Crazy Day!

Hello Friends,
  I'm sorry we didn't get to see each other at curriculum night tonight. Our agenda was set to include a short tutorial on how to access and support your child on Compass Learning, some info about Biblionasium (you should have received a letter about it in your child's folder), and Ms. Lofstrand was going to talk with you about the new Georgia Milestones Test that we will be taking this year.
I will let you know as soon as we re-schedule!

Biblionasium: Your child now has his/her own login. We spent time this morning navigating the site and learning how to add book to our personal bookshelf, recommend books to me and to friends, and write book reviews.

We are using Biblionasium in order help the children gain experience with typing, motivate and challenge them to read more, and write like real authors with an audience. This will take the place of weekly hand written RRJ's. Your child may also write in the journal if they don't have access to a computer at home. We will access the site in class weekly as well.

This week's challenge (I send them a challenge on the site...Ask your child to show you!) is to log what they read in the reading log and to write a book review of their choice. The review should be a  complete paragraph (5-7 sentences) with capitalization and punctuation.

In Math I'd like your child to work on Compass Learning Modules at least one hour per week. I will also send home a sheet or task occasionally.

Next Week:
Math: Geometry
Reading: Text Structures & Biographies
ELA/Writing: Spelling patterns of common suffixes and Non Fiction Booklets
Science: Soil, Fossils
S.Studies: Cesar Chavez, Mary Mcleoud Bethune

Here's a glimpse from this week:

TELLUS!

Thanks So Much for letting me teach your babies!

Happy New Year!

We're back and working harder than ever! After sharing our favorite moments from vacation, we dove right into the curriculum.

A few reminders, updates and important dates.
1. There is no RRJ due on Monday, however, your child has a text features HW sheet that is due on Wednesday the 14th. You will be getting some information about Biblionasium soon. We will begin to use this site instead of the RRJ's!
2. We will be practicing for Georgia Milestones on Tuesday the 13th.
3. You can learn more about GA Milestones, Compass Learning, and the plan for the remainder of the year at our Curriculum Night on Thursday January 15th. PLEASE TRY TO JOIN US!
4. Don't forget to send your child to school on Monday with a packed lunch for our field trip unless you have already ordered a school lunch.
5. Please begin or continue to utilize Compass Learning weekly. I'd like to see at least an hour of login time each week in math and reading combined. Let me know if you have questions about this!

Important Dates

January 12th: Tellus Museum Field Trip

January 14th: Class Pictures

January 15th: Curriculum Night 6-7pm

January 19th: MLK Day No School

February 16-20 Winter Break

Here's what we will focus on for the next few weeks.
Reading: Non-fiction text structures. Your children are learning about how authors craft paragraphs using text structure to teach readers. The structures we are learning are: descriptive, cause and effect, problem/solution, compare/contrast, sequential, and chronological.

Math: Area & Perimeter, Geometry We started area and perimeter over the break and we are finishing up this week before we move on to Geometry. Your child should now understand the perimeter is the measurement all the way around or the sum of all sides. In addition, he/she has learned that area is the amount of space that something occupies or takes up and that it is calculated using an array.

Science: Rocks, Minerals & Soil......then Fossils We are finishing up learning about the attributes of rocks and minerals and will take a look at soil as well as weathering and erosion. We are visiting the Tellus Museum on Monday for a mini course on Fossils and we will tie it all together by the end of this month. 

Social Studies: FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary McLeod Bethune, Cesar Chavez, and Lyndon B. Johnson We still have 5 more historical figures to learn about..so we will be incorporating their biographies into our reading and social studies block over the course of the next few months. 

Writing: Information Booklets  Your child is in the process of writing an information book about a topic they feel they have expertise. We're working hard and you will get to see the booklets soon.

****You may notice a multiplication chart in your child's blue folder. It is a data tool for the kids to keep track of their progress with fact fluency. 

Lastly, here are some photos of our indoor recess today and the rest are from the trip we took to Portugal over the break. 

We went to Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais, Cabo de Roca, Pinhao (wine country on the Douro River), Tomar, Porto and Nazarre. We stayed in the major cities and on the Douro and stopped in the smaller towns for a walk and some lunch. It was breathtaking and super relaxing. Being able to travel has been the best education for me. If you can travel with your children, do it! :)