Sulima's Scoop - Weeks of November 22 & 29.

Weekly Reminders:
*No spelling pretest or test the week of November 22.
* "Check Your Progress" math quiz (chapter 3, lessons 1-5) on Tuesday, November 23.
*Picture retakes on Tuesday, November 23. Must have picture packet or picture order form.
*Report Cards are issued on Tuesday, November 23.
*No school on Wednesday, November 24-Friday, November 26.
*Open-book/notes Chapter 3, lesson 3 science quiz on Monday, November 29.
*Parent Teacher conferences of Monday, November 29 - Wednesday, December 1.
*Spelling pretest on Monday, November 29.
*Capitalization and Punctuation Test on Tuesday, November 30.
* "Check Your Progress" math quiz (chapter 3, lessons 6-9) on Thursday, December 2.
*Spelling test on Thursday, December 2.
*No school on Friday, December 3.

Plan Ahead:
*Southeast Map test on Tuesday, December 7.
*Movie night on Friday, December 10.
*Project Challenge on Tuesday, December 14.
*Bowling field trip on Thursday, December 16 in afternoon.
*Winter Break, December 20-December 31.

Holiday Service Project: The students of Project Challenge grades 3-5 are participating in a Lion's Club Holiday Drive. We are looking for donations such as new toys, new games, toiletries, and food for the needy families in the Darien area. If you wish to participate you will need to bring the donations in by December 13. Remember that some of these families live right here in Darien. So let's help these families have a happy holiday season. PLEASE DONATE!

Homeroom Happenings:
Science - We will compare living things of the past with living things today. The students will take an open-book/notes quiz on chapter 3, lesson 3 on Monday, November 29. We will not be taking a test on chapter 3. Instead, the children will be involved in a creative project called Prairieview Creature. The construction of this creature will need to be done at home. The children will plan out the creature at school. Please help your child find items, that you aleady have around the house, to help them construct their creature. Creatures will be due on Monday, December 6.

Social Studies - We will begin our tour of the Southeast. The children will fill out the capital cities and state names on a map. They will have their Southeast Map test on Tuesday, December 7. As before, the children will need to correctly locate and spell all the states in the Southeast. They can also earn bonus points for correctly identifying the capital cities. Capital cities will be worth 1/4 point bonus each. We will look at the Coastal Plains and Mountains of the Southeast. The children will be drawing a diagram to represent all the different elevations in the Southeast.

Spelling - We will not have spelling during the week of November 22. On November 29, we will take our spelling pretest. We do not have school on Friday, December 3, so our test will be on Thursday, December 2. The test will need to be done in cursive. We will practice writing the words in cursive during class.

English - We will fill out our "how to study" sheet on Monday, November 22. On Tuesday, November 30, the children will take the Unit 5, Capitalization and Punctuation, Test. English enrichments will also be due on test day.

Reading - Over the next couple of weeks we will be reviewing the skills that we have gone over since the beginning of the year. The students will also work on summarizing and making generalizations. In writing summaries the students will learn to pick out the main points or events of a story or passage and concisely put them in their own words. In making generalizations the students will learn that generalizations are broad statements that are true most of the time, they are based on fact or good reasons, and may include words like always or most.

Accelerated Math Menu:
Monday, November 22 - Zeros in the quotient. HW: WB pg. 30.
Tuesday, November 23 - "Check Your Progress" quiz on lessons 1-5.
Monday, November 29 - Short Division. HW: WB pg. 31.
Tuesday, November 30 - Divisibility and Mental Math. HW: WB pg. 32.
Wednesday, December 1 - Estimation using Compatible Numbers. HW: WB pg. 33 & "Check Your Progress" quiz tomorrow.
Thursday, December 2 - "Check Your Progress" quiz on lessons 6-9.

Paper Recycling Fundraiser Comes to Prairieview: We are happy to announce we can now raise money for our district by recycling paper! You can help us out, too! Please collect any paper you are going to throw away or recycle (office and school paper, newspaper, magazines and catalogs, and construction paper---no cardboard!) and send it in with your child to school or drop it off at the green and yellow Paper Retriever bin in the Lakeview parking lot (near the fence by the Prairieview playground). The bin is available for drop offs 24/7. The more paper we recycle, the more money we can make! Do something good for our schools AND the environment! Thank you!

Sulima's Scoop - Week of November 15

Weekly Reminders:

*Second Trimester begins. (New classroom expectations will be sent home this week. Please review with your child.)

*Spelling pretest on Monday.

*PBIS Assembly on Monday at 1:45.

*Social Studies quiz on Friday.

*Spelling test on Friday.

Plan Ahead:

*Picture retakes on Tuesday, November 23. Need payment envelope or complete picture packet to get retakes.

*Report card issued on Tuesday, November 23.

*Thanksgiving Break, Wednesday, November 24 - Friday, November 26. Gobble Gobble!

*Parent Teacher Conferences, Monday, November 29 - December 1.

Homeroom Happenings:

Science - In Chapter 3, lesson 2, we will explore how the behaviors of animals help them meet their needs. We will be taking a quiz over lessons 2 and 3 after the Thanksgiving break.

Social Studies - We will now explore the people of the Northeast. Our focus will be on the Narragansett Tribe. There will be an open-book quiz on Chapter 5, lesson 1 on Friday.

Spelling - The children will take the spelling pretest on Monday. Throughout the week, in class, we will practice the words in cursive. At home, your child should practice the spelling of the words and complete their activities. Our test on Friday will need to be done in cursive.

English- We will continue our unit on Capitalization and Punctuation. Our lessons will include: More Uses for Commas, Quotations, and Titles. Since using quotation marks can be so difficult for children, we will spend at least 3 days working on this concepts. Our test on Unit 5 will be after the Thanksgiving Break.

Reading - We will work on making inferences and evaluating during reading this week. Good readers should always think about their reactions to what they are reading and why they are reacting that way. This strategy is called “evaluating”. As you are reading the story think about these things: How does the author make the story come alive and make you want to keep reading? What was entertaining, informative, or useful about what you read? How did you react to the story? Did you agree or disagree with what you read? How well did you understand what you were reading? Did you enjoy reading it?

Accelerated Math Menu:

We will begin chapter 3 this week. I have decided to only do lessons 1-9 & 14 in this chapter, at this time. We will come back to chapter 3 later in the year to work on dividing by 2-digit divisors.

Monday - Understanding Division. HW: Workbook pg. 26.

Tuesday - Order of Operations. HW: Workbook pg. 38.

Wednesday - Division Patterns. HW: Workbook pg. 27.

Thursday - Three-Digit Quotients. HW: Workbook pg. 28.

Friday - Larger Quotients. HW: Workbook pg. 29 (if not finished during class).

Sulima's Scoop - Week of November 8

Weekly Reminders:

*District Eat Out - Chili's - Nov. 7-Nov. 11.

*Spelling pretest on Monday.

*"Check Your Progress" math quiz on Monday.

*Roller Skating Party on Monday, 3:45 - 6:30.

*Chapter 3, lesson 1 Science quiz on Tuesday.

*Chapter 2 Math test on Wednesday.

*Chapter 4 Social Studies test on Wednesday.

*No school on Thursday - Veteran's Day.

*Spelling test on Friday.

*End of first trimester on Friday.

Plan Ahead:

*Picture Retakes on Tuesday, November 23.

*Report Cards issued on Tuesday, November 23.

*Thanksgiving Break, Wednesday, November 24 - Friday, November 26.

*Parent Teacher Conferences during the week of November 29.

Homeroom Happenings:

Science - We will finish chapter 3, lesson 1 on Monday. The children will take an open-book/notes quiz on Tuesday. We will begin lesson 2 during the week of November 15.

Social Studies - On Monday and Tuesday, we will review for the chapter 4 test. Our test will be on Wednesday. Students will be allowed to use their textbook during this test. Notes will not be allowed.

Items to review for the test:

*Key words: glacier, gorge, hydropower, hydroelectricity, lighthouse, peninsula, vineyard, bog, sap, mineral, quarry, bay, inlet, watermen, & crab pot.

*Identify the two Great Lakes between which Niagara Falls is located.

*Identify the two main features for which Niagara Falls is known.

*Identify the three mountain ranges in the northeastern part of the Appalachian Mountains.

*Identify the two states in the Northeast that do not border the Atlantic Ocean.

*Identify key steps in the production of maple syrup.

*Explain why grapes grow well in certain areas of the Northeast.

*Identify the largest of the Finger Lakes.

*Explain why water is essential to the production and growth of cranberries.

*Define the name of the people who fish Chesapeake Bay.

*Explain how pollution from a factory gets into Chesapeake Bay.

*Explain why Chesapeake Bay is important to the Northeast.

*Describe actions a resident of the Chesapeake Bay area could take to help preserve the bay.

Spelling - The children will take a spelling pretest on Monday. If they receive a 90% or higher on the pretest, they will become a challenge speller. All weekly assignments will be due on Friday. We will also take the spelling test on Friday.

English - We will continue Unit 5 this week. This unit practices capitalization and punctuation. The lessons we will cover this week are: Names of People and Pets, Names of Places and Things, Abbreviations, and Commas in a Series.

Reading - This week, we will focus on two important reading strategies. The first reading strategy that we will discuss is to make predictions, or educated guesses about what will happen next in the story. The second reading strategy that we will apply is the use of inferences, or the ability to figure something out even though it isn't exactly stated in the story. Additionally, we will focus on sequencing events in literature.

Accelerated Math Menu:

Monday - "Check Your Progress" quiz. Fill out "how to study" for chapter 2 test on Wednesday. HW: Study for Chapter 2 test on Wednesday.

Tuesday - Multiplication with $ and review for chapter 2 test tomorrow. HW: Finish WB 23 & Study for test tomorrow.

Wednesday - Chapter 2 Test. HW: None.

Thursday - No school: Veteran's Day

Friday - Mini-lesson on Exponents. HW: None.