Ms. Cowan’s Class NewsDecember 2011

We only have a short amount of time left between now and winter break! I promise we’ll make the most of it though!

Please remember the 3rd grade holiday service project! Our class has the 11th grade girl and all items you choose to donate need to be wrapped and in by December 13th.

Check out the many fun and exciting things that will be happening in our classroom this month:

Language ArtsWe are continuing the fun of punctuation town as we help Mr. Period purchase all the items he’ll need for his new home—a sentence. We have really focused on knowledge of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. Now we’ll work with interjections, pronouns, and conjunctions. As you read, stop to ask your child to identify the parts of speech in particular sentences.

WritingWe continue our Writer’s Workshop each day as we work on expository writing—nonfiction. The students wrote an initial paragraph on “rural” communities and then another on “suburban” communities. Now, we’ve moved on to something bigger and better! We are studying “suburban” communities (specifically Jenks) in both reading and social studies. With this knowledge, we’re working on an authentic, in-depth 2 page layout which includes 3 written paragraphs, a title, subtitles, photographs, and two other text features of choice. This project will be completed next week. This will help us prepare for an even bigger, 2 page layout poster on “urban” communities that we’ll complete in January. Mini-lessons will teach students all the aspects they need to know about expository writing and all of these writing projects will be completed in class.

Aside from expository, we’re also working on rhymes and various types of poetry this month. Students are writing “hink pinks” and “hinkey pinkeys” and then we’ll work on a rhyming quatrain and a prepositional poem with a winter theme.

Spelling/Word StudyThe word study tests are still going well! Every student should be practicing their words and spelling patterns at home at least one or two nights a week in order to keep up with learning the new patterns, words, and word meanings. We are also doing at least 4 spelling activity in class each week. This activity involves things such as: writing their spelling words in sentences, sorting their words into spelling patterns, hunting for others words that follow the same spelling pattern, finding synonyms/antonyms for words, putting them in ABC order, and so much more. Please visit the “Reading/writing/word work” tab on my

website to find a link to a website entitled Spelling City. All of our spelling lists are online and the kids can do many activities to practice their spelling words from home!

ReadingA fluency homework packet (The Star Spangled Banner) will come home Monday night. The students are to read the passage aloud at least 2 times each night (Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs) for a total of 8 readings.  On Thursday, they can answer the questions on the back page and get your signature and then they’ll turn the packet back in to me on Friday morning.  A repeated reading of a text is the best way to enhance oral fluency.

We have been reading the novel Stone Fox—we’ll finish it the week before the break. We’ll do a couple of projects with this text this month as well. On Monday the 5th, a Tic-Tac-Toe contract will come home. Students are to complete any 3 of the project ideas by Thursday, December 15th. These need to be done completely at home. The students will also test over this text on Thursday, December 15th. They have REALLY been enjoying this book so far!

We’re also still working through the Activate and Connect portion of the Comprehension Toolkit lessons using texts about Jenks past and present. We will not start the next toolkit unit (Questioning) until after winter break.

The class is doing WONDERFUL on their reading minutes. Congratulations to those students that have read 2,000 or more! After this week, each student should have read at least 1,500 minutes. The expectation is 100 reading minutes every week. Ask your child what the rewards are for reaching each 1,000 level mark…

Everyday MathematicsWe have made it through the first 4 Units in the Everyday Mathematics series. We are currently working through Unit 5—Place Value in Whole Numbers and Decimals.  Some at-home, do-anytime activities that could correlate with this unit include:

o Write decimals for your child to read aloud, such as 0.32 (thirty-two hundredths) or 0.9 (nine-tenths).

o Give your child a decimal number and ask how much more it would take to make the next whole number.  For example, give the number 0.67 and have your child tell you that it would take 0.33 to make one whole.

o Write down two 4-, 5-, o 6-digit numbers.  Ask your child to read both numbers aloud and then tell which is larger and explain why.  Try a few more and then switch roles. 

o Give your child digits and have him/her arrange them to make the largest or smallest possible numbers.

Please continue to work with your child nightly on their Home Link assignments. Also, use flash cards or other tools to get multiplication facts (0-12) down quickly and efficiently. By now, students should at least be near the 7’s, 8’s, or 9’s in their daily facts tests.

ScienceWe will continue to do a few science activities and readings here and there but we’ll wait to begin our next big unit—Plants—until January.

Social StudiesWe are working hard on gaining knowledge on the Unit 4 concept—Citizens and Government. These lessons discuss what it means to be a citizen of a community along with what rights and responsibilities we have. We’ll also discuss an overview of government: the structure of government, local/state/and national governments, and symbols of our nation. This is all in addition to our reading and writing lessons which study types of communities.

Reminders Holiday Service Project Gifts Due—Tuesday, Dec. 13th

Class Winter Party—Friday, Dec. 16th

No School, Winter Break—Monday, Dec. 19th through Monday, Jan. 2nd

School Starts—Tuesday, Jan. 3rd Dynamic Dads—Friday, Feb. 3rd—none in January

I look forward to seeing many of you at our class holiday party! Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season!!

Thank you,Heather Cowan