Important Dates . . .
December 6 -- PTO Dine out Fundraiser -- Buffalo Wild Wings
(Click for details and coupon)
December 15 -- 3rd Grade bowling in the morning
December 16 -- 4th Grade bowling in the afternoon
December 17 -- Tivoli field trip in the afternoon
December 20 -- Winter Break Begins
January 3 -- Classes Resume after Winter Break
January 17 -- M. L. King Birthday -- No School.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
It was great meeting with all the parents this week for conferences. Thank you for your time!
The students of Project Challenge grades 3-5 are participating in a Lion's Club Holiday Drive. We are looking for donations such as new toys, new games, toiletries, and food for the needy families in the Darien area. If you wish to participate you will need to bring the donations in by December 13. Remember that some of these families live right here in Darien. So let's help these families have a happy holiday season. PLEASE DONATE!
*Paper Recycling Fundraiser Comes to Prairieview: We are happy to announce we can now raise money for our district by recycling paper! You can help us out, too! Please collect any paper you are going to throw away or recycle (office and school paper, newspaper, magazines and catalogs, and construction paper---no cardboard!) and send it in with your child to school or drop it off at the green and yellow Paper Retriever bin in the Lakeview parking lot (near the fence by the Prairieview playground). The bin is available for drop offs 24/7. The more paper we recycle, the more money we can make! Do something good for our schools AND the environment! Thank you!
Language Arts
We are continuing on with our Noun unit this week. Thus far they have reviewed the definition of a noun, practiced writing singular and plural nouns. Can your child name nouns around your house?
Reading
This week we will continue with Soar to Success. We will read a new story each week and focus on phonics and comprehension skills in small groups. This week they will be reading Tree of Birds.
We will continue working on phonics, decoding, encoding, and comprehension throughout the week through direct instruction, Lexia, and hands on materials.
Please keep reading 20 minutes a night for the Independent Reading Program! You may just note the time read in increments of 20 minutes in the pages read section. Please sign on the date the reading was accomplished. This red folder should be turned in every Friday to make sure they are staying on track. The Independent Reading Folder should be turned in for a grade at the end of the month. Keep reading!
Spelling
Once again the spelling words this week will reflect the fifth chapter science terms. They will be receiving a spelling practice page daily as an assignment. A test over the lesson will be given Friday. Please try to help your child study daily. One strategy you can use to help with spelling words this week is utilizing this website: http://www.kidsspell.com/ On this website students can learn spelling words, practice spelling tests, and play fun spelling games.
Practice pages will be assigned for the upcoming week's list on Friday to give additional study time. Over the weekend would be a good time to discuss the meaning of the words. Although we work on meaning typically on Fridays and Mondays, help from home is greatly encouraged! They will be receiving them daily as an assignment. A test over the lesson will be given this Friday.
Please try to help your child study if you see they are not performing as well as you'd expect on the weekly test. One strategy you can use to help is: Finger Tracing - Use your finger to spell out each of your words one letter at a time on your Mom or Dad’s back. Then it’s YOUR turn to feel and spell.
Social Studies
Students are to research a news event or report. The 5Ws are found in most news stories. Often, the five Ws are introduced in a story's opening paragraph. First of all find a news story that interests your child. They should either find it on the internet and print it out or cut out from a newspaper to bring into school at the beginning of the week. They will be asked to discuss this current event with fellow students throughout the week. In order to do this it would be good to ask your child to talk about the who, where, when, what, and why of the story. Circle, underline, or highlight the areas of the story that tell each of the five Ws. At school each student will be asked to report to the class the who, where, when, what, and why of the story. (Online resource suggestions: Time For Kids, Learning With Newsweek, Weekly Reader Feature Zone, & National Geographic Kids )
Science
This upcoming week we will be introducing Chapter 5, Exploring Earth's Surface. The "Big Idea" of this chapter is the Earth's surface is made up of many different materials and can change over time. To maintain a consistent understanding of the science vocabulary words, we will be building this throughout the chapter in the form of flashcards.
Math
We have more subtraction tricks yet to learn! Not only have they learned strategies to subtraction, but we will continue to reinforce problem solving throughout the chapter and year. Just a reminder of the strategy the children are learning: PAL.
P = problem ( 2 + 2 = )
A = answer ( 4 )
L = label ( toys )
Daily Homework
Reading - 20 minutes and complete Independent Reading Folder Log
- weekly turn in on Friday
- practice reading poems given to work on fluency
Spelling - Practice Page nightly to be turned in & study words for test
Social Studies - current event newsclip due Monday
