Sulima & Pluta Planner - Week of February 2

Weekly Reminders:
*Mr. Lee permission slips due on Monday.
*Lesson 20 spelling pretest on Monday.
*Fourth grade spell-off on Monday. Good Luck to all the classroom winners.
*Open book chapter 2, lesson 1, science quiz on Tuesday. *Adjective test on Tuesday.
*Chapter 7 Social Studies test on Wednesday.
*Lesson 20 spelling test on Friday.
*Movie Night on Friday.

Will he see his shadow?

Ms. Pluta and I would like to wish Lawson and Lauren the best of luck in the fourth grade spell-off on Monday.

Plan Ahead:
*District spelling bee on Wednesday, February 11.
*Language Arts class visits Lakeview on Thursday, February 12.
*Valentine's Party on Friday, February 13.
*Great America Reading sheets are due on February 20.

Classroom Happenings:

Science: Ms. Pluta will work with the children on exploring life cycles of plants. The children will observe the the life cycle of radish seeds. A lesson 2 quiz will probably be on Friday.

Social Studies: Ms. Pluta will review chapter 7 with the class at the beginning of the week. They will take the chapter 7 test on Wednesday. During the rest of the week, the children will work on their Southeast region scrapbook.

Accelerated Math: Ms. Pluta will continue the measurement unit. The students are learning a new approach to mathematics called problem-based learning. With this program, students are encouraged to collaborate together to discover mathematics. We're learning many methods to solve problems, most of which the students discover themselves! The textbook may not show the method your child has chosen that works best for them. Their homework will consist primarily of thoughtful problems where they need to explain their thinking.

Spelling: Please have your children practice their spelling words in cursive throughout the week. We will work on handwriting skills in class too.

English: The children will take the Adjective test on Tuesday. Students will need to turn in enrichment on this day. On Wednesday, the children will take the pretest for the next English Unit.

Reading: We will continue our mystery unit. Our detective agencies are doing a wonderful job making hunches, gathering clues, and deducing (forming conclusions based on evidence).

Sulima & Pluta Planner - Week of January 26

Weekly Reminders

*Lesson 19 spelling pretest on Monday.

*Final classroom spelling bee on Tuesday.

*Geometry test on Tuesday.

*Project Challenge on Tuesday after school.

*Chapter 1 science test on Wednesday.

*Lesson 19 spelling test on Friday.

Plan Ahead

*Adjective test on Tuesday, February 3.

*Chapter 7 social studies test on Wednesday, February 4.

*Movie Night on Friday, February 6.

Weekly Happenings

Science: We are finishing chapter 1 in science. We will review all concepts from the chapter with a game on Monday. The test will be on Wednesday. Ms. Pluta will begin chapter 2 with the children on Thursday. Please find a baby picture to bring to school by Wednesday. Bring it in a sealed envelope with your name on the front. Do not share it with your friends.

Social Studies: Ms. Pluta has taken over social studies. The students will contine learning about the people and important historical events of the southeast. The test on chapter 7 will be on Wendesday, February 4.

Accelerated Math: We are now finished with our geometry unit. This was a long unit with many concepts. The children will review concepts on Monday. The geometry test will be on Tuesday. The following concepts will be assessed:
*geometric ideas
*classifying, measuring, and drawing angles with the use of a protractor
*polygons

*sums of angles in triangles and quadrilateral

*classifying triangles by sides and angles

*classifying quadrilaterals

*congruent & similar figures

*transformations - translation (slide), reflection (flip), and rotation (turn)

*symmetry and lines of symmetry

*circles (diameter, radius, center, chord) & using a compass
*Solid figures (3-D shapes) & nets

Spelling: Ms. Pluta will take over giving the spelling pretests and tests this week. We will follow the same spelling routine as before.

English: We will continue our study of adjectives. The children will focus on making comparisons using "er" and "est", more and most, and good and bad. Our test will be on Tuesday, February 3. Enrichment will be due on the day of the test.

Reading: Our mystery unit has begun. The children are grouped in detective agencies. Each agency has chosen a name and will be working together to solve many crimes.

The children are also working on book club reading at this time. A calendar came home on Friday with dates of book club meetings and assignments.

**Our Language Arts class will be visiting Lakeview Library on Thursday. If you volunteered to come this day, please arrive to Prairieview at 12:55. Grab a visitors pass from the office and wait for us by the benches in the main entrance.**

Sulima's Scoop - Week of January 19

Weekly Reminders:
*No school on Monday, January 19.
*Wear Red, White, and Blue on Tuesday.
*Home Run Inn Fundraiser on Monday. Click here for a coupon. http://www.ccsd66.org/PTO/HRI_Jan19_09.pdf
*Tuesday we will follow a Monday schedule therefore we will have library.
*Chapter 6 open book social studies test on Wednesday.
*Chapter 1, lesson 3 open book science quiz on Friday.

Plan Ahead:
*Geometry test on Tuesday, January 27.
*Chapter 1 science test on Wednesday, January 28.

We are now half way through the second trimester. Please review your child's grades. There are six weeks left in this trimester.

We would like to welcome Ms. Jocylyn Pluta to our classroom. She will be student teaching in our classroom for 8 weeks. After working with us, she will be traveling to France to complete her student teaching. Since she is only with us for such a short time, she will be taking over teaching responsibilities quickly. We will keep you informed on what subjects Ms. Pluta is teaching.

Classroom Spelling Bee:
We will have a practice classroom spelling bee on Tuesday, January 20. Each child received a list of words that I will be using for our spelling bees. On Tuesday, January 27, we will have our final classroom spelling bee. Our top 2 spellers will go to a fourth grade spell-off during the week of February 2. The winner of the fourth grade spell-off will compete against the winners from grades 3-8 in a district spelling bee on February 11. I wish you all the best of luck...L-U-C-K!!!!!


Classroom Happenings:
Science - Our focus this week will be on classifying animals. Much of this will be a review from last school year. We will also learn about vertebrates and invertebrates. The children will take an open book quiz on lesson 3 on Friday.

Social Studies - The children will take an open book chapter 6 test on Wednesday. We will then move onto chapter 7 and will move through this chapter very quickly. At the end of this week, we will learn about the Cherokee Tribe and early history of the southeast. We will finish chapter 7 during the week of January 26.

Accelerated Math - This week we will continue our unit on Geometry. The children will decide if shapes are congruent, similar, and symmetrical. We will also explore transformations. On Wednesday, the children will learn to use a compass. We will end the week by looking at solid 3-D shapes. Our Geometry test will be on Tuesday, January 27.

Spelling - This is a review week. We will not take a pretest at the beginning of the week. The children will have spelling homework each evening. During review weeks the children should not focus on specific words but instead review all the spelling rules from lessons 10-16. On Friday, we will take the type of test where the children find the word that is misspelled in a list of words.

English - The children took the adjective pretest on Wednesday, January 14. On Tuesday, we will begin with our first lesson on what is an adjective. On Wednesday, the lesson will focus on adjectives after be. On Thursday, I will not teach a lesson because all the children passed out of the lesson on using a, an, and the. I will give the students English time to work on their enrichment projects on this day.

Reading - We will finish our study of the Civil Rights Movement by learning more about Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ruby Bridges. During class, we will also continue to work on reading skills and strategies to help prepare us for the ISAT tests that are quickly approaching. At the end of the week, we will begin our next reading unit - MYSTERIES! Your children will become the reading detectives.

Sulima's Scoop - Week of January 12

IOWA Testing
*Monday: 9:00 Vocabulary & 10:15 Reading Part I
*Tuesday: 8:15 Reading Part II, 9:00 Spelling, 10:15 Capitalization and Punctuation
*Wednesday: 8:10 Usage and Expression & 10:15 Math Concepts
*Thursday: 8:15 Math Problem Solving & 10:15 Math Computation
*Friday: Make-ups
Please make sure your child is well rested and has a nutritious breakfast. They should also bring healthy snacks/drinks to school each day. We will take a break for the children to relax and eat their snacks.

Weekly Reminders:
*Lesson 16 spelling pretest on Monday.
*Unit 3 Verb test on Tuesday.
*Open book/notes math checkpoint on Wednesday.
*Lesson 2 open-book science quiz is being moved to Thursday.
*Lesson 16 spelling test on Friday.

Plan Ahead:
*No school on Monday, January 19.
*Ms. Jocylyn Pluta, our student teacher, will begin on Tuesday, January 20.
*Chapter 6 social studies test on Wednesday, January 21.

Classroom Happenings:

Science - We will continue our study of vascular plants, nonvascular plants, and Fungi. The children will take an open book quiz on Thursday.

Social Studies - We will finish our study of resources of the southeast by learning about fossil fuels. The children will take an open book test on chapter 6 on Wednesday, January 21.

Accelerated Math - Our study of geometry will continue this week. We will classify triangles and quadrilaterals. On Wednesday, the children will take an open book/notes checkpoint. We will not have math on Thursday due to IOWA testing.

Spelling - Our words this week have either "ough" or " ould". The children should continue to practice their words in cursive at home.

English - The children will take the Unit 3 Verb test on Tuesday. Enrichment projects are due on the day of the test. On Wednesday, the children will take the next English prestest. We will begin the new unit during the week of January 19.

Here are some links to help you study for the verb test:

http://www.sqooltools.com/edvideos/grammarvideos/verbs.html

http://www.eduplace.com/cgi-bin/hme-quiz-start.cgi?Grade=2&Unit=5&Topic=Verbs&x=37&y=9

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/viper/viper.html

http://www.ezschool.com/Games/Verbs.html

http://www.quia.com/cb/8111.html

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/verb_power/index_pre.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/tenses/getting_the_right_tense/game.shtml

http://www.funbrain.com/verb/index.html

Reading - We will be reading and working with a story in our anthology called Happy Birthday, Dr. King.