Week of January 26-30, 2009

Friday 1/30/09

• Math 3: Instead of taking our math test today we made up the lessons from Wednesday and Thursday. We learned about ordinal position (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) and then we learned how to write a check! Writing a check involves several math skills: writing a money amount as a decimal, writing numbers using words, and writing a money amount using fractions. Obviously there is a little extra homework this weekend but that's all we have left to do in order to be caught up again. If your student has a homework pass he or she may redeem it for ONE page of the homework, NOT the entire packet. Homework: 77A/B, 78A/B, and oral facts 77.
• Language Arts 3: While I gave spelling tests, third graders had an hour to complete two short skill sheets on Time and Order Words and Interesting Verbs. Both of these are concepts we already learned and should have been completed in an hour. Students divided into pairs to work: Kevin and Daniel finished, Ryan and Alizza did not. Those who did not finish should do so this weekend for homework.
• Language Arts 4: While I gave spelling tests, fourth graders had an hour to finish skill sheets from earlier in the week as well as re-read the story and fix their comprehension tests from earlier in the week. Everyone finished everything except for the following: Craig owes me a test correction and Laurie owes me the "End Punctuation" skill sheet.
• Religion 3/4: We began studying the book of Proverbs today. This book is a great source of wisdom and guidance! Homework: Students are working on a book to help them remember the four A's of prayer. This assignment was given Thursday and is due on Monday.
• Science 3/4: We talked about linear motion and velocity today. We also began an experiment with jumpropes to learn about waves...we'll have to finish the experiment on Monday.
• We celebrated the 101st day of school today by watching the movie "101 Dalmations"!

Thursday 1/29/09

• Math 3: Because not enough people were here today to have a lesson, we played Yahtzee. It was a fun way to practice multiples and use mental math while adding up our scores. Daniel won with a score of 269.
• Language Arts 3/4: Again, there weren't enough students to do a new lesson today so we got extra handwriting practice done. We also wrote in our journals about what we did with our day off and shared it with the class. Homework: Spelling sentences, AND study for the spelling test on Friday.
• Religion 3/4: We reviewed the four A's of prayer and worked on writing our own Psalm in class today.
• Music 3/4: Those of us who were here practiced reading quarter, half, and whole notes and rests while playing recorders.
• PE 3/4: Those of us who were here played badminton - Mr. Bretscher against the kids!

Wednesday 1/28/09

• School has been cancelled today due to snow accumulation. This means you have an extra day to do your homework so there shouldn't be ANY orange squares given out tomorrow! :) Have a warm and safe day off and hopefully I'll see you Thursday.

Tuesday 1/27/09

• Math 3: Today we learned how to add three-digit numbers. It's almost exactly like adding two-digit numbers so we picked it up very easily. Everyone finished 76A in class AND the homework, 76B in class. Please make sure you're studying your perfect squares every night!!
• Language Arts 3: We finished reading "Filling the Ice-House", took a quiz, and learned how to write capital T and F in cursive. Homework: Spelling words 5x each.
• Language Arts 4: Writing skills was the name of the game today. We worked on using exaggeration, end punctuation, and pronoun/antecedent agreement. Homework: Spelling words 5x each.
• Religion 3/4: We shared our psalms that we wrote in class yesterday and worked on memory work. Many students still have pages in their religion books that need corrected or completed, please check the front cover for page numbers.
• Social Studies 3/4: We worked on map skills this afternoon, learning how to read map grids and how to use a map index. We'll continue to reinforce this skill later this week.
• PE

Monday 1/26/09

• Math 3: We learned how to write Roman numerals up to 31 today! We also reviewed -5 and -6 fact families. Everyone completed 75A in class. Homework: 75B.
• Language Arts 3: We took a spelling pre-test and then read "Filling the Ice House," a snippet from the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "Farmer Boy." Homework: Spelling words in ABC order.
• Language Arts 4: We took a spelling pre-test and then held a literature circle on "McBroom and the Big Wind." This was the first LC not completely supervised by Miss Bertschi and the students had a chance to run the discussion on their own.
• Science 3/4: We began a new science unit today about force and motion. We began with an experiment to determine velocity using toy cars and ramps that we built with our books.
• Music 3/4: We began learning how to play the recorder today! We learned the basic technique for creating sound with the recorder as well as reviewed how to read whole, half, and quarter notes/rests.