Week of 9/15/08

This has been an awesome, but crazy week!

I am looking forward to seeing all of you next week at conferences (parents and kids!). If you don't remember your day or time please drop me an email.

Here is what we did this week...

Quick read : This week we read about Ice Fishing. We learned what ice fishing was and how they do it. It was fun to learn about something that most of us have never done before!

Writing: This week everyone made a spider map about what a teacher does. The students wrote a rough draft, edited their papers and wrote final copies. I am looking forward to reading them this weekend. We began writing a letter to Christopher Columbus and we learned all about the parts to a letter.
Want to write a letter online? Visit readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/ . It will walk you through all the parts of a letter.

Spelling: New words came home on Thursday. Visit www.spellingcity.com to type in your words and practice.

Reading and Social Studies: We have jumped right into learning about explorers. Monday we read about Christopher Columbus. We learned about where he landed .and where he thought he was. We also learned what he called the people that lived there and why! Then on Wednesday we read about Vasco De Gama. He was trying to reach the same place as Columbus but he tried a different way. On Thursday we read about John Cabot. AGAIN, he was trying to get to the same place as Columbus and De Gama but he tried a 3rd way. All of these men where trying to reach the same place. WE had a lot of fun learning about these three explorers. The students did a great job! Want to learn about more about explorers?
Visit f.factmonster.com/biography/explorers.html

Math: This week was not an easy week of math but I KNOW that everyone is getting better at partial sums addition. We looked at rule boxes and reviewed fact triangles on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday we read different story problems and tried to organize our information into part-part-total boxes. Then on Thursday we learned about partial sums addition. It is a little different the the "Old Fashion Carrying" addition but it really helps kids understand why they are carrying numbers. On Friday we spent over an hour practicing the partial sums addition. I think the kids are really getting it.
Need some help with partial sums algorithm?Visit http://www.swsd.k12.pa.us/baresvle/MathMaterials/powerpoints/partial_sums.pps#256,1,Partial Sums . This power point will walk you through the whole process.

Grades have been updated online and student work will be given out at conferences. See you all on Monday and have a great rest of the weekend!