Updates Week of November 18-22, 2013

We continue to march forward in our Social Studies building of background knowledge for The American Revolution.  Be sure to ask your child what is happening in the county each day as we will move quickly through the years :)

Reading
Students will focus this week on analyzing the structure and author chooses for the text they have written.  There are four main ways to organize or structure text.  They are: cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequence of events and main idea with supporting details.  Students will notice through the week the connection between the author's purpose for their writing and the structure they used when writing about their topic.  Students will also take note of text features such as pictures, maps, charts, etc and how they impact and/or enhance the meaning of the text.  Students will take their test on Friday on text structure.  You should be seeing these tests come home each Friday. 

Just a reminder, students are still being assigned to read and log in nightly.  You should still be signing their reading logs nightly.

Language
Students will be making journal entries into their writing journal based on the topics in Social Studies.

Spelling
We will have the classroom spelling bee test next week so you should be seeing your child studying their spelling bee list.

Dates to remember:
November 20.........................Early dismissal
November 27-December 2....Thanksgiving Holiday

Until next time,
R. O'Steen

Updates Week of November 11-15, 2013

I hope everyone had a nice Veteran's Day.  I truly thank anyone who has served to make our county the great place it is.  With that, however, we will be moving forward even though it is a short week.

Reading
Students will focus on cause and effect this week during their reading block.  We will continue to use the Social Studies textbook and build our background knowledge up to the American Revolution.  Once students have the needed background knowledge we will move into the reading textbook and begin the unit Voices of the Revolution.  Ask your child what they are learning about he development of the Americas.

Writing
Students will begin thinking about someone they would like to know more about.  This week we will add some "People Worth Knowing" to our wall.  Ask your child who they have learned about in history so far.

Spelling
Students should be studying their spelling bee list at home in preparation for our classroom bee.  We will have our class written spelling bee test on November 22.

Dates to remember:
November 20.........................Early dismissal
November 22.........................Classroom Spelling Bee test
November 27-December 2....Thanksgiving Holiday

Until next time,
R. O'Steen

Updates Week of November 4-8, 2013

    We are coming up on many holidays here shortly which means that students will have short weeks or even weeks where we begin a focus one week and continue  the focus and test the next week.  I am going to continue to remind students to write down homework and test reminders from the board.  Be sure to ask them what they are studying and when upcoming tests are.  If they are copying reminders from the board they will know.

Reading
We will focus this week on comparing and contrasting information read in a text.  We will be utilizing the Social Studies book and continuing our study of Exploration and Settlement of the Americas.  This is building background knowledge for our study of the American Revolution and stories in the textbook coming up in a few weeks.  Ask your child what they are learning about explorers and trading between the countries.

Spelling
Students should still be studying their words for the classroom spelling bee.  A date is still to be announced.

Dates to Remember
Wednesday, November 6...................Early dismissal
Thursday, November 7......................FCAT Parent Night 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Friday, November 8..........................Veteran's Day Assembly
Monday, November 11......................Holiday, Veteran's Day

Until next time,
R. O'Steen