Spelling is Starting, and Rocket Math, too! 

(Well, almost...one more week until Rocket Math)

I hope you had a wonderful evening, and I hope you were able to catch the super moon/lunar eclipse tonight.  It was amazing to watch! 
Many thanks for the classroom supplies, we have all we need, thank you!!!!! We are well prepared for germ season, and our highlighters and manila paper should last us the year.  I greatly appreciate your generosity.

Here is a quick overview of our week ahead:

Monday:  We will be reviewing Life Cycles and Addition/Subtraction for an assessment on Tuesday.  Study guides will be going home for both Monday Night.  Please don't stress about these tests- they know it!  We have been working hard, and they will do just fine. 
Big ideas to review:  Can they tell you the stages in order of the butterfly, chicken, and frog. 
Vocabulary- can they tell you what fertilized, molt, metamorphosis, life cycle mean? 

Tuesday:  Life Cycles Assessment and Addition/Subtraction Assessment
               Identifying Nouns/Verbs in a sentence
               Ancient India- the Caste System
               Literature: Short Stories this week!

Wednesday:  Life Cycle of a Plant!  (I love the labs we get to do this week and next!)
                      Measurement:  Meters
                      Ancient India
                      Nouns/Verbs/ review the 4 types of verbs and identify the different types of verbs in a sentence

Thursday: Life Cycle of a Plant- Inside a Seed Lab
                 Measurement
                 Ancient India
                 Noun/Verb quiz

Friday:  Life Cycle of a Plant- The parts of a Flower dissection lab
            Measurement
             Ancient India
             Spelling Test


Spelling starts this week! 
Here is the breakdown (check back on my blog Monday afternoon, I should have a video up to watch if you aren't sure what to do). 
Monday:  10 words (you dictate the words to the student and use it in a sentence.  The student repeats the word, spells the word-on their fingers using their phonograms, and then writes the word and marks the word.  example:  need. 
I need to get to bed!
Student:  need. n-ee-d (sounds not letters)
writes the word:  need (the ee's are underlined since they are two letters that make one sound, the long e).

Repeat for all ten words.
Do this 3 x. 

The big idea is to dictate the words, not have the students just copy the words.  They need to hear the word, and break it apart by sound. 

Monday-Wednesday:  each night they will have 10 words
Thursday:  All 30 words will be practiced
Friday:  Test

All the parent directions are listed at the bottom of the homework sheet.


I know it feels like a lot of tests this week, and with the addition of Spelling words this week, it might feel a little busy- the math homework is lighter and fun this week, so hopefully you won't see a huge change in your evening routine.

Be on the look out for a parent letter coming home Thursday detailing Rocket Math (a self- paced math fact memorization resource we use to help build automaticity in addition/subtraction/multiplication/division).  Rocket Math will begin next Monday, but more information will come this week.  The kids LOVE Rocket Math, so hopefully it will be a fun, engaging, and productive addition to our math curriculum.

Have a wonderful week, and thank you for your continued partnership!  It is hard to believe we are almost closing out our first quarter of the year!