Terrific Tuesday!

We are off to a great start this week. We are finishing up our Friendship essays and have begun our Personal Narrative study. As I may have stated before, my goal is to have the children publish at least two Personal Narratives before we conclude this unit of study over the next month or so. We will be writing Senses Poems this week as well.

We began Lesson 2 of Wordly Wise. Our words include: attract, attractive, attraction, crew, dangle, drift, event, launch, opposite, reverse, signal, steer. We are currently working on the comprehension questions that relate to the story about the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Please make sure when they have homework related to the questions, that they are taking the facts from the story and just not making assumptions as to what the answer might be. Some of the questions do require responses that are geared towards asking opinions. But for the most part, the questions are asked so that the reader has to remember specific facts from the story.

This week in Spelling, we have a list of words that follow the Diphthong Syllable Rule. This rule states: 1) a diphthong syllable usually has two vowels together that have one sound and 2) the diphthong syllable has a special sound. It will be expected that the children include these rules with the dictation on the spelling test on Friday. Last night the children were to put the words in alphabetical order and tonight I am going to ask them to go to Spelling City to complete and try to print out one activity of their choice.

In Science, we are continuing our study of Scientific Method. One goal this week is for each child to complete a flow chart using Inspiration outlining the 5 steps of the Scientific Process. I exposed the children to a more indepth outline using 9 steps. But for the activity, they will choose the 5 steps that all scientists use to complete an experiment. We discovered today that there is an average of 7 seeds in a Washington Red Apple. We are now trying to see if we can get our seeds to sprout creating another avenue to write an hypothesis. Tomorrow, we will complete an experiment with salt and baking soda.

This week our purpose in reading is to identify main characters and assign character traits based on the actions in a story. We began today by using the story Dandelions by Eve Bunting. My goal is also to complete the class novel, Muggie Maggie and respond in our journal by Friday. Also, a new activity came home this week that is due on Friday. From time to time, I will send home a reading comprehension activity for the children to complete within the week. The objective is for them to read the passage orally to you once and then to read it to themselves once. The questions or activities vary. This week they have to compare and contrast how their lives are the same and yet different from that of a pioneer boy or girl. Please make sure that you sign the reading sheet before it is returned to class on Friday. That is my way of knowing that you have not only seen the work, but that you have listened to your child read aloud.

We are working our way through the Florida Book. Today, we will be reading about the history of Florida. We discussed yesterday about the role of trains and how important they were to the economy and population of Florida. Today, we will read about the environment and how important it is to preserve our coral reefs. Once we have familiarized ourselves with our book, the children will go on one last scavenger hunt to answer such questions as:
1)What is Florida's oldest city?
2) How large are the Florida Everglades?
3) List five animals in the Florida Everglades that are endangered.
4) What are the five countries that have owned Florida?
5) List Florida's 5 main crops.
If you are having trouble with the answers yourself, you may want to ask your child by Friday what they discovered.

The children should be working on their Geography project as well. I have shared with the children that as long as they follow the core directions and guidelines, they can add additional information and ideas of their own. We have discussed in class how that works and even generated some ideas. However, I am leaving that motivation to the children and letting them decide for themselves.

Also, I just wanted you to know that I do write the assignments down on my own agenda to show the children every day. At the end of the day, they are responsible for getting all of their belongings together to go home. However, I do go over the homework one more time before they leave the room to pack their book bags. For some, it is a time to socialize which makes if more difficult to focus on what they are doing. I am all for having fun and chatting with friends, but please help me to emphasize that one can socialize after the book bag is packed. Thanks for your help! This can and does eliminate disappointment and frustration the next day when one doesn't have an assignment completed.