a short math target that involved interpreting the size of a product of a fractional multiplication problem based on the size of each factor.  We are currently working on solving real-world problems involving the multiplication of fractions.

Social Studies* This week we started to discuss and read about the liberties that we are fortunate to have, living in our country.  Throughout the unit, we will also contrast our liberties with various countries who may not have some of the same freedoms that we are fortunate to have.

Science* This week we continued to learn about how a star's brightness correlates to a star's distance from the earth.

Friendly Reminders and Upcoming Events
** Valentine's Day Parties - From Mrs. Gluck's Newsletter:

If you choose to include an item with your child's Valentines, please note that only non-food items are permissible.  Candy, snacks, or any sort of food item will be sent back home with your child on Valentine's day if sent to school.  Non-food items are permitted, and there are many pre-packaged Valentines that can be purchased that include a trinket (i.e., pencil, erasers, book mark, etc.). Card and party stores are a great place to look for these types of items.  Here are some ideas of non-food items if you choose to include something:  pencils, erasers, stickers, plastic or rubber figurines, mini deck of cards, spinning top, or crazy straws to name a few.

Many of our students have medically based dietary restrictions and this does not include students on specific diets of family choice such as vegetarian, low cal/sugar, religious, and so on.  Monitoring the individual needs and requests is not feasible, thus not safe. In addition it is frequently reported that several children eat Valentine's treats on the bus, as evidenced by an abundance of wrappers found.  This poses a choking risk, as well as exposure for students with specific health restrictions. Thank you for your assistance in helping us maintain the health, safety, and personal family preferences of our students.

** Please remember to send your child with a healthy snack.  Nothing feeds the brain like a healthy snack!  

** Please continue to have your child practice their multiplication facts up to 12.


Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  Thank you and have a fantastic weekend!

Enzie Pangilinan