Week of May 5th - May 9th

This week we will be reading "My Brother Martin". We will be taking Spelling and Selection tests on Thursday. Here are the skills/strategies for this story:
Genre: Biography
Comprehension Skill: Cause & Effect
Comprehension Strategy: Answer Questions
Comprehension Review Skill: Fact & Opinion
Vocabulary: Word Structure

On Friday we will be taking our field trip to Pittsburgh, where we'll ride the Empress for a river tour and have lunch at Point Park followed by a guided tour of the Fort Pitt Museum.
Please have your child dress for the weather. A bagged lunch will be required as well.
If you have any further questions, please email me.
Please arrive at the school on time- the bus will leave promptly at 8:15.

Week of April 21st - 26th

This week we will be reading "To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers". Here are the skills/strategies for this story:
Genre: Biography
Comprehension Skill: Generalize
Comprehension Strategy: Ask Questions
Comprehension Review Skill: Graphic Sources
Vocabulary: Context Clues

Our block students, Miss Kolby and Miss Liz will be teaching this story and doing culminating lessons this week.

For our MLB day, students worked in teams to develop a new baseball franchise. They did such an awesome job with this project. They collaboratively decided a name, location, colors and logo for their new team. They also designed hats, ticket stubs, and worked together to write a persuasive letter to the commissioner in hopes that their team will be chosen as the newest MLB franchise. :) I've enjoyed listening to the conversations throughout this entire process. From deciding team names, to determining promotions related to their teams, they've done an excellent job working together and agreeing on the final product.
Here it is:


On Thursday (4/24), students will be visiting the high school for the spring music concert.

Next week, students will be testing (Science PSSA) on Wednesday and Thursday. We will be reading the story Tia Lola, but will not be testing on it.

Common Core Math for Parents

Week of April 7th- April 11th

This week we will be doing the story "Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride".

Here are the skills/strategies for this story:

Genre: Historical Fiction

Comprehension Skill: Sequence

Comprehension Strategy: Story Structure

Comprehension Review Skill: Draw Conclusions

Vocabulary: Context Clues

We will also be testing Chapter 8, Geometry, in Math.

I am very proud of all the hard work the students did on the PSSA tests last week. We are certainly thankful to be back to a normal schedule!

Week of March 3rd-7th

This week, we will be reading the story Dear Levi. There will not be a Spelling or Selection test this week. We will be completing activities pertaining to this story.

In Math, we will continue through Chapter 7, Division. 

Week of February 17th - February 21st

This week, we will be testing on Unit 4 in Reading. There will be no Spelling or Selection tests.

We will also be starting Chapter 7 in Math, Dividing. Last Friday, we did a few fun Valentine's centers with division, prime/composite numbers, and fractions. It was a great 'refresher' for the students, as we will be getting more in depth with these concepts in the upcoming weeks.

The students have made GREAT progress in Reflex Math. I am very proud of them!
We began the program at the beginning of December. In that short amount of time, my students have gained fluency in basic multiplication/division facts at an awesome rate!

Here are the classroom stats so far:
As a class, we are 73% fluent on our facts! We have solved 114,000 math problems! That's HUGE!

This was the starting fluency of my classroom... Look where we're at now!

Currently, there are six students who are 70+ % fluent, one student at 80+% fluency, seven students at 90+% fluency, and two students who have hit the 100% fluency mark with basic multiplication/division facts through 12.