Weekly Newsletter 4.25.14

Our class transitioned quite beautifully back from Spring Break. I hope everyone has a restful, wonderful vacation. I know I was anxious to see the kids again. On Friday, we had a cereal party to celebrate with Mrs. Robertson's class for winning the box tops contest.

We also had a send off for our Superintendent Dr. Lee. All the students in KIS wore masks with his face on it. Check it out!

Over the past two weeks we have been talking about fractions. We talked about fractions being parts of something that are equal or the same size. They enjoyed doing this and it really helped them see that cutting something into halves means there are two pieces that are the same in size. They were able to put both pieces of their drawing together to see that they fit together and were the same size. We have been working on identifying equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. The students have used manipulatives to develop a concrete understanding of these skills and will start looking at this idea more abstractly next week.

The students will learn to write a "How To" paragraph. They are very short paragraphs, but they are still paragraphs, none the less! Students will write a paragraph on how to build a snowman. Some of you are wondering why I am bringing you back to this terrible winter, but most of your kids have applied this and they will be able to visualize.

Students will continue to read expository texts as well as Fiction texts to answer the essential questions, “What causes different kinds of weather? and "Why is understanding how weather forms important to our lives?" This will tie into our May unit of weather.

The students are reading How is the Weather Today?(Level F)The book introduces the students to different types of weather that occur during each season. The text describes typical activities and appropriate clothes to wear for each season. The target reading strategy is visualization.

In Social Studies, the students will be exposed to the relationship between those in power and individual citizens in a democracy, a dictatorship and a monarchy.

In Science, the students will put together a constellation chart to prepare us for our Nature Scope field trip on May 16th with Mrs. Robertson's class. Here is some important information about the field trip, buses will leave KIS at 9:00 am. They will return at 2:00 pm. Students will need to dress for the weather and for outdoors. They will also need their field guides, binoculars, and a brown, bag lunch. i sent home binoculars a few months ago when they came to KIS. If you can find those and send them back for the trip, that would be great. If not, I can see if we have extra.

High Frequency Words: how, know, want, will

Vocab: icy, seasons, stormy, weather, windy

Important Dates to Remember:

5.1.14: Timmons 3rd graders coming to visit

5.9.14: APE Trip to Prestons Hope

5.16.14: KIS 5th Grade trip Nature Scope Binocular Blitz Graduation

Weekly Newsletter 4.4.14

This week in math, we continued working on fractions, shading pieces and naming them fraction. The students really seem to be getting the hang of it. We completed a fractions sort sheet in class and completed a game on the Smartboard. Some students will be moving forward being introduced to numerator and denominator, while others will keep working on beginning fractions with many visuals until mastered.

Last week, KIS participated in Right to Read Week from March 24th-28. The students enjoyed listening to Mr. DiCello's morning announcements that emphasized the importance of literacy as well as the student readers. Even though Right to Read is officially over, KIS is still continuing it's focus on biographies. Mr. DiCello is holding a “Principal’s  Biography  Challenge." KIS ACHIEVE is already finished. The students learned a biography is a nonfiction book that tells all about someone's life. I explained that a biography of a famous person includes many facts. We completed a graphic organizer using "describing words" about each other. We studied baseball great Sammy Sosa. The students read a biography on him and were surprised to learn that Sammy Sosa was quite the humanitarian. Other than being a great baseball player, Sammy also donated money to charities. During the 1998 season, Hurricane George hit his own country and left 100,000 homeless. Sammy sent 30,000 pounds of rice and beans. He also sent several barrels of pure water. Sosa helped rebuild the homes of many people in the Dominican Republic. His charity donated $700,000 to victims of the hurricane. As you can see, Sammy Sosa helped many poor people in his home country.

Even though we picked Sammy Sosa for our biography, Mrs. Marshall grew up on the westside of Cleveland and will always have loyalty to our beloved Tribe.

This week we reviewed:

Word Wall Fry Words: means, old, any, same, tell

Math: math journal, fractions

CVC Words: at, am, as, sat, sam, man, mat

Writing: Biography

Dates to Remember:

4.11 Field Trip to Fun and Stuff and Bob Evans

4.11 Spring Break Begins!

4.22 Welcome Back to School!

4.25 Twins Day at KIS

Weekly Newsletter 3.29.14

We are family! The KIS ACHIEVE students began our Family unit. We are will be hitting our 5th grade standards in Social Studies and Science. We will be completing a timeline for Social Studies and Science will be foundational knowledge of the structures and functions of ecosystems. We study the family this time of year as a celebration of what family is, why it is important, and especially the wants and needs of families. The students enjoy learning about the different traditions, cultures, celebrations. Learning about the differences in our families helps us appreciate our friends and relationships.

In Language Arts, we are reading Families(Reading A-Z, Level I). The vocabulary words we made flashcards on were: family, relative, family tree, parent, maternal, and paternal. I loved seeing the family tree's that you completed with your children and some of the students named everyone! Check out the students diligently working!

This week we reviewed:

Word Wall Fry Words: much, before, line, right, too

Math: Math Journal, fractions

CVC Words: at, am, as, sat, sam, man, mat

Writing: Family Tree

Dates to Remember:

4.11 Field Trip to Fun and Stuff and Bob Evans