Happy Valentine's Day

                                                                                                           February 16, 2015

Dear Parents,

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy President's Day!  Did you all have a great weekend??  Between Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and the unseasonably warm weather, it was a fantastic long weekend!!  I hope everyone had some wonderful adventures over this long weekend!!
Math 
Students got a BIG surprise on Monday morning, they walked into the classroom to see a new arrangement because Room 5 is now rocking a 10 feet by 10 feet 100's grid on the floor.  Students have had so much fun this week using it for number sense activities.  I am very thankful to Mr. Lewis (8th grade) for helping me lay it out and put it down.  It has been so worth the effort and the space it takes up.  To be honest with you I don't know how I have taught all year without it!!

Students placing numbers on the 100's grid

Besides using the 100's grid, the students of Room 5 finished up our unit on fractions.  Students completed their fraction ordering and comparing posters.  We made a whole with 2 or more fractions with the same denominator.  Students also placed fractions on a number line.  

We took our Fraction Unit Assessment on Wednesday and finished the week with practicing a Performance Task called Half and Half.   Performance Task gives students the opportunity to apply information to a task.  We will be doing more of this kind of work allow students to be able to show what they know in a higher level way.




Math Homework for next week...
Tues.    IXL Q.3 Reading Clocks
Wed.    Practice Test B
Thurs.  No Homework (assessment)  
Writing

Orally sharing their "quick sketch".

More oral practice before writing.

Students continued working on the writing trait of organization.  They used a "quick sketch" to help them organize their narrative.  Students have spent time using their "quick sketch" to retell their narrative orally several times.  This oral practice is so important to support the writing process.  So far students have written the beginning and middle parts of their narratives.  It's exciting to see these young writers grow!!


Language
Our language time did not go as planned this week.  We are still working on reflexive pronouns.  My hope is this week we will assess on pronouns and revisit some of the areas of language that have been troublesome for students (collective nouns and irregular plural nouns).
Projects
We should be finishing up our science experiments this week.  Teams of students will complete testing their matter by cooling and heating.  Students are experimenting to see if these changes are reversible or irreversible.  After completing the experiments, students will complete their lab reports.

Heating up milk.

Heated milk forms a skin.

  Our Ice Cream Party
As you know we started our week off (Monday afternoon) with the class earned ice cream party.  Each student recieved a vanilla ice cream cup and could add to it chocolate and/or carmel sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry on top!!  Room 5 is working towards their next reward party--cupcake decorating party.  I can't wait for the students to earn the next party.

A few words from Mrs. Jackson...

February 17-19

What a beautiful Monday!  I hope you all had a chance to get outside this weekend and spend time as a family.  

This week we will focus on comparing two different articles on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as well as discussing and answering questions about the historical information included in these articles.  We will also get back to our traditional Daily Five Rotation where students are given choice about what they would like to write rather than assigned a writing piece (such as Prefix Pets or Valentine’s Stories).  

We finally finished out Prefix Pets last week with a little (A LOT OF) help from Mrs. Goings. Students will be sharing their Prefix Pets with the entire class (they love to share their work).  Please ask your child about their own Prefix Pet.  These Prefix Pets will be posted in the hall after Tuesday this week for you to see if you happen to stop by.  

All of our groups are reading chapter books of some sort or another. Please ask your child nightly to tell you what is going on in their book to encourage their comprehension of longer pieces.  They will also be bringing home questions nightly to gear them toward thinking more while they read. I am enjoying your children as they grow and mature.  Our book discussions have taken on new depth.  I am also appreciative that all of my 2nd graders are reading nightly!  Thank you for making that nightly commitment.

This week there will be no Spelling, since we have such a short week.  Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Kristen Jackson