Week of 10/31/11 - 11/4/11

A great, big THANK YOU to all the moms who helped in some way today to make our Halloween party a rip-roarin' success. From the food to the games, it was wonderful!! I hope you enjoy all the Halloween festivities this weekend and on Monday.

Coming up this week:

Spelling: Lesson 9: Pretest Monday/Practice homework due Tuesday. Workbook/Challenge work due Thursday. Test Friday.

English: We will continue Unit 5 on Capitalization and Punctuation, specifically studying abbreviations and titles this week. Tentatively planning an english test on 11/10.

Reading: We will be applying the reading skills that we have learned this year to our novels. Please ask your child what they are reading and let them share the stories with you. They both deal with bullying and being the “new kid.” These are great topics for discussion here in the classroom and at home!

Social Studies: Chapter 6 “Life in the English Colonies” continues. We will specifically study how the early colonists lived in cities, towns, and on farms. Remember our classroom trade fair on November 7. Permission slips are due Monday!.

Science: We read and took notes on lesson 1 of chapter 6. This lesson deals with symbiosis and adaptation. There will be a project assigned Wednesday which goes along with one of my favorite books, The Great Fuzz Frenzy.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class: We are rolling through chapter 5 on decimals. Monday we will take a step back to do some Halloween fun sheets. Tuesday, back to decimals with a nice review and practice “quest.” The actual chapter 5 “quest” is on Wednesday.

Important Dates:
October 31 – Trade Fair permission slips due
November 3 – Picture retakes
November 7 – Classroom trade fair
November 11 – Veterans' Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza

Week of 10/24/11 - 10/28/11

We will have our Halloween party and parade on Friday, October 28th! Please make sure your child brings an "easy to put on" costume for this day. They will change into their costumes after lunch. There will be NO ACCESS to the bathroom for costume or make-up "put on." There will be "girls" and "boys" classrooms assigned for changing of costumes.Costume parade will begin at 1:00; party at 1:30.

Don't forget our early dismissal day on Thursday; PV will get out at 11:00

Coming up this week:

Spelling: Lesson 8: Pretest Monday/Practice homework due Tuesday. Workbook/Challenge work due Thursday. Test Friday.

English: We will continue Unit 5 on Capitalization and Punctuation, specifically studying quotations and abbreviations this week.

Reading: We will be applying the reading skills that we have learned this year to a novel. The students will be divided into two groups. Some students will be practicing reading skills using a book called, The Kid in the Red Jacket and some students will be using a novel called, Crash!

Social Studies: Chapter 6 “Life in the English Colonies” will start on Wednesday. We will specifically study how the early colonists worked and traded. There will be a classroom trade fair on November 7. Information about the fair will be coming home later this week.

Science: We will be dissecting our owl pellets early in the week. The students love this project; bones will be coming home!!

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class: We will start chapter 5 on decimals this week, specifically studying decimal place value, equivalent decimals, and comparing and ordering decimals. This is a short chapter, so look for a “quest” the following week.

Important Dates:

October 27 -- School Improvement Day/Early Dismissal

October 28 – Halloween parade and party

November 3 – Picture retakes

November 7 – Classroom trade fair

November 11 – Veterans' Day – no school

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza

Week of 10/17/11 - 10/21/11

Welcome to two new students, Danny and Diego, who joined our classroom today! We had a very short week this week; back to normal next week!! We will have Junior Achievement session 2 on Thursday. Our picture packets should arrive on Tuesday, October 18th. Our retake day is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 3rd. Enjoy the beautiful weather that continues over our area!

Coming up this week:

Spelling: Lesson 7: Pretest Monday/Practice homework due Tuesday. Workbook/Challenge work due Thursday. Test Friday.

English: We will continue Unit 5 on Capitalization and Punctuation, specifically studying commas this week.

Reading: We will work with leveled reading books this week and apply the skills we learned while reading Elena. Students will be getting vocabulary words with their books on Monday and I am planning a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday.

Social Studies: We are just about finished studying chapter 5. All notes will be checked on Tuesday and Wednesday. We will review playing “numbered heads together” on Thursday and have our test on Friday.

Science: Please check your child's binder for their chapter 5 test! We will be focusing on owl pellets this week. It's a very exciting unit and I like to study them after our ecosystems unit. Remember to ask your child about it next week!

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class: Chapter 3 is finished! We will focus on practicing division (specifically long division) with a tentative test date of Wednesday. Please make sure your child practices at home in the next few days.

Important Dates:
October 27 -- School Improvement Day/Early Dismissal
October 28 – Halloween parade and party

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza

Week of 10/11/11 - 10/14/11

We will have a very short week coming up... Columbus Day is Monday and Tuesday is a Teachers' Institute. Enjoy the beautiful weather we are expecting! We will also be starting Book Buddies on Thursday, pairing up with the students of Mrs. Olsen's 3rd grade class.

Coming up this week:

Spelling: Due to the short week, there will be no spelling lesson this week

English: We will continue Unit 5 on Capitalization and Punctuation, specifically studying proper nouns and adjectives this week.

Reading: This week, we will continue to focus on story structure and mapping using the historical fiction tale of Elena and other stories. We will also work with analogies and start the summarizing process (Get the gist?)

Social Studies: The 13 English Colonies will be explored this week.

Science: We have completed the reading of chapter 5. On Wednesday, we will review for the test, which will follow on Thursday.

Mrs. Klacza's Math Class: We continue our division unit this week as we learn how to divide with 2-digit divisors. We will then focus on practicing division with a tentative test date of Wednesday, 10/19. I will reevaluate this date as we move forward. Long division is a very difficult concept and I hope to make it as clear as I can before the test date.

Important Dates:
October 10 -- Columbus Day -- No School
October 11 -- Teacher Institute -- No School

October 27 -- School Improvement Day/Early Dismissal

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Klacza