This week in Room #107, 12/14/12

First - please note the important dates listed in Upcoming Events and the Quizzes and Tests section.

The Snow Much Fun party will be this Friday, 12/21/12, from 1:30 - 2:30.  We will be making a craft, having pizza, and juice.  Since the children are having pizza during the party you may want to pack a lighter lunch or not as many snacks. 

In Math we wrappted up Unit 4.   The BA for Unit 3 and 4 is tomorrow, Tuesday, December 18th.   We have not only been learning how to add and subtract decimals but that they also appear in our daily lives. We have been talking about money, temperatures, rain and snow fall, times in athletic events, just to name a few. We have also been learning how they can be shown in fractions as well.

We keep working on our fast fact tests.  Some of the students are not practicing 10 minutes a night.  It is important that they do this so they can be successful in their math facts.  It is important in the upcoming units on multiplication and division that they have them memorized.  The mastering process for fast facts is addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction. The students seem to be doing quite well with the program and are flourishing.

We continue our unit on Economics and the studens are learning many interesting things.  We have been learning about scarcity, supply, demand, opportunity costs, competition, market economy, consumers, producers, profit, price, and choice. 

We are also starting to work on the science unit of motion and design.  The students will be exploring how simple machines work for us and how they are helpful.  They will also be working in teams to build and run experiments with a car made with Knex.      

In Language Arts - it is important that your child read daily. I have provided a December calendar for recording their minutes.

The December Reading Calendar and the December Handwriting Packet are due on January 4th.

• In reading we are working reveiwing the strategies we have learned over the years and are expanding on them. We are learning how to ask thick questions when we read. Thick questions can't be answered with just one or two words. They are deeper thinking questions.
• In writing we continue to work on grammar as well as writer's craft.