The Jungle Book
Mrs. Knueven's Classroom Newsletter
Upcoming Events
1/14 Mrs. Knueven out for meeting
1/14 NWEA Math - Day 1
1/15 NWEA Math - Day 2 (for anyone who needs to finish)
1/15 Wordly Wise Lesson 8 Test
1/18 Martin Luther King Jr. Day (no school)
1/19 NWEA Reading - Day 1
1/20 NWEA Reading - Day 2 (for anyone who needs to finish)
1/22 Scholastic Book Orders due
1/26 Unit 3 Science Test (tentative)
1/28 Unit 6 Math Test (tentative)
1/28 Boomer Convocation
1/29 Pajama Day
2/17 Miss Indiana Convocation
2/20 A Little Bit of Country Kindness Concert, 6:30 pm @ ZWMS
Curriculum Corner
- Grammar: We will continue practicing digraphing sentences for the 8 parts of speech
- Wordly Wise: 8C & 8D will be due on Thursday, test Friday
- Words Their Way quiz on Friday
Reading
In reading, we have started a new unit with the topic of animals. So far, the kids seem to be enjoying it! We will be reading both fiction and nonfiction books with animals as characters. We will be working on the skills of using context clues to learn about characters and studying trickster tales for theme and a predictable pattern of events.
Indiana History
We are currently reading Unit 3, which deals with the early days of Indiana's Statehood. Last week, we read about the steps that were taken to become a state and some of Indiana's first communities, such as Corydon and New Harmony. We also learned about pioneer living. I was surprised how many of the kids thought they might enjoy living during the pioneer days, even after learning about some of the chores the kids would have been in charge of. Picking up buffalo chips for fuel....yuck! This week, we will be learning about forms of transportation used during this time period and doing an in-class project as an assessment.
Science
Our current chapter is all about changes to the earth's surface. The big idea of this chapter is that some of the changes happen very slowly over hundreds or thousands of years (erosion from ice, water, wind, or gravity) and some of the changes happen quickly (volcanoes, earthquakes, & landslides). This week, we will finish up our study of erosion with a lab and begin learning about volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides.
Math
The main focus of this chapter is long division. I taught the kids both the partial quotients and traditional methods. Just like last chapter, they can pick the method that works best for them to use on the test. This week, we will continue long division practice, learn how to interpret remainders and express them as fractions, and begin learning how to measure angles. The tentative date for this math test will be 1/28. They will need to know how to:
- Write and solve a division number sentence, given a word problem
- Solve long division problems, writing the remainder as a fraction.
- Identify acute, obtuse, and right angles and measure them with a protractor.
- Plot and label points on a coordinate grid (positive numbers only)
- Insert parenthesis to make a number sentence true (review skill)
- Round to the nearest 10,000 (review skill)
A Little Bit of Country Kindness Concert
Friday, our class had a visit from Spencer, a friendly golden retriever. He delivered a CD of The Hobbs Sisters. They are a country group and will be coming here for a concert being held at Zionsville West Middle School on Friday, February 20 at 6:30 pm.
Each student will be able to take the CD home for one night to get to know the singers before we see them in person! The concert will be a celebration of the power of kindness and will be one of many things we'll be doing to focus on kindness. Stay tuned!
Please help us keep the CD moving through our room by bringing it back to class for the next student!
Valentine's Day Party
One fun activity we always do is for each student to bring in a baby picture. The pictures are displayed and we guess who the baby might be. Please send in a baby picture of your child with his/her name on the back. I will return the picture, but please know it will be stapled to the wall. If it is the last copy that exists, you may want to make a copy before sending it in!
Class lists will be sent home this Friday so your child can begin creating valentines to exchange. We have 23 students in the class right now. Students need to bring in some kind of container to collect valentines. If they want to decorate the container, that is fine, but it can be as simple as a grocery bag with their name on it.