Wow! It is hard to believe that there are only 5 weeks of school left! We are busy making sure that we are covering all the necessary material in all of subjects, while making time to prepare and practice for the upcoming SOL tests. We have focused specifically on “test-taking” skills and reading questions carefully. Here is an update on our progress in all areas.
Reading and Language Arts
We are continuing our novel groups. We are reading Holes, The Giver, and Because of Winn Dixie. A few weeks ago, I did a “book talk” where I reviewed several popular children’s books. I let each student write down several choices of books that they were interested in reading. Each child was placed in a novel discussion group that matched not only their abilities, but their interests. We will NOT be doing spelling tests until SOLs are over.
Math
We are studying unit 11 which covers various geometry concepts. At this point, we are skipping around a bit in our math series in order to cover all the concepts on which they will be tested in 2 weeks. In addition, we continue to review previously learned concepts each day.
Social Studies
We will finish up the last battle at Yorktown and have our test on the Revolutionary War this Wednesday. We will review by playing Jeopardy on Tuesday. I apologize that this test was pushed back several times, but we had several “extra” events last week, such as rehearsals for our program, DARE graduation, and 2 trips to the bookfair. I wanted to be fair and make sure the students were given adequate time to cover and review the material before the test. We will then begin learning about the US Constitution, our government, and the first US Presidents.
Science
We have completed our unit on Plants and we will begin our final Science unit on Adaptations and Ecosystems. This is usually a fun and informative unit with lots of activities, class projects, and videos! Don’t forget that the Plant Science Projects (or grocery store activity)are due April 31st! Please reassure your child that it is OK if your plants die, as long as they record that in their results. I will not lower the grade of the project just because they didn’t get the results that they would like. I am looking for the organization and record keeping of the project, etc.
Other
We will be planning our Colonial Day festivities for May 23rd. Each child will wear colonial clothing that day and we will have “colonial school.” We will eat colonial foods, play colonial games at recess, and have several stations set up for the students to participate in colonial crafts. They will also learn to dance the Virginia Reel. We will be sending home more information in the next week or so.
Dates to Remember
5/07 - Reading SOL
5/09 - Early Release
5/14 - Math SOL
5/22 - Early Release
5/23 - Colonial Day
5/27 - Field Day
5/30 - Last Day of School!
Sincerely,
Patti Williams
Education Gateways makes no warranty for SchoolNotes.com.
Information on this site is generated by the users. The views
expressed are not necessarily those of Education Gateways or its members, and
Education Gateways is not responsible for user's conduct on SchoolNotes.com.
