February 13th, 2013

STUDENTS WENT HOME WITH CD'S OF HOPE OF AMERICA.  PLEASE LISTEN TO THESE IN THE CAR, IN THE SHOWER, AND BEFORE BED.  I WILL SEND HOME A LYRICS SHEET TOMORROW.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN THIS ENDEAVOR.

This morning we learned that New York City has over 8 million people, Los Angeles has 3.8 million, Chicago has 2.8 million people, and Houston, TX, has over 2 million people.  We located and labeled these on a map.  The kids were very surprised to find where they were located.  Tomorrow we will learn the next four or five most populated cities.

We did a kid-made treasure hunt and puzzle for vocabulary.  Tomorrow we will play fly swatter games, word finds, and crosswords...to review vocabulary.  I am so surprised at how fast these kids are learning and mastering their new vocabulary...and these are SAT words.
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In grammar, we learned objective and subjective tenses.  For example:

Casey, Mitchell, and I drove to the movies.  This works, because when we remove Casey and Mitchell.  I is a subject pronoun.

Autumn and me are pretty smart.  This doesn't work because if you remove Autumn, the subject pronoun is incorrect.  It should be I.

She threw a party for my sister and me.  This is correct, because when we remove my sister, the me is an objective pronoun (or object).

Mom bought a present for Noelle, Mike, and I.  This doesn't work, because when you remove Noelle and Mike, me is the objective pronoun.

Hope this helps.
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We are almost finished reading Ben and Me.  The chapter today had recognizable characters from the Revolutionary War: John Paul Jones, General Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Madame Brillon, and the king and queen of France.  READ TO YOUR KIDS!  THEY LOVE READ-ALOUD TIME!

This week we have been drafting and organizing our points for our first real 3-point essay.  We completed the opening paragraph today, and will do the final paragraph tomorrow.

MATH HOMEWORK IS TO COMPLETE THE REVIEW #7.  Two students stayed after school yesterday and planned an all out treasure hunt for math.  It was great!  Students solved problems and searched for clues throughout the school.  Brownies were enjoyed by all!

After lunch we had S.I.R. and Meridian Math Club.  We then worked either on our clues for our mysteries, or worked on other projects in Writer's Workshop.

Science Fair topics are well underway.  Students should be finished with their topic, question, and hypothesis.  Experiments should be done over the weekend, and research done.  PLEASE NOTE THAT STUDENTS TOOK HOME SCIENCE FAIR PACKAGES TODAY.  Please look them over and follow the correct procedures to make the science boards attractive and legitimate.  REMEMBER, SCIENCE FAIR IS THE 1ST OF MARCH, JUST AROUND THE CORNER.

After P.E. we went outside for straight fun at recess.  It was good to watch the kids play with each other and have a little downtime.  PLEASE HAVE YOUR STUDENTS READ, READ, AND READ!