Week of March 31- April 4

Important Dates

*Amazing Animals School Assembly Wednesday 4/2

*Spelling Test Friday 4/4

*Reading Vocab quiz Friday 4/4

*Downer Grove Permission Slip due 4/4

*Downers Grove Field Trip 4/14

Classroom Chatter

I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing spring break!

Spelling

L. 29's words are words with the prefix un. The test is Friday. The list will go home on Monday.

English

This week we will be writing our autobiographies. Students will work on a sloppy copy in their writing journals. We will type our final copies at the computer lab.

Reading

We will continue with Stone Fox. This week we will be reading chapters 5-7. Students will be having a vocabulary quiz on Friday over chapter 5-7's terms. We will continue to respond to the novel in our journals.

Science

This week we will be in the computer lab working on our power point presentations of the life cycle of the frog. Ribb-it!

Social Studies

Our Downers Grove field trip is scheduled for Monday, 4/14. We will be taking a bus tour around Downers Grove and visiting some places we learned about in our unit. A permission slip will come home on Monday. The test on Downers Grove will be Wednesday 4/16.

This week we will begin our study of Chicago. Students will learn about the Loop, goods that are produced in Chicago and the Chicago flag. We also will be working on making Chicago Mobiles. Students were asked over spring break to find 3 pictures of landmarks they want to write about and learn more about for a class project. Please have you child bring in three pictures of Chicago (example: Wrigley Field, Buckingham Fountain, and The Art Institute). They can be personal pictures, pictures found on the Internet, or from magazines or newspapers.

Math

This week we will be taking a mad minute in division 5's. We will begin multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by one digit. The test will be Monday April 7.

Week of March 17-21

Important Dates:

*St. Patrick's Day Monday 3/17

*Cheeseburger in Paradise party Thursday 3/20

*Spelling Test Thursday 3/20

*Reading Vocab quiz Thursday 3/20

*No school Friday 3/21

*Spring Break 3/24-3/28

Classroom Chatter

Don't forget to dress in your summer vacation clothes for our Cheeseburger in Paradise ISAT celebration party on Thursday to kick off spring break! Does anyone have the movie Lilo and Stitch (DVD or VHS)? I would like to show this on Thursday while we eat lunch, if someone could send it in. Thanks.

Spelling

We are skipping L. 27 's unit. This week is L. 28. These words are spelled with silent letters. The list will go home Monday. The test is Thursday due to no school Friday.

English

We will take the Unit 5 test on capitalization and punctuation on Thursday. Extra practice for the test can be found on pages 204-212 in the textbook.

Reading

We will begin reading the novel, Stone Fox. Students will be responding to the story in their Stone Fox journals that I will provide. We will also be learning vocabulary words for each chapter. The first set of vocabulary words cover chapters 1-4. There will be a quiz on these vocabulary words on Thursday. Students will have to know the definition of the words and be able to apply them in a sentence.

Science

This week we will study amphibians. Students will learn the characteristics of an amphibian. We will begin making out power point presentation of the life cycle of the frog when we return from spring break. Information about our animal habitat project will come home this week. I am sending it home early in case people want to start on it over break. It is due April 17th.

Social Studies

This week we will finish up the study of Downers Grove. Our Downers Grove field trip is scheduled for April 14th. I will be sending home the permission slips for this field trip after break. We won't be taking the test until after the field trip. There are a few questions on the test we learn about Downers Grove through the field trip. I will have the students keep their Downers Grove learning log and packet in their social studies folders. We will revisit and review them after our field trip before the test. I have not scheduled a date for the test yet. In the meantime, when we return from break, we will branch off learning about the suburban community of Downers Grove and learn about the urban community, Chicago.

Math

This week we will begin chapter 5. We will begin higher level multiplication. This week students will also be taking a mad minute in division 4's. Don't forget the Geometry Project is due on 3/20. If the project is completed early, students can turn it in early!

Week of March 10-14

Important Dates:

*ISAT testing Monday-Thursday 3/10-3/13

*Spring Conferences Monday-Wednesday 3/10-3/12

*Spelling Test Thursday 3/13

*February Reading Party Thursday 3/13

*Cheeseburger in Paradise Monday due Thursday 3/13

*Book orders due Thursday 3/13

*No school Friday

Classroom Chatter

This week students will be taking the ISAT's (Illinois State Achievement Test). Here is our testing schedule:

Monday: Reading Part One

Tuesday: Math Part One, Reading Part Two -extended response

Wednesday: Math Part Two, Reading Part Three-extended response

Thursday: Math Part Three-written response using t-chart

Like everyday, please make sure you child gets a good night's sleep and eats a good breakfast.

Parent-Teacher conferences are Monday-Wednesday.

The reading party for February will be on Thursday at lunch. Students who read for 28 days in February will come to the party.

Book orders went home Friday and are also available to order online as well. The due date is Thursday 3/13.

Cheeseburger in Paradise lunch order forms went home on Friday. Please send money and order form back by Thursday 3/13. We will be having an ISAT celebration party at lunch on March 20th in honor of all our hard work for ISAT's. The cheeseburger in paradise theme stems from the Hamburger model students used to write their extended reading responses. We will also dress up in Hawaiian/Paradise themed clothes and watch Lilo and Stitch.

Spelling

L. 26 is a review unit of lesson's 19-25 words. A practice sheet will go home Monday to practice the format of the test. The test will be on Friday.

English

This week we will learn about abbreviations, book titles, introductory words, and commas in a series.

Reading

ISAT tests

Social Studies

We will continue with our DG unit.

Science

We will be learn about mammals and birds. We will learn about the characteristics these animals must have to be classified in each animal group.

Math

This week we will take ISAT tests in math. We will take a week off of mad minutes. Next week students will be taking a division 3 mad minute.

Week of March 3-7

Important Dates:

*No school Monday for Pulaski Day 3/3

*Reading Quiz Wednesday 3/4

*Spelling Test Friday 3/7

Classroom Chatter:

ISATs (Illinois State Achievement Test) are here next week. March 10-13 students will be taking ISAT tests in reading and math. An informative packet regarding testing times and sample test problems went home with your child on Friday. It is an optional packet to work on. There is also a website that talks more about these tests and their importance. There is also a section on the website for students to take practice tests. http://www.isbe.net/assessment/isat.htm

I strongly encourage everyone to checkout the website and review the packet!

Spelling

L. 25 words are spelled with -igh. The test is on Friday. The list will go home Tuesday. There will not be a pretest this week due to the shortened week.

Language Arts

We will begin Unit 5 on capitalization and punctuation. This week we will be correcting sentences, writing good sentences and capitalizing nouns and proper nouns.

Reading

We will continue to respond to short reading passages and writing extended responses. We will continue working on inferences as well. Wednesday is the L. 5 quiz from the Illinois Workbook. Please study the packet in the reading folder. I sent home a practice packet on Thursday with sample quiz questions. This is our last unit in the Illinois workbook.

Science

We will begin our next unit in science. We will study about animals and the five groups of animals: mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. This week we will study the 4 needs of animals: air, food, water, and shelter. We also will learn about mammals.

Social Studies

We will learn about the location, government, and medical and health facilities in Downers Grove.

Math

Information regarding the geometry project went home Friday. It is due Thursday, March 20. This week we will be working on problem solving and continue writing written responses using a t-chart. This week we will be taking a mad minute in division 3's.