Ms. Harris' Weekly Update
August 28th-September 1st
What's Going On This Week:
- Science: This week students will get to apply what they know about process skills and lab safety when they perform a gum lab on Monday and an apple lab on Friday. Thank you SO much to everyone who sent in gum! We have plenty now for the lab. Students will also learn about qualitative and quantitative observations. There will be a quiz over everything we've learned so far on Wednesday, September 6th.
- Social Studies: This week we will start learning about 5 different Native American groups. We will start with the Pacific Northwestern Indians and move our way through the United States. Our unit test on Native Americans will be on Friday, September 15th. A study guide will be given a week in advance. Students will also be given an at-home Totem Pole Project this Tuesday that will be due on Friday, September 8th. Be looking for information on that coming home Thursday.
- Mrs. Thurston's Math/ELA: This week we are continuing our first unit, Interpreting Characters: The Heart of the Story, and diving deep into studying characters. We will continue learning how to establish a reading life while reading our new novel, Tiger Rising. In writing, we are continuing our Realistic Fiction/Narrative unit by creating and developing stories and characters that feel real. Take a peek at your child's writing! They are all turning into something awesome! In math, we will be learning about number forms (standard, expanded, and word form) and comparing numbers using less than, greater than, or equal to. On Monday, students will have to read a set of numbers correctly to me for a quiz grade.
- Ms. Harris' GT Math/ELA: In math this week, students will apply what they know about place value to a detective project. They will have to use math knowledge to solve various place value crimes. On Friday, they will take a short quiz covering the place value concepts we have discussed so far. (Almost every Friday, students will take a math quiz to assess whether or not they have learned the concepts taught that week.) In ELA, we will read our second Junior Great Books story, "Crow Call." Students will review this story all week and then take their open book test on Friday. We will also start drafting our first personal narratives and introduce vocabulary with our 5 minute Word of the Day activity. Both of these will activities be done in class and will not be homework.
Book Orders Are Due Friday
If your child would like to order books from Scholastic, please either send in the order form and check or go to www.scholastic.com and use our class code of "GKCDN" by Friday. I will submit all orders then.
Boosterthon Volunteers Needed
If you are available on September 14th to come to our Fun Run and help mark laps, please let me know. I would love to get 1 or 2 parents who can come and cheer on our students as they run laps to help our school.
GT: Spelling Will Start Next Week
On Friday, students will get their spelling list for the week and copy it into their agenda. They will also glue it into their Spelling IAN and complete the two practice sheets by the following Friday. On that day, spelling is due and they will take a class spelling test. I will also give students a list of additional OPTIONAL study activities that they can complete if they need a little extra help.
Other Information:
- September 5th : Boosterthon Pep Rally
- September 7th: 1st PTO mtg 7 pm (ALL PARENTS ARE WELCOME!)
- September 14th: Boosterthon Fun Run
- September 22nd: Fall Pictures
- September 29th: Spirit Day/School Store