Hi Families!
Quick notes to know:
- 2/25/20 Sectional 3 Spelling Bee – 6:30 pm in the gym
- 2/26/20 Early Release
- 2/28/20 End of 2nd Trimester
- 3/2/20 PJ/Popcorn/Movie Day- students may bring in a blanket and either a stuffed animal or squishy. Students may send in popcorn to share.
- 3/5/20 Tornado Drill
- 3/6/20 Natural Leaders Assembly
- 3/11/20 Farm to Table
- 3/12 and 3/13 E.R. – Student Led Conferences
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Two Teams have filled their gem jars at the same time. They have voted for a whole class treat of a PJ/Popcorn/Movie Day which will take place on MONDAY 3/2. Students may bring in a blanket and either a stuffed animal or squishy (which will be used only during the movie time). Students may also send in popcorn to share. Congratulations to the students! Thank you!
- Our school has noticed an increase in students using watches to receive or send texts, etc. during class. Please note that cell phones and watches fall under the same category in the student handbook. Both are not allowed to be used during school hours. Watches, just like phones, need to remain in backpacks and turned off during the school day. Additionally, it is important they are turned off and not utilizing bandwidth, so PCCS does not experience network connectivity issues because of too many clients connected to one access point. Thank you for your help in guiding your student to make sure they are aware of and follow these rules.
- Student led conferences are coming! In the next few weeks your child will be working hard to present to you their learning over trimester 2. This is truly their time to shine! Look for more details to come in the future, as well as, sign up link.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEXT WEEK:
Reading and Writing,
We will follow our normal spelling schedule this week and next week.
In writing we will have our final fictional narrative lesson with children’s author Natalie Rompella. Each student will have the opportunity to share their final draft with Mrs. Ottaviani’s class on 2/25/20. This will be done in small groups or partnerships.
Students will be working on grade level informational articles, and identifying the important information in the article. Then, they will answer comprehension questions following the article.
Students will also listen to a funny story about the United States becoming mixed up. This story is a great example of personification and will help students with identifying the shapes of each state. This read aloud supports our current social studies unit on geography.
We will also read aloud a grade level informational article. Students will then reread the article on their own. The article will have a glossary, comprehension questions and a graphic organizer. Using the graphic organizer and information from the article, students will then write a short opinion essay.
Next week, students will be working hard on their portfolios for Student Led conferences. Students will evaluate their work samples and organize them into their portfolio. Then they will complete a conference script which they will practice with a partner. This project take place the week of 3/2 and Monday-Wednesday of the week of 3/9.
3rd grade Math,
We will finish up Module 3 on Monday with some workplaces games. Then, Tuesday, we will start Module 4 of unit5, which is the final module of the unit. Module 4 will focus on introducing area. This module introduces the concept of area as an attribute
of plane figures such as rectangles and squares that are measured in square units. After measuring paper rectangles and surfaces around the classroom in nonstandard units, students will move into estimating and measuring area in customary units: square inches, square feet, and square yards. In Sessions 4 and 5, students begin
to investigate the link between area and multiplication, discovering that the area of a rectangle can be efficiently calculated by multiplying its side lengths. Students will take
the Unit 5 Post-Assessment in Session 6. This is scheduled for Tuesday 3/3. Following the completion of unit 5, we will spend some time looking at the IAR test samples for math. We will start unit 6, which focuses on geometry, on 3/6 with a unit 6 pre-assessment.
In Number Corner, we are continuing our February calendar which focuses on area and perimeter. In our February collection, we are collecting fractions of a dollar and building up to whole dollars. We are now collecting fourths of a dollar, and will be comparing the two collections.
4th grade math,
Please see Mrs. Ottaviani’s website for 4th grade math information and updates.
Science/Social Studies,
We have started our unit on geography. We have started the first segment of the unit last week and focused on identifying and learning about the oceans and the continents. We will finish up our last lesson on the oceans on Tuesday. Then we will have a quiz on continents and oceans following this.
The next segments of our unit will be the regions of the United States. Students will learn about the geography of each region, capitals and major bodies of water/ rivers. Students will then be tested on each region. We will start with the midwest region as this is most familiar to our students and helps them develop a sense of place.
As part of this unit, we will also work on a project about invasive species. This will be a cross-curricular project and some of the project will be featured in our writing and reading class time as well. Students will use research skills to find information regarding an invasive species. Then, students will create an informational booklet. This booklet can be distributed to help educate others about their invasive species and what actions can be done. (You can read a brief but helpful definition of cross-curricular education here.)
We are continuing phenology and solo spots, alternating each week. Please make sure your student is prepared to be outside on a regular basis.
I hope you have a wonderful week!
