We have had a wonderful week together! The students had a rocky (very loud) end to the week last week with our substitute Friday afternoon. First thing Monday morning was also a little loud but after a talk on Monday morning they all turned it around! They worked hard and had a good week with Ms. Moody (she substituted 3 days) and myself (I was here two full days). I had a conversation with them and told them how proud I was of them!
I am please to welcome Mr. David Wawzenek to our classroom as Mrs. Roskos' long term substitute. He student taught in Mrs. Druckmiller's room during the 2013-2014 school year and has been a substitute in the district since that time. It's nice for our students as they already know him. Mr. Wawzenek was in our classroom with me this morning and will be with me on Monday afternoon too. He will be here in the morning but we will work together in the afternoon so he is able to see our afternoon routine too. We will let you know when he receives his district e-mail.
Please remember that we offered early conferences and are staying with our conference schedule. I will see many of you next week and a few of you the following week! We will meet in the office conference room if you have a conference on Wednesday, February 3rd or Saturday, February 6th. I look forward to seeing everyone!
There are also available times for Mystery Reader this spring. Please sign up if you have not been in the classroom yet! You can sign up here.
Have a wonderful week-end,
Leslie
Reading: We were so excited to finish our Frozen Stiff work this week! All of our iMovies were completed and uploaded to Edmodo so Mrs. Roskos can watch them. They can also look at each other's movie on their iPad. We also talked about watch we have read in Number The Stars and what we know about the characters. We made an interactive pasteboard about the three main characters and shared what we know. We also looked at some of the vocabulary in Chapters 1 and 2. Next week we will continue reading the book. Ask your child to show you their Frozen Stiff iMovie!
Writing: This week we have learned different writing strategies for completing our biography projects. Students read about Sir Isaac Newton and Amelia Earhart. They read different biography's and looked at their life. All of the work we have done with these biography's have helped them compare the work they are doing at home. We also reviewed that we are halfway through the project and students should be finishing note taking and reading this week-end. Ask your child if they are done reading their book and finished with their notes.
Math: This week we finished our multiplication and division test and took a pre-test on fractions. Students self corrected their test for homework and then we went over answers they needed help with in class. There will be an optional retake for their math test on Wednesday during lunch recess.
We also looked at our fraction pre-test and students self corrected their test. From their self corrected test, they wrote fraction goals for our unit. We talked about reachable goals and what they would like to learn more about in the unit. We then began our unit by learning about decomposing fractions. We looked at tape diagrams and how addition sentences help us with fractions. Ask your child what their fraction goal is and how they are going to accomplish it.
Social Studies: This week we finished our research for the Southeast. Groups read our iBook together and took notes. Next week we will be starting to write our Southeast book. Students are invited to bring pictures of them or landmarks of the Southeast that they have visited to class. We would love to hang them in the room. We also spent one of our Social Studies periods talking about Fixed and Growth mindset. We watched two videos and wrote our own definition for Growth Mindset. Ask your student to show you the videos from Growth mindset on their iPad.
Science: Our students are now learning about magnetism from Mrs. Darley. Ask your child what they learned this week!
Science Miscellaneous Information
- Japanese Festival at OPRF on 1/30 from 12:00 - 4:00 pm
- Refugee Project link
- Oak Park District 97 presents...The 2016 Young Scientists Conference! It will return after a 3-year hiatus on Saturday, March 19, 9 AM - 10:30AM & 11AM -12:30PM at Horace Mann School. The Young Scientists Conference provides D97 students in grades K-8 an opportunity to interact with scientists in hands-on workshops. Workshops are led by professionals in all fields of science. Many scientists also volunteer throughout the year in educational partnerships with D97 schools through Oak Park Education Foundation's Science Alliance Program. Students are assigned to one 90-minute workshop based on grade level. Students must register and are selected from homerooms by lottery to help assure that all schools and grades are represented. Participants will be notified by late February. Please register at http://www.op97.org/
ysc2016/. Registration ends February 10th! If you have any questions, please email at youngscientists@op97.org. - Oak Park Education Foundation: Battle of the Bots (a FREE fun outing for elementary families) is on Feb 6 at Julian Middle School
- Oak Park Education Foundation: OPEF's Open House will be on Feb 27 at Beye (new location); it's a great way to introduce families to OPEF, with a morning of FREE hands-on projects for K-6 kids; plus folks can learn more about and register for Summer BASE Camp
- Oak Park Education Foundation: Staszak Annual Gala on 4/16; Peter Sagal, host of NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" newsquiz, will be our host! Always looking for volunteers to help with this important event, if you or someone you know loves to plan a party -- or if you have an angle on potentially awesome auction donors -- please email opefgala@gmail.com (which will reach Gala co-chairs Kandy Shapiro and Carrie Cotter)
