Ms. Mitchell's Magnificent Learners

February Happenings

 Math:  In math we have been working on the relationship of decimals to fractions. We looked at place value charts to show that any number after the decimal point is 'part of a whole'. You can help your child continue to practice this standard with money... relating $2.42 as 2 whole dollars and 42 pieces of the next dollar. We will continue to review these standards in guided math but we are moving on to equivalent fractions and adding/subtracting fractions. Ask your child to bring their MIN (Math Interactive Notebook) home to show you what we have been working on! 

   Language Arts: 
Students will continue to read and write for information. We just finished our 4 week 'Survivor' lessons in the media center and now we will choose a topic to research. We will focus on using common contextual features (paragraphs, topic sentences, concluding sentences, glossary, etc.) and organizational features (chronological order, cause and effect).

  Social Studies
We mastered all of the events leading up to the American Revolutionary War and now we are in the middle of it. Last week we learned about the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, and the Second Continental Congress. This week we will be focusing on the Declaration of Independence, Battle of Sarasota, Valley Forge, and Yorktown. Our test will be on Friday. 

Important Dates
1/31  PTA meeting
2/6    Counselor Appreciation 
2/9    Box Tops Due (also send in Campbell's Soup labels and soda tabs)
2/10  School Dance (6-7 is for K-2nd grades, 7:30-8:30 is for 3rd-5th grades)
2/13  Jump Rope show to kickoff Jump Rope for Heart Fundraiser
2/14  Happy Valentine's Day
2/16   Art Show (5-7 PM)
2/20   No School
2/25  KEHLEY'S 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (2pm-5pm)
2/29  Leap Day! 

 

Is it Really January???

Welcome back! We had a busy day today reviewing old standards and introducing our new ones! 

 Language Arts: This nine weeks we will be learning how to 'write to inform'. During January we will go to the media center for our 'Survivor' lessons on how to research. Then we will research a topic and write a research paper. Students will gather their information through encyclopedias, books, and approved websites. We will also be reading for information this nine weeks. 

 Math: Today we reviewed place value of whole numbers (ones through millions) and then we jumped right into our 3rd nine week standards of decimals. We will work with the tenths and hundredths. This week we will be showing models of decimals, comparing equivalent decimals, and ordering decimals. We will continue to review long division so it doesn't get rusty:)

 

 Social Studies: We are starting our new unit on the events leading up to the Revolutionary War which include The French and Indian War, The British Imperial Policy (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, No taxation without representation), Sons of Liberty, and the Daughters of Liberty. Then we will move on to the Townshend Act, Boston Massacre, Committee of Correspondence, Boston Tea Party, Quartering Acts, First Continental Congress, and Intolerable Acts. Oh, the wondrous work of our forefathers!

Dates to Remember
1/10 Science pre-test
1/11 Math pre-test
1/12 Spelling Bee
1/13 ELA pre-test
1/16 No School~ MLK day
1/19 Skate Night
1/24 Chick-fil-A Night

 

December Events

I hope everyone had a thankful Thanksgiving and you are ready to tackle the next few weeks leading up to the holidays! We have an extremely busy month ahead of us so make sure to check out the important dates below! I would like to welcome Mick to our classroom! Our class welcomed him with open arms today and we are looking forward to a great year together. 

Important Dates

12/1 Giving Tree Begins
12/2 Spirit Day
12/3 @ 9:30-12 Breakfast with Santa and bookfair
12/5 Bookfair open all week
12/8 @ 9:00-12 Fieldtrip to the Youth Museum
12/8 Science Checkpoint test
12/9 Spirit Day
12/12 ELA Checkpoint test
12/16 Math Checkpoint test 
12/19 ELA Benchmark test, ELA Conventions test
12/20 Math Benchmark test and Starlab
12/21 Holiday Party 
12/ 22 Math pre test, PE Fun Day, Sing along
12/23-1/9 Winter Break 

 Math~ Currently we are working on our geometry standards and will continue to practice our long division. We will finish with coordinate points and rotations. Encourage your child to practice their facts by playing the math games on my blog.

ELA~ We will be working on prefixes and suffixes for the next few weeks. Give your child a word that has a prefix on it and ask them to break it apart to tell you what it means. We will also be working on writing short stories that have all of the story elements: plot, characters, setting, theme, conflict. In guided reading we will be finishing another novel. Before Thanksgiving break we took a 2 week break from novels to work on nonfiction texts. 

Science~ We will be working on our Sound standards: frequency, pitch, vibrations, volume, etc. Ask your child about how we used the computer to change the pitch in their voices!

 

November Happenings

I enjoyed meeting with all of you last week. Thank you for your continued support! Mark your calendars for our annual Holiday Lunch on November 18th at 11:35! Bring the entire family for some turkey and all of the fixings... I hope to see you there! On November 28th and 29th fourth grade students will take part in the Kids Safety Program. Watch for the permission slip to come home. Also, watch for the permission slip for our field trip to the Youth Museum on Dec. 8th. Due to the size of the building we will not be able to take any chaparones.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Nakia and Nicholas who have joined our classroom in the past two weeks! We are happy to have them join our 4th grade family.  Be on the lookout for an updated classroom call list.

Important Dates
11/1 Food Drive begins! All of your donations help to support our Keheley families
11/4 PE Fun Day
11/5 Fun Run
11/7 Yogli Mogli Night
11/8 Election Day~ Teacher Workday/Student Holiday
11/18 (11:35-12:05) Holiday Lunch 
11/21-11/25 Thanksgiving Break... think about all that you have to be thankful for!
11/28 & 11/29 Kids Safety Program 

Standards
In math, we have been working on long division with 1 digit divisors and 2-3 digit dividends. This week we will start 2 digit divisors with 3 digit dividends.  Ask your child to bring their M.I.N home so they can show you what they are working on!

We will be starting our unit on Force and Motion in science this week. This will lead into our next standards on Simple Machines.  

ELA
I hope you enjoyed reading your child's narrative writing from the 1st nine weeks marking period. Now we will be focusing on Response to Literature in writing. Our goal is to write 3-5 paragraphs with supporting details.  Sentences should be properly written with the first letter and proper nouns capitalized. Punctuation should be used correctly as well. 

We will also be working on Figurative Language... idioms, puns, jokes, palindromes, metaphors, similes, and onomatopoeia. 

Please look at all of the work your child brings home. For this nine weeks, if they would like to improve a grade then they will need to do the following:
1. Rewrite the correct answer in a complete sentence (for math, solve correctly) on a separate piece of paper 
2.  Explain what the mistake was and why it is correct now.
3. Make up another sentence/problem and answer it correctly. 
(Staple the corrections to the original paper and return it by the end of the week) 

 

Keep practicing those multiplication and division facts! That will make those long problems that we are working on much easier! 

Check out this cool site on how to solve long division problems! http://www.kidsnumbers.com/long-division.php

Force Race track~ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/forces_movement.shtml

Friction Race track~ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/friction.shtml

Gravity basketball~ http://www.mhschool.com/science/2002/student/2/sims/sim4.html

Food Drive

We will be collecting nonperishable food items to benefit local families. Please support this very special project. All items should be dropped off on the stage in the cafeteria. Some of the items needed for the families are as follows:

 *Grocery Store Gift Certificates  (drop off in the front office)

Cereal                                            Canned Vegetables

Cranberry Sauce                          Cake mix with canned frosting

Canned Yams                               Boxed jello and pudding 

Boxed Stuffing                             Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Canned soup                                Canned fruit          

Canned beans                              Rice         Pasta     Gravy

                   

We have a lot of families to help this year so please bring in food items if you are able!!!! Thank you for your support!

Picture Retakes

We will have picture retakes on September 14th. If you purchased a package and do not care for the pictures then return the entire package to have the picture retaken. If you forgot to purchase a package last time and would like your child to do retakes then let me know and I will send a form home.  

Math Test

We are coming to the end of our first nine weeks (hard to believe!). Students will be taking the math post test on Friday. They are bringing their MIN home every night to study. Standards we have covered this nine weeks include: Place value, Rounding to a whole, Rounding within a number, Computation and Rounding, Multiplying large numbers (2 digit x 1 digit, 3 x1, 2 x2, 3x2), Identity Property, Commutative Property, Distributive Property, Area Models with Multiplication, Order of Operations, Equations and Expressions! In math, everything tends to build on one another. So, if you notice that your child is struggling with a certain concept then practice that extra at home. I work with students in small groups daily but your one on one guided practice will help them improve! 

Guiding Good Choices Workshop

Guiding Good Choices Workshop

The Guiding Good Choices parenting program is a 5 week class for parents and caregivers of elementary school children at Keheley and Nicholson. Workshops cover:

• Developing clear family guidelines and expectations for behavior
• Teaching children the skills they need to stay out of trouble while still having fun
• Managing family conflict in a way that maintains and strengthens bonds
• Increasing children’s involvement with the family
• Creating a parent support network

Nicholson Elementary School Cafeteria

1599 Shallowford Road

Tuesdays 8:00—9:30 AM

October 11 - Nov. 1, 2011

Workshop and materials are provided FREE of charge

Registration Deadline October 6th!!

Contact: Adia Fields, Nicholson Professional School Counselor

Adia.Fields@cobbk12.org or (770) 928-5573

or

Lori Armbruster, Keheley Professional School Counselor

Lori.Armbruster@cobbk12.org or (678) 494-7836

The Guiding Good Choices parenting program is a 5 week class for parents and caregivers of elementary school children at Keheley and Nicholson. Workshops cover:

• Developing clear family guidelines and expectations for behavior
• Teaching children the skills they need to stay out of trouble while still having fun
• Managing family conflict in a way that maintains and strengthens bonds
• Increasing children’s involvement with the family
• Creating a parent support network

Nicholson Elementary School Cafeteria

1599 Shallowford Road

Tuesdays 8:00—9:30 AM

October 11 - Nov. 1, 2011

Workshop and materials are provided FREE of charge

Registration Deadline October 6th!!

Contact: Adia Fields, Nicholson Professional School Counselor

Adia.Fields@cobbk12.org or (770) 928-5573

or

Lori Armbruster, Keheley Professional School Counselor

Lori.Armbruster@cobbk12.org or (678) 494-7836

Goodbye September... Hello October!

Important Dates
9/27 Weather quiz
9/28 Return book orders
9/29 Multiplication quiz (2 or 3 digit by 1 digit, 2 digit by 2 digit)
9/30 Spirit Day
9/30 Verb quiz 
10/4 PTA meeting at 6:30. 2nd grade performs!
10/7 Spirit Day
10/14 Fall Fest 5:00 PM-7:30 PM 
10/21 Spirit Day
10/24-10/28 Conference Week~ students dismissed at 12:15

MATH~ We have been working on solving higher level multiplication problems (47 x 9, 379 x 6, 57 x 84). In order to solve these efficiently, students need to know their multiplication facts with fluency. Please make sure your child practices their facts every night... this can be addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts.  We have learned several strategies to solving these higher level problems to help the students understand the WHY in multiplication. Your child is using strategies such as partial product, charts, and the distributive property to solve these problems. Check out their Math Interactive Notebook (MIN)! 

Science~ We are finishing up our unit on weather. Your child will be bringing home their science spiral to study for the quiz on Tuesday.

Social Studies~ We are beginning our Native American standards on the following groups: Inuit (of the Arctic), Kwakiutl (Northwest), Nez Perce (Plateau), Hopi (Southwest), Pawnee (Plains), and Seminole (Southeastern). I have put sites on the KID'S CORNER SOCIAL STUDIES section so that your child can gather more information.

ELA~ We have been working on the following verb forms and tenses: action verbs, helping verbs, linking verbs, past tense, present tense, and future tense. This week we will discuss irregular verbs and will assess on Friday.

We have finished our personal narratives and are now working on imaginative narratives. Ask your child what they are writing about. We are focusing on our writing process standards~ prewrite, rough draft, revise, edit, and final edition. 

In reading we are finishing our chapter books and writing responses to them. We will be starting new books next week. Ask your child what book they read and what if they enjoyed it!

Spelling words week of 9/26 (oy, oi, ou, ow in accented syllables): moisture, poison, noisy, powder, coward, counter, amount, allow avoid, annoy, trouble, double, thousand, doughnut, loyal.

Spelling words week of 10/3 (au, aw, al in accented syllables): author, autumn, laundry, awkward, lawyer, always, almost, awesome, halted, laughed, caution, August, gnawing, flawless, although. 

 

Goodbye September... Hello October!

Important Dates
9/27 Weather quiz9/28 Return book orders
9/29 Multiplication quiz (2 or 3 digit by 1 digit, 2 digit by 2 digit)
9/30 Spirit Day
9/30 Verb quiz 
10/4 PTA meeting at 6:30. 2nd grade performs!
10/7 Spirit Day
10/14 Fall Fest 5:00 PM-7:30 PM 
10/21 Spirit Day
10/24-10/28 Conference Week~ students dismissed at 12:15

MATH~ We have been working on solving higher level multiplication problems (47 x 9, 379 x 6, 57 x 84). In order to solve these efficiently, students need to know their multiplication facts with fluency. Please make sure your child practices their facts every night... this can be addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts.  We have learned several strategies to solving these higher level problems to help the students understand the WHY in multiplication. Your child is using strategies such as partial product, charts, and the distributive property to solve these problems. Check out their Math Interactive Notebook (MIN)! 

Science~ We are finishing up our unit on weather. Your child will be bringing home their science spiral to study for the quiz on Tuesday.

Social Studies~ We are beginning our Native American standards on the following groups: Inuit (of the Arctic), Kwakiutl (Northwest), Nez Perce (Plateau), Hopi (Southwest), Pawnee (Plains), and Seminole (Southeastern). I have put sites on the KID'S CORNER SOCIAL STUDIES section so that your child can gather more information.

ELA~ We have been working on the following verb forms and tenses: action verbs, helping verbs, linking verbs, past tense, present tense, and future tense. This week we will discuss irregular verbs and will assess on Friday.

We have finished our personal narratives and are now working on imaginative narratives. Ask your child what they are writing about. We are focusing on our writing process standards~ prewrite, rough draft, revise, edit, and final edition. 

In reading we are finishing our chapter books and writing responses to them. We will be starting new books next week. Ask your child what book they read and what if they enjoyed it!

Spelling words week of 9/26 (oy, oi, ou, ow in accented syllables): moisture, poison, noisy, powder, coward, counter, amount, allow avoid, annoy, trouble, double, thousand, doughnut, loyal.

Spelling words week of 10/3 (au, aw, al in accented syllables): author, autumn, laundry, awkward, lawyer, always, almost, awesome, halted, laughed, caution, August, gnawing, flawless, although.