I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for ICE CREAM!!

                                                                                                                  February 9, 2015

Dear Parents,

It was an exciting week in Room 5!  The students have been working very hard on attentive listening and transitions that are quick and quiet.  They have been earning the letters to spell the out ICE CREAM PARTY.  Well on Thursday afternoon the class earned the Y and they were able to keep it for the rest of the day.  So Monday afternoon, the students will enjoy their ice cream party reward!

Here's more about last week!!

Math

All students have a "big number".  Students work on this "big number" weekly.  Your child's "big number" is determined by the highest number that they know all the facts (both addition and subtraction) for.  Throughout the week students meet by their "big number" group to practice the facts.  This practice is done with activities within the their "big number" box.  Every Thursday students take 

Working on number bonds for their "big number".

Another "big number" activity, BANG!

timed test.  Their goal is to complete 50 mixed problems on their "big number" sheet beating their previous time.  When they are able to complete this in 2 minutes and 30 seconds or less, they move to the next number.  All students are working hard to beat their times!!

Aside from working on our "big numbers", the students of Room 5 went deeper into fractions.  Students spent time reading and writing fractions.  We learned that the denominator is the bottom number of a fraction and it tells the total equal pieces in the whole.  The top number of a fraction is called the numerator and it tells about part of the whole.

The other big concept that students worked on was comparing and ordering unit fractions.  A unit fraction is a fraction that has 1 as the denominator.  As we explored with fraction strips that ranged from 1/2 to 1/12, students were able to make the connection that the larger the number in the denominator of the fraction means the smaller in size of the actual fraction piece.  Because this is a difficult concept for students to grasp we are using fraction strips and circles to make math posters showing the ordering of fractions and comparing fractions.

Labeling unit fractions for our fraction posters.

Here's the homework for this week...
Mon.         Practice Test B
Tues.        IXL U.8  Order Fractions With Like Numerators
Wed.         IXL U.10 Fractions Equivalent to Whole Numbers
Thurs.       No Homework (Happy Valentine's Day and President's Day)

Don't forget about Oasis Academy's Math Night coming up on Feb. 26th from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Writing

Organization is the writing trait the writer's of Room 5 have been working on this past week.  Students have learned about "Bold Beginnings", "Mighty Middles", and "Excellent Endings".  We know that a narrative that is well organized is easy for readers to read and understand.  Room 5's writers are learning the importance of writing narratives that have a beginning that will hook the reader, the middle should have details that are connected with transition words or phrases, and the ending should hold the narrative together.  

Language 

Pronouns are the new part of speech we are working on.  This week we reviewed pronouns that included I, he, she, it, we, they, us, you, and them.  Students were introduced to reflexive pronouns.  Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that refer back the the subject.  Reflexive pronouns all end with self (singular) or selves (plural) and include myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves.  

Projects    

Lab partners discussing their upcoming experiment.

The Scientists in Room 5 were busy this week.  We worked through an experiment to determine whether water goes through reversible or irreversible changes when cooled and heated.  After finding that the changes water goes through are reversible, as a class we listed items that we might want to test by heating and cooling.  I must say the list includes some very interesting items everything from a tooth to marsh mellows.  From the list students picked the top four items they would want to test.  I was able to partner students by their top items to test.

Typing lab reports

The lab partners then discussed how they would test their item and started typing their lab reports.  It has been so interesting to watch students work together in this scientific endeavor.  I can hardly wait to see how the experiments work out!!

As you can see we are always busy in Room 5.  I know our week will be great.  Here's wishing all the Oasis families a wonderful week and a fabulous long weekend.  

Sincerely,
Anne Bloomfield


Here's what the students of Room 5 will be doing in reading this week!!

February 9-12

Windy Weekend!  

I hope you survived the wind!  I had to drive to Fernley 3 times this weekend, and my trip on Friday was definitely the worst one I had to make!  

We will spend another week during our mini-lessons focusing on finding the meanings of unknown words.  This week we will also continue doing research with our animal magazine articles in our small guided reading groups.  We have been retrieving, analyzing, sorting and writing information about where animals live, what they look like, what they eat, and interesting facts.  We will finish this work in our small groups, so that next week we can research our own article independently during Work on Writing.  Some of us will also be starting to read new chapter books, since we are just finishing the ones we have been reading.  During these next chapter books, we will be answering 2-3 questions nightly specifically related to information in the book.  These questions will help us work on bettering our comprehension strategies.  

This week students will also have a variety of Valentine’s books to share with one another during Read to Someone or to read independently during Read to Self.  

We will also all finally complete our work with prefixes and suffixes as we finish our Prefix Pets.  Our Word Family this week will contain words using “oil”.  

Have a wonderful week and a happy heart day with your families next Saturday!  I heard that Middle School dance was charming, sweet and joyous.  That’s why we love Oasis!    

Sincerely,

Kristen Jackson