This week in Room #107, 12/21/12

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

The Snow Much Fun party was wonderful and all the children enjoyed themselves.  Pictures have been posted.  We visited and made a craft, ate pizza, and had fun.  I want to take this moment to wish you and your families a safe and wonderful break.   

In Math we are starting Unit 5.   It focuses on multiplication with 2 and 3 digit numbers.  It starts out simple by showing 6 x 9 = 54, 60 x 9 = 540, and moves to 60 x 90 = 5400.  We will also be learning more ways to multiply than just our standard method.  The children will have to know the traditional method we all learned but they must also know the Partial Products Multiplication method.  So this is the one that they have to practice when it comes home.  Please call me or use the online reference book if you need help with this one.  We will not be starting it until after break and it is in Lesson 5.5.  

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 students 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.