Welcome Back!

Welcome to 2011!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing break. Or, at the very least, not as stressful as you thought it might have been. Thank you to all of you for the well wishes - I am feeling a lot better after my fight against the flu. It kicked my butt for a solid week over break, but I was well enough to travel to San Diego and Pasadena to visit my family and go to the Rose Bowl game. Sorry I couldn't bring home a victory for the Badgers. TCU really played well and it was a great game. 

I just wanted to give you a few tidbits about some of the subjects and what your students are studying. 

Reading - Students have the week off of booklog. We finished our guided reading books the week before break and wrapped them all up with a solid discussion earlier this week. Next week students will be starting their individual book reports. They will be focusing on theme, character development and plot. 

Math - As we begin unit 5, students are focusing in on how to multiply and divide fractions. They will notice a lot of similarities between the two, but they will also learn that these types of problems take time to solve. We are stressing that students take their time, be diligent and double check their work (as always). 

Social Studies - We finished all of the actual content before break for ancient China. Yesterday the students received their study guides and had a work day to complete them. Today they will have an additional work and review day (I will be going over the study guide with them in class so they will have all of the right answers if they pay attention). Friday we will be catching up on some current events. Monday will be a full class review day and Tuesday will be the test.  

Writing - Students finished their persuasive letters and voted on the best one. Congratulations go out to Sydney, as the class voted her letter the most persuasive. A $100 donation to the Humane Society (her choice of charity) will be made as a reward for her letter. Students also made glogs (interactive posters) about their charity. Today we will resume writing circles and the students will have a chance to write on several topics of their choice over the next few weeks before picking one and submitting it for a formal review.