Already October?!?!

Time flies when you're having fun! I can't believe this week begins October!

Last week, we had a lot of fun learning happening in our room. In MATH, we finished up our lesson on factors and began making multiplication flash cards for the facts we need to work on the most. This includes the doubles (3x3, 4x4, 6x6, etc.) and the 3's. We will slowly add to these flashcards so the students all have flashcards to study. We also had our first multiplication timed test last week. Students all begin on their 2's facts. They have two minutes to complete as many facts as they can out of 60. If they get all 60 completed and correct, they move on to their 3's. This keeps going until they pass their 9's. I will be giving you a report on where your student is at our Fall Conferences coming up in a few weeks.
I hope all of you got to see the new multiplication chart we implemented due to the number of students that are struggling with facts. Students are expected to practice their multiplication facts for at least 30 minutes a week. These charts will be checked on Mondays along with their reading chart, so be sure your student brings it to school every Monday. If they do not have it on Mondays or if they have it but have not completed their correct amount of time, they do spend their morning recess making up this missed time.
Our next lesson in math will be on Multiples and we will start this on Monday. I am hoping to get through this lesson fairly quickly so we can have our Chapter 2 Math Test by Wednesday and begin Chapter 3 this week as well. Chapter 3 will start with multiplication and division of larger facts. Mrs. Whitten will begin teaching Chapter 3 and she's excited to get started.

In READING, we read a story titled Kai's Journey to Gold Mountain. This was a historical fiction story about a little boy who was an immigrant from China in the 1930's. He sailed over to the USA and stayed on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay until he was interrogated and given the right to go with his father into the USA to live. This is based on true facts, so the students got to watch a few videos on immigrants who went through this process in order to become a US citizen. This next week, students will complete centers based on this story, one of which is to find five facts about Angel Island they didn't already know using the websites I provide at the center. Students seemed to be very interested in this story, so feel free to read it with them on-line if you have access. Just go to www.thinkcentral.com and have your student log-in. They should be able to find their reading book and read this on-line without a problem.

In SCIENCE last week, we took our final data on our soybean plant experiment. We found that soybeans can grow in the dark, but they are not mature, producing plants. They were not healthy and green like the ones growing in the light and they did not have leaves and strong stems either. We came to the conclusion that plants can grow in the dark, but they are not healthy and will eventually die, as some of ours did. Since the students who put their plants in the dark were upset that their plants died, everyone whose plant didn't grow was able to plant a new seed to put under the grow light. We will watch to see if these grow better and hopefully, we will get to watch the plants to full maturity if we can keep them alive long enough!

In SOCIAL STUDIES, Mrs. Whitten finished her unit on the Southwest. Thank you to all the parents who donated food for our feast we had last Friday. It was delicious! Mrs. Whitten and I plan to keep this up for each of the regions of the United States since the students enjoyed it so much and learned a great amount. The students will be giving their presentations on their states this next week. I will post pictures of their presentations when they give them!

In LANGUAGE ARTS, we will begin learning about simple and complete subjects and predicates. We will have our skills test over this, as well as our vocabulary on Friday, October 5th.

Please be watching for some important notes regarding Parent/Teacher Conferences to come home this week. I will be sending the first one home on Monday asking your preferred time for a conference.

Keep checking your students backpack each night for their class work and homework. Just a reminder that students have homework every night MONDAY-THURSDAY that is due back to school the next day. Several students are really struggling with this and are missing recess to complete their homework. Even if they complete it at night, but forget to bring it to school, they have to re-do it here at school. I have explained to them that it is their responsibility to get the homework back in their backpack when they complete it to make sure it gets back to school the following day.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know. Thank you for your time. Have a great first week of October!