Sulima's Scoop - Week of December 3

This school year is flying by. Wow! Can you believe it is already December?

Parents, I would like to thank all of you for your support throughout this school year. I enjoyed meeting with each of you this past week for parent teacher conferences. Let's continue to work together throughout this second trimester to help the children reach their goals.

Reminders:
*Lesson 13 spelling pretest on Monday.
*Yearbook orders due on Monday.
*English pretest on Tuesday.
*Second Jr. Achievement session on Tuesday. (Dollars and $ense program)
*Gifts and donations for our family and LutherBrook are due on Wednesday.
*Chapter 4 Math Test on Wednesday.
*Lesson 13 spelling test on Friday.
*Wear red on Friday for our Character Counts Spirit Day.
*Please send in bowling permission slips and report card envelopes.

English:
The children will be taking a pretest on Nouns on Tuesday. On Tuesday night they will need to choose their enrichment options. We will begin our noun unit on Wednesday.

Reading:
The children will begin "book clubs" this week. On Monday they will find out which book they will be reading. They will also meet with their book club group to make a reading schedule. Much of their reading will be done at home. They can also use relaxed reading time and some of their reading time to complete their reading assignment. The children should not read ahead. Our first book club discussion will be on Friday. Each child will need to have their discussion sheet filled out by Friday.

We will also continue our expository essays this week. The children already have their introductions complete. This week we will work on our body paragraphs and conclusions.

Science:
We will finish our adaptations unit this week by studying pollution, endangered and extinct animals, and fossils. On Thursday we will fill out our "how to study" sheet. We will review for the test on Monday, Dec. 10. Our test will be on Tuesday, Dec. 11.

Social Studies:
Our focus this week will be on the resources of the southeast. Agriculture is important to the southeast. The children will write a short story from the perspective of a cotton, orange, peach, or peanut farmer. They will need to research their crop & where it would be grown in the southeast. We will be visiting the lab throughout the week to complete this research.

Math: (Mrs. Sulima's math students only)
We will review all of chapter 4, as a class, on Monday. On Tuesday we will play a review game to prepare for our test which will be on Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday we will begin our next unit on geometry.

Website of the Week:

Research your Southeast crop at:

http://home.comcast.net/~ssulima/social_studies.htm

Sulima's Scoop - Week of November 26

Reminders:

*Lesson 12 spelling pretest on Monday.

*Parent-Teacher Conferences on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Times are listed below.

*First Jr. Achievement Session (Dollars and $ense program) on Tuesday.

*Report Cards go home on Tuesday.

*John Lynn Appalachian Trail Presentation on Wednesday.

*Lesson 12 spelling test on Thursday.

*Library check-out on Thursday.

*No school on Friday.

*Yearbook orders due Monday, Dec. 3.

Holiday Service Project:

Each year Prairieview runs a service project around the holidays. Our efforts will benefit two organizations: a cancer family and a children's shelter. Each classroom at Prairieview has a family or an individual that is in need at this time. In addition to the cancer families, we will also be making donations to LutherBrook, a shelter for less fortunate boys and girls.

This year our class has a very special family.Our family includes:
~Karla (cancer patient) -12 years old female

~Mom

~Dad
Sadly, Karla has cancer. Not only does this family struggle with the stress of treatments and illness, but they are less fortunate than us financially, too. In order to make this a special holiday, we have “adopted” them. If you could send in a NEW, not used, present for one or more of the family members, that would be appreciated.

Directions:

*Please wrap the gift. (Food items should not be wrapped.)

*LABEL the item with what it is and who it is for, with a post-it.

Some ideas for NEW (not used) gifts include, but are not limited to:

Karla (age 12): age appropriate games/toys, books, crafts, winter hat/gloves, jewelry, etc.

Mom: bath and body, perfume, jewelry, candles, kitchen accessories, picture frames/albums, gift certificates,gift baskets, slippers, etc.

Dad: book/magazine, wallet, socks, cologne, slippers, scarf/gloves, gift certificates, etc.
Family Gifts: a couple strands of Christmas lights, ornaments (the class thought it would be nice if we each brought in one ornament), popcorn tins, candy canes, food gift pack, a family game, home supplies, gift certificates, etc.

Gift certificates to consider: Jewel, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, K-Mart, Sears, JC Penney’s, Chili’s, TGIFridays, Subway, McDonalds, Burger King, etc.

These gifts will be delivered before Christmas along with a freshly cut tree donated by Strong Landscaping.

Gifts for LutherBrook: We are accepting Cash or Target gift cards in any denomination. This goes towards gifts on the children's wish list and toward a special holiday party! This is greatly appreciated! Thanks for your support!

Parent-Teacher Conferences:

Monday, Nov. 26th-

3:00 -3:15 Sean

3:15-3:30 Evan

3:30-3:45 Ryan

Tuesday, Nov. 27th -

11:10-11:25 Lisa

3:00-3:15 Claudia

3:15-3:30 Max

3:30-3:45 Michael

Wednesday, Nov. 28th-

3:00-3:15 Taylor

3:30-3:45 Jackie

3:45-4:00 Natalia

4:15-4:30 Sam

4:30-4:45 Kevin M.

4:45-5:00 Ali

5:00-5:15 Jeff

5:15-5:30 Andrew

5:30-5:45 Matthew

6:00-6:15 Lara

6:15-6:30 Megan

6:30-6:45 Michelle

6:45-7:00 Dana

7:00-7:15 Mackenzie

7:15-7:30 Nikitha

English:

We will continue working on our expository essays. The children are writing an essay about a place they would like to visit if they could go anywhere in the world. On Tuesday, we will work on writing our introductions. Our focus will be to catch the readers attention in the first couple sentences. On Wednesday and Thursday, the children will write their body paragraphs and conclusion. Final drafts will be done on Thursday. Next week, we will begin our next English unit. The children will take a pretest on Tuesday, Dec. 4.

Reading:
This week we will be reading and working with a story called Chasing After Annie. This story is written in a diary format. The two main characters are Richie and Annie. When Richie tries to get Annie's attention by replacing her lost dog, Fritz, with a look-alike, he gets more trouble than he bargained for. This is a humorous and enjoyable story.

Science:

We will continue chapter 4 this week. The children will learn about living in groups, taking care of young, migration, hibernation. All of these are adaptations that help animals survive in their environment.

Social Studies:

This week we will learn about the land in the southeast. We will draw a diagram to help us understand the different elevations in this region. Our Southeast map test will be on Tuesday. Spelling will count. The children will be given a blank map. They will need to fill in the state names. Optional: The children can fill in the capitals before the state names (ex. Springfield, Illinois) to earn an additional 1/4 point for each correct capital. John Lynn will bring in a slide show and the stories about his personal adventures on the Appalachian Trail.

Math: (For my math students only)

We will continue our unit on graphing and probability. Our lessons this week will cover stem & leaf plots, line graphs, probability, and spinners. The children should continue practicing their multiplication and division facts. They should be on division facts by now!

Website of the Week:

Learn more about the Appalachian Trail at:
http://www.fred.net/kathy/at/atstate.html

Sulima's Scoop - November 19 & 20

Reminders:

*No spelling unit this week.

*A Family Apart test on Tuesday.

*Continue studying the southeast states and capitals. Our test will be on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

*Tuesday is the end of the first trimester.

*No school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

YEARBOOK:

Now’s the time to place your orders. Yearbooks are $9.00 and the deadline for your orders is Monday, December 3, 2007. No orders will be accepted after that date. Please make checks payable to Lifetouch. Please make sure your student’s name, teacher’s name and grade level are marked on the order form. Yearbook order forms went home with your child on November 15th and there a few extra envelopes available; please try not to lose them. If your child loses it, you can send an envelope with the following information on it: student’s name, teacher’s name and grade level along with a check made payable to Lifetouch for $9.00. It is very important that you put the information on the envelope; Lifetouch does not know who your child’s teacher is.

Holiday Service Project:

Each year our school collects gifts and donations for cancer patient families and Lutherbrook. Lutherbrook is a home for children who have been removed from abusive homes. A note will be sent home soon with more information regarding this collection. Please watch our blog for information on ages and genders of members of our family. Our goal is to make this family's holiday season a bit merrier. Donations for the Lutherbrook home are being taken in the forms of Target gift cards, checks, or cash.

English: Continue working on expository writing.

Reading: We will finish A Family Apart and take an open book test on the book on Tuesday.

Science: We will work on chapter 4. This chapter introduces plant and animal adaptations.

Social Studies: Our focus for the two days will be Jamestown, Virginia.

Math: We will learn about ordered pairs & create a "mystery picture" using ordered pairs.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.