Thank you for to all of you that returned your PARCC Motivational Slips. We are still missing many though. Please return them as soon as possible to us. We can send more home if you need them.
Next Tuesday, March 22nd, our class will be visiting the annual charity sale that Mrs. Madsen's 5th graders have organized. This year, all proceeds will go towards the National Parkinson's Foundation and Make a Wish Foundation. If you would like your child to participate by purchasing handcrafted items made by the 5th graders, then please send them to school with a few dollars on Tuesday.
2nd Trimester Report Cards will go home with students on Thursday, March 24th. Please remember that there is No School on Friday, March 25th. Our Spring Vacation starts on 3/25 and continues until 4/3. We will see everyone on Monday, April 4th!
Have a good week-end,
Leslie and David
Reading: This week we wrapped up Number the Stars by finishing our discussions on climax and tone and mood and working on activities that included completing a plot map were students had to fill in events of the rising action and the climax. The climax, as we discussed in class, is the part of the story that is the most intense. It is also when the problem of the story is at its worst. Ask your child for examples of climax in other books or movies.
Centers: This week we continued practicing our typing skills, worked on homophones and pronouns, read an article on integration in college basketball, and wrote a response comparing Ivan's perspective of his domain at the beginning of One and Only Ivan to later in the story. Students practiced identifying the correct use of homophones that are also pronouns. There are many examples of these: it's and its, theirs and there's, etc. Ask your child to share an example pair with you.
Writing: This week we continued writing various prompts related to The One and Only Ivan. One of the prompts we wrote on included using persuasive writing. With persuasive writing, the goal is to convince the audience that you are right on a subject. The prompt was, "Persuade Mack to do a better job of protecting his animals." The class had a lot of great ideas for this prompt! Ask your child to share this prompt with you.
Math: We continued to work on Fractions this week and will finish our unit before Spring Vacation. We learned how to add and subtract mixed number fractions with a fraction and a mixed number. We also learned how to estimate fractions when adding/subtracting numbers. There was even a surprise math teacher (Mrs. Roskos) which definitely made our Wednesday! Next week we will review and then take our test on Thursday. This week we have also added some PARCC questions into the start of our math class and will continue to do that next week.
Ask your student if they can solve 2 3/5 + 6 8/5
Social Studies: This week we learned about the Primary Election process and why we had no school on Tuesday. We watched a brain pop video and read a Scholastic News about the elections. After our discussion, we were able to vote in the student election on Newsela.com. The students had a lot of fun voting. We also continued our finished our research on the Midwest and began working on our google slide presentation for it. Each student is grouped with two other students and they will work on their presentation together. They will do the introduction page together and then will be responsible for three slides themselves. We will present them as a group. Next week we will have a mystery Skype with another class somewhere in the U.S.! We are excited about it. Ask your student which slides they are responsible for in their group project!
Science: We will have science with Mr. Lukehart next Thursday for our first session of the 3rd trimester.
Miscellaneous Information
- Please remember to talk with your families about what languages are your heritage languages (or folks learned to speak in school) and compile a list to bring to school. Ms. Warner sent out a letter from Señora Deaton on school messenger earlier in the week for more language discussion starters and details about this.
- Wonderful Whittier Families:I am in need of some gently used clothing for the Whittier health office:
- Sizes 2T, 4T, and 6T boys and girls pants
- Sizes 4, 6, and 8 boys and girls pants
Thank you for your assistance!Anne GuerrierWhittier School Nurse - 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)
