I am really excited about our 2 field trip opportunities this Spring. We will be going to the Museum of Natural History on Thursday, April 25. Hopefully, that day will be as beautiful as today is and we can enjoy a nice picnic on the national mall before heading back to school for the afternoon. If you are available, we are in need of chaperones for that trip. Our next trip is to Glen Echo Park's Adventure Theatre to see 'Big Nate, the Musical". These books and comic strips are very popular with students and we will also have the opportunity to ride the park's historic carousel and picnic at the park before coming back to school. The cost of both trips is $28. If you haven't already, please send in your payment as soon as possible. Thank-you to the families that have made donations to help students to attend the trips. Any and all donations collected will be used to fund the trips and for a few special end-of-year activities if there are extra funds.
Coming up this Spring:
Students are beginning to write and illustrate their own Realistic Fiction stories. As I keep reminding students- these "books" are going to be the longest stories they have ever written! We are focusing on including things like theme and a realistic problem and solution in their stories. Student stories will include dialogue and we are practicing properly using quotation marks in order to prepare for this. The realistic Fiction book report homework project is due this Friday, April 5. The Spring Break Extra Credit packet is also due. These may be turned in early on Wednesday or Thursday.
In math this quarter, we will be focusing on solving challenging word problems that incorporate multiple steps and operations- in other words, those that use a combination of multiplication, division, addition and subtraction and possibly some fractions. These problems are very challenging for students who have not yet mastered their multiplication facts- the goal for all students is to have mastered all multiplication facts 0-10 by the end of the year. Please continue to work with your child on this! Towards the end of the marking period, we will also be working on time, measurement and graphing skills as well.
We will be getting back into a re-vamped version of our spelling program for the remainder of the year beginning next week, on Monday, April 8. Students will have a word list each week, rather than on a two week cycle. Their nightly homework will be more consistent to eliminate confusion for students and parents.
Some pictures of our busy learners working together to measure objects around the room for a scavenger hunt and taking a timed multiplication quiz! We take multiplication quizzes on Fridays each week. Students work at their own pace and take a quiz each week until they get 100% in 2 minutes or less on 50 multiplication problems- very challenging!
