Week of 11/3/08 - 11/7/08

I'd like to thank all the wonderful parents for pitching in to make our Halloween party such a success. The snacks and drinks were delicious and the games were a blast. We had the most perfect weather for our parade, also! All in all, a great time was had by all!!

Coming up this week:

Mrs. Klacza's Reading Class:

Spelling: Lesson 10 – Final “y” words and suffixes. Contract work will be due on Friday and the final test will also be on Friday.

Language Arts: This week we will continue our Nouns lesson. We will specifically study Singular and Plural possessive nouns. The test for Chapter 2 is planned for Wednesday, November 12. The students can plan on reviewing later in the week and the early part of the next week.

Reading: We will start a new skill this week, “Inferencing.” We will read “A Boy Called Slow” which is about Sitting Bull, a Lakota Sioux leader. By the title alone, can you infer about the main character?

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:

We are ready to begin Chapter 4, Algebra Expressions and Equations. The properties of math will be revisited this week.

Mrs. Klacza's Homeroom:

Social Studies: Cities, Towns, and Farms will be explored this week in Social Studies. Our very exciting trade fair will take place on Thursday, so please remind your child to get those products finished and their display sign!

The Social Studies committee is looking for two parents who have an education or history background to be involved in the adoption of new Social Studies textbooks. You would have to meet with the committee and provide input choosing our textbook for the coming years. The Social Studies committee will be meeting once every other month for the next two years. Please email mpellin@ccsd66.org if you would be interested in joining the Social Studies committee. Thank you!

Science: Students will be learning about the structure of plants and photosynthesis this week.

Important Notes:
11/4 Teacher Institute – no school
11/5 Buona Benefit Night
11/11 Veteran's Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza!

Week of 10/27/08 - 10/31/08

Another full week has come and gone and it ended on a very high note. The children really enjoyed the Legend of Pocahontas this morning. They were very well-behaved and received compliments from people affiliated with the Chicago Youth Theater. That really made me smile!
Coming up this week:

Mrs. Klacza's Reading Class:

Spelling: Lesson 9 - Halloween words. Contract work will be due on Friday and the final test will also be on Friday. The students will receive a list of the words after the pretest on Monday.

Language Arts: This week we will continue our Nouns lesson. The students will write a noun poem, complete a noun word search, and solve some noun mysteries!

Reading: We continue with our current skill “Visualization.” After reading another tall tale on Monday, the students will write their own tall tales. As the students individually share their stories, I hope the rest of us can visualize the characters and all the super human things they do!

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:

After reviewing Chapter 3 on Monday and Tuesday, we will be ready to take the chapter test on Wednesday, 10/29. We will end the week with some Halloween Math Libs. Here are some good websites for the children to practice long division:
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/long-division/number-monster-division.htm
http://www.surfnetkids.com/division.htm
http://www.kidsnumbers.com/

Mrs. Klacza's Homeroom:

Social Studies: We will begin Chapter 6, “Life in the Colonies,” on Monday. Please look out for information on our classroom trade fair. I have this scheduled for November 6.

Science: I hope the children have been collecting lots of unique leaves. We will use them to make leaf animals this week. We will also begin studying about photosynthesis.

Important Notes:
10/31 Halloween celebrations
11/4 Teacher Institute – no school
11/11 Veteran's Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza!

Week of 10/20/08 - 10/24/08

We had a great week! Our Junior Achievement representative came and will continue to do so for several more weeks. I'm very proud of the way my students conducted themselves. Keep up the good work! We also made Hallo-Weiners this week. Ask your child about it... Please remember to send your child with a sack lunch on Friday, October 24, for our Pocahontas field trip.

Coming up this week:

Mrs. Klacza's Reading Class:

Spelling: Lesson 8 – Review words. Contract work will be due on Thursday, 10/23, and the final test will also be on 10/23. The reason it will be early this week is because on Friday the Fifth grade will be going to see Pocahontas.

Language Arts: This week we will start the next lesson, Nouns. We will specifically focus on common and proper nouns, as well as singular and plural nouns. Our new Schoolhouse Rock sing-a-long will be “A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing.” It's catchy, so beware students; you'll be singing it in your heads for awhile!!

Reading: Our new reading skill is Visualizing, which we will begin this week. We will use Tall Tales to help us with this skill. Paul Bunyan will be our first tall tale character and with vizualization, we can almost imagine how he looked as a 100 pound baby!

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:

We have a quiz Monday on Chapter 3 Lessons 5-8. Students may use their notes. Long division can be hard and tricky, so please remind your children to do their homework and practice, practice, practice. The Chapter 3 test will be on 10/29.

Mrs. Klacza's Homeroom:

Social Studies: Our Chapter 5 test will take place on Tuesday. The students are aware of this and have a “How to Study” sheet ready to be filled out and signed. We will then do some election activities to round out the week.

Science: We will will continue our unit on ecosystems.

Important Notes:
10/22 Early Dismissal – 11:00
10/24 The Legend of Pocahontas at Timothy Christian School Auditorium (please note the date has been changed from 10/17 and your child needs a sack lunch that day)
10/31 Halloween celebrations
11/4 Teacher Institute – no school
11/11 Veteran's Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza!

Week of 10/13/08 - 10/17/08

Baseball season is now officially over, in my eyes, at least... I see the trees are beginning to change color and I hope you all take advantage of the beautiful Autumn weather this 3-day weekend! Also, please make sure you check your child's progress on-line. If you have questions or problems doing so, contact the office and they will help you.

Coming up this week:

Mrs. Klacza's Reading Class:

Spelling: Lesson 7 – Soft and hard g. Contract work will be due on Friday, 10/17, and the final test will also be on 10/17.

Language Arts: We will not start the next unit in English this week, but we will do a fun activity focusing on the correct use of commas.

Reading: We will be concluding our study of summarizing this week with the novel The Kid in the Red Jacket. Students should be finishing up the novel this weekend. The date for our vocabulary quiz is 10/15. A pyramid activity will be created this week focusing on favorite parts of the book. This will be assigned on Tuesday, due on Friday. Students will have an opportunity to work in class on this activity.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:

We are continuing Chapter 3 this week on Division. An open note quiz on Lessons 1 through 4 will occur on Tuesday, 10/14. The students are aware of this.

Mrs. Klacza's Homeroom:

Social Studies: This week we will continue to study Chapter 5, Lesson 4 in our chapter, specifically the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies. The test for Chapter 5 will be on Tuesday, 10/21.

Science: Will will begin our unit on ecosystems.

Important Notes:

10/13 Columbus Day – no school
10/15 Junior Achievement starts in our homeroom
10/22 Early Dismissal – 11:00
10/24 The Legend of Pocahontas at Timothy Christian School Auditorium - your child needs a sack lunch that day)
10/31 Halloween celebrations
11/4 Teacher Institute – no school
11/11 Veteran's Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza!

Week of 10/6/08 - 10/10/08

September is now behind us as we move into Autumn. There is a chill in the air and baseball season is winding down. Let's hope one of our hometown teams goes a little further...

Coming up this week:

Mrs. Klacza's Reading Class:

Spelling: Lesson 6 – Plurals with -es. Contract work will be due on Friday, 10/10, and the final test will also be on 10/10.

Language Arts: Abbreviations and titles will be investigated this week. A test is planned for Friday, 10/10, on Unit 5.

Reading: We are continuing our study of summarizing this week with the novel The Kid in the Red Jacket. Each chapter will be summarized and we will be continuing to make vocabulary cards, also. The tentative date for our vocabulary quiz is 10/15. That could change depending on our progress. I will let the students know as it gets closer.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class:

We are starting Chapter 3 this week on Division. This will be the last week for timed multiplication mad minutes and I strongly suggest to the students to practice their facts if they have not passed them all yet.

Mrs. Klacza's Homeroom:

Social Studies: This week we will study Lessons 2, 3, and 4 in our chapter. We will learn about the early colonies, specifically, the Pilgrims and Puritans.

Science: After our test Monday on the “Getting Ready for Science” section in our textbook, we will take a break for a few days to do some election activities. Ecosystems is our next chapter in Science.

Important Notes:
10/13 Columbus Day – no school
10/24 The Legend of Pocahontas at Timothy Christian School Auditorium (please note the date has been changed from 10/17 and your child needs a sack lunch that day)

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza!