Week of 12/12

Odds and Ends:

* A great BIG thank you to all of the families who donated to our food drive. We collected several bags of food! It was awesome! Thank you for helping to make someone's holidays a little brighter this year!

*Another BIG thank you to everyone who donated supplies to the classroom for some upcoming activities. Thank you to the following families: Gustafson, Mantri, Cibulka, Chimino, Padavic, Arce, Fragoso, Kalal, Nichols, Veselak, and Cigrand. Please forgive me if I left someone off of the list. Thank you very much! Your supplies will enrich our lessons!

*Holiday Celebration: We will be watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas in lieu of holiday parties on Friday, December 16th. Since the movie is rated PG, a permission slip was sent home with your child today. Please return the permission slip by Wed. 12/14. Thank you to the following families for providing paper goods, treats, and drinks for our celebration: Hoffman, Cibulka, Messina, Sprandel, and Veselak.

*Paper Recycling Bin: Just a FYI: You can put shredded paper in the bin. It is recommended that you put the shredded paper in a bag, so that it does not blow around when the driver services the bin. Paper or plastic bag is fine.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Mon. 12/12: Evening Holiday Concert: PV band and choir

Bowling 9-11 am

*Wed. 12/14: English: ch 3 Verbs test

*Thurs. 12/15: Science: ch 11 Matter test

Math: Multiplication Test (6's, 7's, 8's: see below for facts to study)

*Fri. 12/16: Spelling: Winter Words test

Holiday Celebration

12/19-1/4Winter Break: See you next year in 2012~

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will focus on story elements, visualizing, evaluating, and non fiction text features as we read a variety of materials. We will focus on non fiction books this week.

*English: We are finishing up our chapter on verbs. We will work on a study guide this week. The test will be on Wed. 12/14.

*Spelling: We will work with winter words this week. There will not be a pretest. The homework will be due on Friday. Students will take their test on Friday as well.

*Science: We are having a blast in science learning all about matter. We have been doing various labs and experiments. We will do some more next week as well. The final test will be Thurs. 12/15. A study guide was sent home this week.

*Social Studies: The students are learning about modern day Downers Grove. We will learn more about fun things to do in Downers Grove and businesses that are located here. We will continue learning about Downers Grove and local government when we return from break.

*Math: We began ch. 6: data and graphing. We will study different types of graphs and practice collecting and organizing data. We will also work on week 6 of multiplication: 6's, 7's, and 8's. Your child should study the following facts (as well as review previous facts from weeks 1-5)

6 x 7 = 42, 6 x 8 = 48, 7 x 8 = 56, 7 x 9 = 63, 8 x 9 = 72, and 6 x 9 = 56. Six new facts to learn! What fun!

Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 12/5

Odds and Ends

*Thank you for meeting me this week for conferences. It was great to share such positive news with each of you about your child! Please remember you can contact me at any time you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Thank you!

*Quilt Presentation: We were very lucky on Thursday to have Mrs. Vanni present on quilt making and the history of quilt making as an extension to our story this week, The Keeping Quilt. The students enjoyed seeing the book come to life through her samples of quilts.

*Holiday Party: We will be having a Grinch themed holiday party on Fri. 12/16 before we head into winter break. I am looking for parents to volunteer to donate treats and drinks for our afternoon. Please email me if you are interested in helping us out! Thank you! More details about our celebration coming soon!

*Scholastic Book Order: I did not send out paper book order forms for this month, but all of the book orders are available online. If you are interested in ordering any books, please submit your order online by Fri. 12/9. If you would like to order any books as a holiday surprise, please let me know via email and I can hold any books for you to pick up in the office. Thank you!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

* Wed. 12/7: Math: Ch. 5 Telling Time checkpoint

*Fri. 12/9: Spelling: List 10 Test

Math: Multiplication Test: 4's x

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will focus on evaluating and visualizing this week. We will also focus on features of non-fiction text as we apply our reading strategies to various types of non-fiction materials.

*English: We will focus on ch. 3: Verbs. Please look for your child's learning contract in their English folder next week. We will finish this chapter before winter break. The test will be the following week...TBA.

*Spelling: We will work on list 10 this week. There will be a pretest on Monday. The final test and homework will due on Friday.

*Science: We are busy learning about matter. We will focus on the states of matter this week as well as physical and chemical changes.

*Social Studies: We are beginning to study modern day Downers Grove. This unit is in conjunction with ch. 12 of our textbook: local government. We will continue this unit after winter break.

*Math: We are working on the second half of chapter 5: time. We will have a graded checkpoint on Wed. 12/7. We will begin ch. 6: data and graphing. Our multiplication facts for the week are the 4's. A note will be coming home on Monday. We will be making new flashcards for our multiplication facts i-pod! The facts test will be on Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Olsen