February 5th, 2013

A NOTICE WENT HOME YESTERDAY REGARDING "MOMS AND MUFFINS" ON FRIDAY MORNING FROM 7:30-8:00.  THIS IS A SPECIAL READING OPPORTUNITY FOR MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN.  If no mother is able to come, fathers and grandparents are welcome to attend. 

This morning soooo many kids brought in reading logs!!!  Good job!

We learned about the Coastal Range, running up the western coast of California.  We found out that the maritime climate creates lots of water for the Californian mountain ranges.  In fact, when the transcontinental railroad was built, the snow on the Sierra Nevada Range was over 40 feet high!

For SAT word practice students continued writing sentence snakes in a blank wordfind.  Please check the word definitions from yesterday.  Use them a lot in conversation.

Grammar introduced various possible sentence fragments, including subjects, predicates, and prepositional phrases.  We also reviewed CD, SCS, SCV, SS, and other kinds of sentence structure.

Finishing Jonathon Livingston Seagull last week opened up an interest for animal fiction.  We have leaped into Ben and Me, a humorous animal non-fiction, in which Ben Franklin's real fame comes from ideas from the mouse in his fur cap.

Our spelling activity for the week merges visual, verbal and kinesthetic intelligences.  Students are creating quick sculptures or three-dimensional objects and decorating them with spelling words from their word sort.

MATH HOMEWORK IS EXERCISE 11 AND 7:1:A WORKSHEET, WHICH HAS BEEN HANDED OUT.  We worked out story problems and introduced briefly multiplication of decimals.  If your children have problems with the multiplying, please remind them that multiplication is addition.  Have them add the decimals with the decimal points lined up, and add repeatedly to find out the answer.  It is crucial that the decimal point be in the right place.  We will be learning "tricks" to multiplying decimals, but first it is essential that students understand the repetitive addition principle.

After lunch students enjoyed Foreign Language.  It is Foreign Language week.  Ask each day what activities were done at lunch!

Next was drama, yoga/karate/dance, and music.  IF STUDENTS WANT TO AUDITION FOR SPECIFIC PARTS IN THE CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY PLAY, THEY MUST DO THIS TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS IN THE MUSIC ROOM AFTER SCHOOL.

At the end of the day, we will review the physical characteristics of the U.S.A.  We will test ourselves on mountain ranges and plains.  We will also visit the computer lab and test our typing fluency.