Weeks of March 26th-28th & April 3rd-6th

Curriculum News

Because of a shorter week right before Easter break, this newsletter/blog will cover the next two weeks of school.  During the shorter week, we will be spending our time taking a look at some fun springtime and Easter stories that will help add to the excitement that everyone seems to have right now about spring.  When we get back from break, we will be continuing with our “Folktales From Around the World” unit as we take a look at Sergei Prokofiev’s original version of “Peter and the Wolf”.  This will give us the opportunity to take a look at elements of a narrative type of story and will help prepare us to work on our own narratives during our writing time.  We will also explore a few other Russian folktales during this time as well, as we ease back into our routine for the final 7 weeks of school.

In math we will continue to work with 3-digit numbers as we practice subtracting 3-digit numbers a bit more before moving on to another mathematic challenge!  During our social studies time we will be taking a closer look at our country’s symbols and why they are so important to us.  During this time students will be given a new project to work on as they are going to be asked to prepare a poster with a certain country’s flag and an explanation of the importance of the colors and objects found on this particular flag!  (This is not due for a few weeks and students will receive this assignment when we return from Easter break!)

*There is no Spelling test for the week of March 26th-28th.

*The words below are for the week of April 3rd-6th.

Spelling Words 

whale   when   where   what   why   which   whistle   whip  whirl   while   whisper   whistle

Challenge Words (Extra Credit)      wheelchair           whatever

 

Reminders/Announcements:

* I will be gone on Tuesday the 27th and Wednesday the 28th.

*There is an early dismissal on Wednesday, March 28th at 2:00.

*Easter/Spring break is from Thursday, March 29th through Monday, April 2nd.  School resumes on Tuesday, April 3rd!

 

Have a wonderful Easter and break!

Mrs. Johnson

 

 

 

Week of March 19th-23rd

Curriculum News

As we continue with our exploration of Folktales from Around the World, we will be spending this week taking a look at the very popular folktale that is well known to most- Stone Soup.  Following that, we will be looking at numerous other versions that are altered simply by a change in setting.  This will give us a chance to compare and contrast different versions as we better understand the basic elements of a folktale.  We will also be turning our attention towards Spring as we work on some creative writing projects!

In math we will be focusing most of our attention on 3 digit addition as well as subtraction.  Students will also be able to see the importance of this skill as we also look at some real-world problems that involve using this skill to get to the answer or final results. In Science we will continue to work with the study of the changing seasons. During our social studies time we will be focusing our attention on map skills.  This will give us a better understanding of how to read them and use them more effectively.

 

Spelling Words

bolt      colt      jolt      felt     belt      fault     built     wilt     melt      salt      bunny      basket

Challenge Words (Extra Credit)      chocolate        delicious

 

Reminders/Announcements: 

*There will be an early dismissal on Wednesday, March 21st at 11:30. 

*Students will be going to the high school on the afternoon of Friday, March 23rd to see part of the jr. high/ high school musical.  We will be leaving at approximately 1:30 and will return at 3:00 in time for dismissal.

*Easter/Spring break is from Thursday, March 29th through Monday, April 2nd.  School resumes on Tuesday, April 3rd!

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Johnson

Week of March 12th-16th

Curriculum News

As we continue with our exploration of Folktales from Around the World, we will be taking a look at numerous tales from all corners of the Earth.  Many of them are ones that try to explain things that occur in our world.  This is just one of the 8 elements often found in folktales that we have been studying during our whole group time in the morning.

Students have done very well with counting money so we will take one day to review this week before moving on.  Our time will then be spent taking a look at place value and use of 3-digit numbers in math.  This will eventually lead us towards our work with both adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers.  It will just merely be a continuation of our work done earlier this year with 2-digit addition and subtraction.

Our work in Science will be leading us towards a discussion and exploration of the weather and the changing seasons.  This will help students better understand why our weather here in central Illinois varies so much throughout the year while other parts of the world experience very little change.

 

Spelling Words

soft    shift      lift     drift     gift     left     raft     craft      swift     draft     lucky      green

Challenge Words (Extra Credit)     leprechaun        treasure

 

Reminders/Announcements: 

*Scholastic Book Fair will be taking place throughout this next week.

*Family Reading Night will be on Thursday, March 15th from 6:00-8:00 PM.  We hope that many of you can join us!

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Johnson

Week of March 5th-9th

Curriculum News

Students really enjoyed our exploration of the author Tomie DePaola, however, after 2 weeks it was time to move on.  Beginning this week we will be starting a new unit titled, “Hand –Me- Down Folk Tales”.  We will be looking at some very familiar tales and then looking at a number of different versions of the same original story.  This will allow us to compare and contrast important story elements as we continue with this unit for several weeks to come.  We will be focusing on a number of different versions of The 3 Little Pigs.

In Math, we will be continuing to work on the important and necessary skill of counting money.  Students have done well for the first few days but this next week will give us the opportunity to look at some more challenging tasks such as counting mixed coins with dollar amounts included.  Any extra opportunity for students to practice counting at home would also be fantastic!

During our Social Studies time we will be turning our attention to the basics of our federal government so that students understand a bit more about what exactly they do to help our country run smoothly.  We will also be talking a bit more about the voting process and how and when citizens are eligible to vote themselves.

 

Spelling Words

drink    think     sink     stink     wink   thank    bank    drank    honk    blank    shrink     blink

Challenge Words (Extra Credit)     chipmunk          snowbank

 

Reminders/Announcements: 

*No reminders for this week!  Hopefully it will be a week packed with a lot of learning and fun! 

 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Johnson