What's Happening in Room 34.......

Things You Should Know....

• We will have our Halloween party following our school-wide costume parade at 1:30 on Tuesday. You are welcome to join us!  It is always fun seeing the creative costumes!

•  Just a couple reminders about costumes for Tuesday: (a more thorough explanation can be found in Mrs. Oliver's newsletter).
• No face masks are allowed
• Costumes cannot be graphically violent
• No "weapons" can be included with the costume

• We are going to Cahokia Mounds on Friday!  We will leave Crestwood at 10:45 and arrive back around 2:40.  Your child should dress to be outside with comfortable shoes for walking.  Your child needs to bring a sack lunch to eat at the mounds.  If you have signed up to be a chaperone, an e-mail will be sent early this week with more details.

• We have 2 students who have completed the 4th grade ALEKS pie already!  Congratulations Jacob and Ty!! They have been working hard outside of the classroom to make this happen!  

Dates to Remember..... 
Tuesday:  Halloween parade at 1:30 and classroom party at 2:00

Wednesday: The students will be taking the Galileo test - please make every effort to have your child at school all day. - Thank you!

Friday: Field trip to Cahokia Mounds  

What's Going on in Our Classroom....
Reader's Workshop:

• The students will continue to listen and work on their reading fluency. They will focus on reading with expression and their reading pace.  We will also talk about the importance of comprehending as they read.  They will check their comprehension with a couple strategies I will introduce this week. 
• The students will be assigned to practice their fluency at home using a passage I will give them.  Your child's passage will be at his/her independent reading level.  After your child completes the assignment, you will need to sign the form stating your child completed the tasks.

Writer's Workshop:

• The students will be given a new set of vocabulary words that we will practice throughout the week using Flocabulary.com. The students will take a pretest over the words on Monday, complete activities and learn more about the words throughout the week and take a post test on Friday.  They will monitor their vocabulary growth as they keep track of their test results.

• The students will begin our next writing unit, persuasive essay.  After reading an article from Scholastic Storyworks, "Should We Give Our Halloween Candy Away?", your child will write a practice persuasive essay.  This essay will be used to notice growth after learning the steps and process of writing a well-developed essay.  The students will compare their practice essay with their final published writing piece.

Math:

• The students will continue to work on solving 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication problems using the area model and algorithm method (stack and solve).

• I will monitor their progress early this week before deciding on our next test date.  

• The students will be assigned to complete at least 3 topics on ALEKS at home!

Science:

• The students will create the three types of rocks as they go through the rock cycle using Starburst.  They will also learn about weathering, erosion and deposition.  
• The students will have a test over this material next week!