February 28-March 4

Important Dates:
ISAT testing begins: 3/1
P/T Conferences 2/28, 3/1, 3/2, 3/3
Report cards 3/1
No school Friday 3/4
No school Monday 3/7

Classroom Chatter:

If you have not already, please send a letter of encouragement, for the ISAT tests, sealed in an envelope to school on Monday with my name on it. The letters will be distributed on Tuesday for the students to read.

ISAT testing begins this week. The schedule is as follows:
Monday Feb. 28: No testing
Tuesday March 1: Reading I
Wednesday March 2: Reading II, Math I
Thursday March 3: Reading III, Math II
Friday March 4: No school!
Monday March 7: No school!
Tuesday March 8: No Testing
Wednesday March 9: Math III

ISATs: Please take some time to check out the Illinios State Board of Education (ISBE) website below for important information regarding the upcoming ISAT test your child will be taking starting March 1, 2011. The Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) measures individual student achievement relative to the Illinois Learning Standards. The results give parents, teachers, and schools one measure of student learning and school performance.

Click here to find sample books for this year and previous years. These sample booklets will show you the types of questions your child will be answering in reading and math.
http://www.isbe.net/assessment/htmls/sample_books.htm

Click here for more information regarding the ISAT and student assessment.
http://www.isbe.net/assessment/isat.htm

We are now in our 3rd trimester. Reports will come home Tuesday. Today, your child came home with their MAPs scores. Please look in their binders for them.

Please mark your calendars for March 15th for the Parent Connect meeting to learn more about how to interpret your child's MAPS scores.



Spelling
No spelling this week due to ISAT testing.

Reading
We will continue to review for the ISAT tests this week as well as take the reading portion during our scheduled reading time. See schedule above!

English
We will finish typing our final copies of our autobiographies.

Science
We will finish up our energy unit with lesson 3. Students will learn about fossil fuels and renewable and non-renewable resources.

Social Studies
We will finish up our Egpyt unit this week. We will be taking the Ancient Egypt test after ISAT testing is over with. It is tentatively planned for Thursday 3/10. This week I'll send home a study guide.

Math
We will take a mad minute in division 4. We will have the chapter 11 test on Friday, 3/11. We will actually finish the chapter this week, but due to ISAT testing and a day to play a review game, the test is scheduled for after ISAT's. Also, information about your child's geometry project will come home. It will be due Friday 3/25.


HAVE A GREAT WEEK! ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO DO THEIR BEST ON THE ISAT'S! REMEMBER A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP AND HEALTHY BREAKFAST!!!!

Week of February 21-25

Important Dates:

*No school Monday 2/21 Presidents' Day

*End of Trimester 2 - Friday 2/25

*ISAT testing begins the week of 2/28

*P/T Conference week of 2/28

Classroom Chatter

Don't forget to have your child return conference forms.

Spelling

No spelling this week. We will be using this time to work on prefix, suffix, and base words.

Reading

We will continue working on extended response. Your child learned a song and a small "dance" to remember the steps to writing an extended response. Ask them about it! Maybe they'll "dance" and "sing" it for you!

English

We will begin writing our autobiographies this week!

Science

We kicked off chapter 12 by learning about energy. We learned about kinetic energy and potential energy. Your child should bring in 4 pictures of examples of kinetic energy and 4 pictures of examples of potential energy from magazines, the internet, or handmade. This week we will learn all about how energy can be used.

Social Studies

We are continuing with our study of Ancient Egypt. We didn't get a chance to start our new book, Tut's Mummy Lost and Found. We will this week.

Math

We will take a division 3 mad minute this week. We started chatper 11: Perimeter, Area, and Volume. This is a continuation of geometry. At the end of this unit information about a Geometry Project will come home. There will be a check your progress on lessons 1-3 on Tuesday 2/22. Just a reminder with CYP's, they are NOT tests. They are assignments done in class for a grade. Students can use their notes in their spiral and textbooks to help them and ask me questions!!!

Students also are working on making solid figures. They were sent home on Friday to assemble. We will be making some solid figures with toothpicks and marshmallows on Tuesday!!!

Week of February 14-18

Important Dates:

Matter Matters Monday 2/14

Valentines Day Party Monday 2/14

English test Wednesday 2/16

Spelling Test Friday 2/18

Classroom Chatter

Monday we will make up the inschool field trip, Matter Matters. It was canceled due to our snow day.

Monday, students will have an opportunity to pass out Valentine's to the class. We have 26 students. Students should just sign their own name. They do not need to put students' names on Valentines. Please do not send in any candy for your child to pass out. Thanks. We also will have our party in the afternoon!

Spring Conferences are going to be held the week of 2/28. Information about them will come home today, 2/11/11.

Spelling

We will not have a regular spelling list this week or next week. We will spend the next two weeks working on prefixes, suffixes, and base words. There will be a test on this Friday, 2/28. We will keep all information in our spelling folder to study.

Reading

We will spend this week writing extened responses. While working on these responses we will focus on making inferences, locating text proofs, and interpreting.

English

We will take the Unit 5 test on capitalization and punctuation on Wednesday. A study guide is in the English folder.

Science

We will begin chapter 12 on energy.

Social Studies

We will begin a study on King Tut. We will read, Tut's Mummy Lost and Found.

Math

We will take a division 2 mad minute. There will be a test on Geometry on Wednesday 2/16.

Week of February 7-11

Important Dates

*100th day of School Wed. 2/9

*Spelling Test Friday 2/11

Classroom Chatter

Hope everyone enjoyed the snow days! We rescheduled our in school field trip, Matter Matters, for Monday, 2/14.

Spelling: This week's list is L. 16 "adding endings" to words. The test is Friday. Homework is due Friday.

Reading: We will continue working on identifying main idea and details this week. We will also work on writing some extended responses to text we read.

English: We will spend this week learning about introductory words, commas in a series, writing good sentences, and quotation marks. We are coming to the end of this unit. I have the test tentatively planned for the following week. Right now it is scheduled for Wednesday, 2/16.

Science

We will begin chapter 12 on energy!

Social Studies

We will spend this week learning about Cleopatra and King Tut.

Math

We will finish up taking a mad minute in mixes. Start practicing division facts for the week of 2/14! We will study similar figures, flips, slides & turns, coordinate graphs, and some problem solving with and without extended responses to finish up chapter 10.