Weekly Letter
Click here for our Back-to-School Presentation
Important Dates
5/24 STEM Truck Field Trip on campus – please walk to school today, if possible!
5/27 Student Holiday (Memorial Day)
5/29 Yearbook Signing
5/30 Last Day of School – Early Release 11:50 - No lunch will be served - No Specials
Announcements:
Please check your child's Thursday Folder for his or her Spring math and reading MAP test results.
We are having a fun count down to the end of the year. Each day we will be doing a fun activity with our homeroom class. On Friday, May 24 it is Board Game Day! Students are allowed to bring cards, board games, and/or puzzles to school! Tuesday, May 28 is Read to a First Grader Day. Wednesday, May 29 is Art Day and Yearbook signing.
What We're Learning
In Mrs. Cook's Class: We have become detectives! We are working on a fun project where each day students receive clues and pieces of the crime to solve. We are learning about how to analyze evidence, alibis, conclusions, and using deductive reasoning. This will take us to the end of the year. We are also filling our time with fun plotting, art, and logic activities!
In Language Arts, we've been exploring Greek and Latin roots and how they not only show up in the English language but also provide us with excellent clues for understanding new vocabulary words. Students have been examining related words, choosing words to define and use in sentences, doodling the word, and reading paragraphs that relate to the Greek and Latin roots. They have really enjoyed this activity and have learned SO much about our language through discovery. Try quizzing your child on what he or she has learned so far!
Greek Roots
•bio = life
•chron = time
•graph/gram = write, draw, describe, record
•hydr = water
•meter = measure
•tele = far away
Latin Roots
•aqua = water
•dict = say, declare
•flect/flex = bend
•mar/mer = sea
•struct = build
•vers/vert = turn
•vis/vid = look, see
In Scientific Spelling, we explored the final (j) sound made by "dge" after a short vowel in a one-syllable base word, and the final (j) sound made by "ge" after everything else (consonant, long vowel, or vowel pair). Examples for "dge": bridge, judge, hedge, dodge, badge. Examples for "ge": age, charge, plunge, scrooge, merge, strange.
In reading, we've been enhancing our Media Literacy through examining common advertising strategies such as celebrity endorsement, emotional appeal, and bribery. In addition, we've learned that it's our job as consumers of media to put on our "skepticles" (spectacles with tinted "skeptical" lenses) when reading/viewing media to both help us test a message's credibility and to look for signs of bias. Today students enjoyed brainstorming movies and TV shows they've seen that use product placement (e.g. E.T. loves eating Reese's Pieces, and Captain Marvel crashes into a Blockbuster Video store).
It has been AMAZING to see how much students' vocabulary and reading skills have grown this year through purposeful teaching of spelling, vocabulary, homophones, Greek/Latin roots, and more. Challenge them to use the big words they've learned at home. They'll dazzle you!
Throughout the summer, please help your child continue a routine of daily/nightly reading. Bumping reading up to 30 minutes each day this summer will help students to retain their reading skills and push them to the next level so they're ready for 5th grade. Graphic novels are great, but consider encouraging students to alternate with chapter books to help build and maintain stamina for paragraph and chapter reading. In addition, I'm challenging students to write in their personal writing journals 2 to 3 times a week this summer, remembering capitals, ending punctuation, and complete sentences. They've worked so hard on building their writing skills this year, and maintaining those skills over the summer will help them SAIL into 5th grade. This website has fun daily writing prompts for students to explore: https://www.theteacherscorner.net/daily-writing-prompts/
In Social Studies, we're learning about Texas being annexed by the U.S. and officially becoming a state, as well as the Mexican-American War.
We're in the home stretch now! Only 3.5 days remaining of the school year. Can you believe it? Thank you for sharing your precious children with us this year. We have so enjoying embarking on this learning adventure with them. Have a nice, long weekend!
Mrs. Cook and Mrs. Post
Community Agreements
Students did an amazing job of working in teams to write our classroom Community Agreements, and students and teachers alike signed the agreements in unanimous support. We are working hard at upholding our agreements and discussing how each contributes to a successful, happy classroom and school where all students can thrive. Ask your child which agreements are most challenging to uphold and why, and which are easiest to uphold and why. Our agreements are universal and apply to many situations in one's life (children and adults alike)! Here are our Community Agreements:
We promise…
1. …to be friendly, nice, and kind to others.
2 …to create an environment that allows all students to focus and learn by showing mutual respect to others
(the Golden Rule, whole-body listening).
3. …to not talk while others are talking, during lessons and instructions, and when it is quiet work time.
4. …to be supportive and helpful, and to show cooperation and teamwork.
5. …to work hard and use our best effort.
6. …to not ask others to do something that is against our Community Agreements.
7. …to be respectful of other people’s things and personal space.
8. …to help our classroom feel welcoming in the morning, calm, cozy, and safe during the day, and always like a home.
9. …to keep our school clean and happy, and to be an on-time ROCKin’ Eagle!
10. …to laugh, learn, and love together as a community.