May 9-13

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Miss Gilmour's time with us has come to an end.  She is now ready to graduate and head on into the world of teaching.  Good luck, Miss Gilmour!

I will not be as school on Friday.  This is a planned absence but I told the students it would remain a surprise!  While I am gone, they will be asked to write a newspaper article titled Teacher:  Gone Missing!  They will become detectives and try to answer questions like:  Who is Mrs. Howard with?  What is she doing?  When will she return?  Where is Mrs. Howard?  How do you think she is feeling about not being at school?

Since I will not be at school on Friday, please be sure to send any notes about transportation directly to Connie or written on paper.  Thank you!

Next Monday is the Spring Concert at GNG Middle School.  Hope to see you there!

THIS WEEK IN...

Spelling:  We are working on Unit 20.  The words are:  place, such, well, here, and take.

Phonics:  We are working with the patterns:  /oo/, /ue/, /ui/, /ew/, and /oe/.  Our focus words are:  root, boot, fruit, suit, flew, new, canoe, shoe, clue, and glue.

Vocabulary:  We will learn violent, beware, prevent, uprooted, destroy, and grasslands.  We'll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we'll search for them in the short story called "Wild Weather Hits Florida" by Lisa O'Neil.

Comprehension:  We will work on making and confirming predictions.  When we make a prediction, we use the text, pictures, and what we already know to make a good guess about what will happen in the story.  When we confirm a prediction, we read on to find out if our prediction was correct.  We'll practice this skill as we read Super Storms by Seymour Simon.

Grammar:  We will work on irregular verbs.  Come and run are irregular verbs because they have a special form in the past tense.  

Scholastic News:  We will read the article called "Thank you, Cockatoo!"  This article is the perfect connection to science this week.  It's all about how animals help to pollinate different plants.  When we are finished reading the article, we will use a chart to help us answer questions.

Writing:  This week, we will finish up our animal friendship stories that Miss Gilmour began last week.  All of our stories tell the tale of two unlikely animals who end up being friends.  For example, a cat and a mouse or a shark and a minnow.  The moral of the story is that it's ok to be different from your friends.  Team Howard is really getting into sharing great details in their stories!

Math:  We continue Mission Possible as we complete top secret missions about time and money.  We also continue our Math Switcheroo work where students are working on using strategies to help them add and subtract within 100 and 1,000. 

Science:  We will watch the fabulous DisneyNature documentary "Wings of Life."  This beautiful movie shows the amazing relationships between plants and animals that we have been focusing on.  We will break the movie into smaller parts to allow for questions and discussion. 

Read Aloud:  We will finish our adventure with Dodger and Will this week and begin a new adventure next week!  Stay tuned for more information! 

Words to Think About:  The final words have been revealed and they are some of my favorites.  This month, we will focus on... "Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do."  Perfection!

Have a great week and enjoy the amazing weather!