4.18.11

my niece, Jillian (we call her "Jilli-Bean")

Happy MONDAY, folks!!!  I hope you've had a wonderful weekend!  What has made you smile over the past few days off?  Seeing my dear old friends on Saturday for a wedding shower and then spending time with my gorgeous niece and nephew yesterday has left me smiling from ear to ear!

Spencer makes me smile!  Who makes YOU smile?!?

READING:
we finished peer scoring and rewriting our ORQs.  I want us to continue working on using a rubric/ scoring guide to know what a prompt is asking us to do so we can exceed beyond expectations!
I passed out our new spelling packet and as usual, they are due on Friday.  This will be our last packet for a couple of weeks until after testing.
HOMEWORK: complete ONE "Think-tac-toe" activity of your choice to turn in tomorrow.

MATH:
We began by taking a timed multiplication test which really did not go so well...boy, were we rusty on our facts!  This timed quiz had 64 problems so I gave the students 3 minutes to finish and most people were in the 20s...eeeek!!  I can't believe a month break from completing these has collected so much "dust" on our brains!  Therefore, we took some time to review our facts and I sent one home to complete for homework.
Next, we talked about decimals.  We learned that decimals are fractions of a whole and the only time we are to ever use the word, 'and' when saying a number is when a decimal is present.  Students learned that it takes 10 TENTHS to equal a whole because each is 1/10 of 1 (like a dime!); while it takes 100 HUNDREDTHS to equal a whole because each is 1/100 of 1 (like a penny!).  They really picked up on this rather quickly and learned that when adding or subtracting numbers with a decimal, nothing is different!
HOMEWORK: complete timed multiplication quiz and have an adult sign off that it was done together (3 minutes), AND complete the KCCT Review packet in its entirety.

PM activities:

she's fast :)

LISA did her reward today for getting all of her stars colored in on her "Earn & Reward" card!  She picked the reward of showcasing her special talent to the class so she jumped rope...she is awesome and very fast!

Jazzy also got to have her reward which was sitting at my desk all day...I had a desk buddy!

Lisa showing us her talent!

Since today is Monday, we did not switch to Social Studies, but had Science where we watched a "Bill Nye the Science Guy" video about Earth's seasons. We learned that the earth has seasons because of its orbit around the sun and its tilt towards it as well.
HOMEWORK: none

I hope you have a marvelous Monday evening!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

REMINDERS:

Please, please, pleeeease look over the KCCT breakfast/ snacks/ rewards sheet that I sent home on Friday.  We have received one response thus far so I'd like to see what all else we can prepare for and expect to get so I can plan out all we need and our schedule pertaining to. 

We need items, items, items for our class basket in the Spring Carnival!  Our basket's theme is "For the Artist" so if you are willing and able, we'd love to have your contribution! 

Yearbook forms were sent home and are due back by the first week of May.  This is a FULL color yearbook!!

The band/ orchestra concert that was scheduled on the evening of April 21st is now canceled.  There will still be a concert at 1:30PM on that day that parents, families, and friends are invited to attend.