3.14.11



THE best...'nuf said.



we are family!

Back to back!!!

First of all, I want to give a HUUUGGGE "hoooooo-raayyyyy!!!" to our C-A-T-S for pulling off another SEC Tournament title!  Did we absolutely BLOW Florida AND Alabama away or what?!?  What a GREAT weekend for UK basketball (well...EXCEPT for the '4' seed and Florida at a '2'...the NCAA clearly is NOT  fan of us, but that's neither here nor there and I'll stop my ranting because I could go on for hours and hours about it!).  We are STILL in the tournament nonetheless (yes, with the most difficult journey, but we're there), and hopefully ready to play!

LOVE that enthusiam and energy!

Don't Mondays like this though just make you want to stay in bed?!?  Rain, rain...blah!!!  The excitement of the tournament time is keeping me going though, that's for sure...I LOVE, LOVE, LOOOOOOOOVE this time of year and all the madness of March!

READING:
I passed back our spelling tests and the students did WONDERFUL!  I had to give out sooooo many homework passes, which I absolutely LOVE!  I also passed out our NEW spelling packets which are LESSON 7.  Since we DO NOT have school on Friday, these packets will be due MONDAY, MARCH 21st.  That is also when the students will take their tests, so enjoy an extra couple of days to prepare!  However, that does mean the bar has been raised and I am expecting EVERYONE to earn at least an 'A'!!!  QUESTERS, you will take the test first thing in the morning!

Our WOW! words this week are:

encyclopedia

thesaurus

tsunami

tumultuous

vehement

Wouldn't you know that our skill of focus this week is "predicting outcomes"?  Seriously, I did NOT plan that...it is merely coincidental, so I think I may have a little fun with predicting outcomes with our bracketology :)
To introduce the concept, we discussed what it means to "predict" and how that can help us as readers.  We realized that predicting outcomes is a lot like making inferences or drawing conclusions using information you are given, except you are guessing what is going to happen next, NOT what is already going on that the author is implying. 
Students then got in groups and worked on their spelling words by engaging in activities to practice them such as making games, playing games, or making a special activity.
HOMEWORK: choose ONE activity from your spelling activity bank to complete by tomorrow.
**Also, DO NOT FORGET that you must be caught up with your reading group with your chapter book (most groups were reading THREE chapters) and you MUST have a role sheet completed, prior to meeting with them to ensure you are prepared for your discussion.**

MATH:
we are continuing our study of data analysis and graphing.  The students are finding this concept quite "easy" (their words, not mine) and are really enjoying exploring this concept further.  Today, we worked on constructing bar graphs of our own and began exploring line graphs.  We got to conduct our own survey amongst our peers and then create a display to represent our data.  Tomorrow, we will have a special visitor where we get to "show off" our great enjoyment with this skill!
HOMEWORK: practice multiplication facts and related division facts

PM activities:
a walk inside got some energy out, but sure wasn't as great as being out in the sunshine.  It should be back by the end of the week though, and we are so excited!!!
we worked on this month's on-demand.

Have a wonderful evening!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas