Hello Again!

It seems as though our first quarter is already flying by. The students wrapped up their Wizard of Oz assessment last week Thursday, and now that they have finished the book, we will begin our unit on Pollyanna. Please make sure they have the book on Monday. I know that Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and Common Core are low on copies, so if you can find one with different pagination that will be acceptable.

In math they have been working on Order of Operation, and now we will begin addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of 4 digit numbers this week. They will be learning multiple methods to solve these problems, so even if you are familiar with the vertical  algorithm that everyone learns in school, feel free to let your child break up and dissect their math problems in new ways this week. We will have a test on this next week Wednesday.

We are continuing to make progress with Spalding, and the students will be sent a new set of spelling words this week. We will be doing much of our writing in cursive this year, so make sure your students are working on their letter formation. The manuscript was very good at the start of the year, lets make sure they are diligent about practicing cursive as well. Moving forward, spelling tests will only be graded on proper spelling, not markings. I hope this is a relief to you, because it certainly is for me.

History we are beginning our unit on Medieval Europe. This is a fascinating time in World History and I can already tell your students are enjoying it very much. If we have time, we will get to read from the Old English version of Beowulf (Either Friday, or next week Monday).

In science we have continued with our Meteorology Unit, and have engaged in numerous fruitful conversations about weather, climate change, our responsibilities as thoughtful citizens, and reflecting on Mother Nature's most destructive storms. We will have our first assessment next Tuesday, with time to review over the weekend.

Until Next Time,

Mr. Leonard