February 29-March 4, 2016

General Announcements:

• We are so proud of our students and how excited they are about reading right now!  Please encourage them to keep reading their Reading Rally books!  We will begin voting for our favorite book on March 8th.  
• Please check your child’s grades from time to time on INOW. 
• Important dates and additional information on rezoning can be found on the following website:  HOOVER REZONING WEBSITE.

• Friday, March 4: Math Test on Multiplication of Fractions and  

Looking Ahead

Important Dates for This Week

• Tuesday, March 1st:  Individual Spring Pictures

Important Curriculum Date

• Thursday, March 3: Government Test
• Thursday, March 3:  DOL Test
• Friday, March 4:  Greek and Latin Roots Unit 7 Test

• March 8, 9, 10:  Voting for Favorite Reading Madness book
• March 11:  Winner of Reading Madness Announced

• March 28-April 1: Spring Break
• April 11-14:  Standardized Testing/ACT Aspire
• April 14th:  Physical Maturation video and parent meeting at 5:30
• April 19th: Fine Arts Night/PTO at 6:00
• April 21st:  Physical Maturation Lessons with students

Curriculum News:

Math News:


**Math- We are continuing with multiplying decimals. We have made great connections to our previous understanding of multiplying fractions, and how that relates to decimals. We are very focused on observing whether the decimals we are multiplying are 10 or 100 times larger or smaller than the product, and adjusting our answer. Depending on how well I feel the class is progressing, we might begin division of fractions before the end of the week.

Math Homework: Math Computation , 5 division of fraction problems, and graphing (coordinate pairs) worksheet

Science News:

**Science- We are still looking at the properties of matter through our hands-on lab. We will finish this lab in the next few day, and then, keeping with matter, begin to look at the mass and volume of matter to determine it's density. Then, we will discuss how that affects the buoyancy of substances.

Language Arts News:

1. Read, read, read!
2. Root Word Definitions-look over them and become familiar with the words
3. DOL Test-Thursday (study a little each night)
4. IXL-will be checked on Friday

Topics of Study - 

**Writing:  We finished our final draft of our small moment personal narrative last week.  We will revisit writing after testing.

**Reading:  This week, we will switch back to reading.  Our focus is Summarizing.  We will revisit how to write a quick and easy summary.  

**Greek and Latin Roots:  We will start Unit 7 this week.  The test will be on Friday. 

**Language/Language IXL- We are moving more towards preparing for the ACT Aspire.  our DOL will look a little bit different, but it will be very helpful in terms of preparation.  The IXLs will include random skills to review.

Homework: 

Social Studies:

Topics of Study – We are finishing up our unit on the new government.  We will have a test on Thursday. A study guide was sent home today. Students can practice Quizlet on our Social Studies Blog (this is a great resource to use to study). There are also several interactive games they can click on to help them understand the things we have discussed.  

We will begin Westward Expansion next week. 

Homework: 

1. Study for test (using study guide or Quizlet on our class blog) Test will be on Thursday!

We hope everyone has a great week!

February 22-26, 2016

General Announcements:

• We are so proud of our students and how excited they are about reading right now!  Please encourage them to keep reading their Reading Rally books!  We will begin voting for our favorite book on March 8th.  
• We had a great Career Day last Friday!  The students learned about what it takes to get a job, they learned about different jobs, and future colleges to attend!  It was a very inspiring day!
• Please continue to collect Box Tops for our school.  Every box top equals money for our school!

• Please check your child’s grades from time to time on INOW.  
• Important dates and additional information on rezoning can be found on the following website:  HOOVER REZONING WEBSITE.

Important Dates for This Week

• No major school dates for this week

Important Curriculum Date

• Thursday, February 25:  DOL Test Week 20 (Test will be online)

Looking Ahead

• March 28-April 1: Spring Break
• April 11-14:  Standardized Testing/ACT Aspire
• April 14th:  Physical Maturation video and parent meeting at 5:30
• April 19th: Fine Arts Night/PTO at 6:00
• April 21st:  Physical Maturation Lessons with students

Curriculum News:

Math News:

**Math- We will continue with multiplying fractions this week, and will begin a quick connection with multiplying decimals. after looking at how multiplying fractions and decimals are related, we will move into dividing fractions. I have been very impressed with our conceptual understanding of what multiplying fractions actually means. We will have a test on multiplying fractions this Wednesday.
Homework: IXL  Level H K.8 (They also have either Level F T.2 or Level H K.8, they should know which one they were given)

Science News:

**Science- We are continuing our look at matter. Last week, we looked at chemical changes within the spectrum of acids and bases. This week, we will begin to look at the properties of different materials, and how to observe and measure them. More hands-on science!
Homework: Alien Materials Website, and look at Cleaning Ocean link on Google Classroom

Language Arts News:

**Writing:  We are finalizing our rough drafts for Personal Narratives this week, as well as begin editing and revising our drafts. My hope is that we have this unit finished up the first of next week. :)

homework: if your child wants to work on their drafts at home as well, they may do so; READ!!! Book talks will be given each day :)

**Language/Language IXL-  DOL and IXL was passed out today. We will focus on adverbs this week and will have a short quiz on Thursday. Please note that our DOL quiz will be online this week. We feel this is beneficial to prepare us for the ACT assessment, which is all online.

homework: Study DOL, Day 2 and 3 and work on IXL.

Social Studies News:

We will continue learning about the three branches of government.  There will be a study guide given on Friday, with a test next week.  

homework: make sure binder is organized according to the Table of Contents

We hope everyone has a great week!

February 19-Career Day:

Click on the link below to go to sites and games about career options!

Click Here

February 8-12, 2016

General Announcements:

• From Student Council:  Students can buy Valentines Grams starting at 7:30 a.m. each morning of February 4-11th.  These consist of a bracelet and heart and cost $1 each.
• Please continue to collect Box Tops for our school.  Every box top equals money for our school!

• Please check your child’s grades from time to time on INOW.  
• There will be a rezoning meeting next Thursday night from 6:00-8:00 in the Brock’s Gap lunchroom for Brock’s Gap and Deer Valley parents.  Other important dates and additional information can be found on the following website:  HOOVER REZONING WEBSITE.

Important Dates for This Week

• February 10th:  Progress Reports
• February 12:  Reading Rally  (afternoon assembly)

Important Curriculum Dates

• Thursday, February 11th:  DOL Week 19 Test
• Thursday, February 11th: Tween Tribune Assignment Due
• Friday, February 12th:  IXL Due
• Friday, February 12th: No math test.

Looking Ahead

• No School February 15-16th
• Friday, February 19th:  Career Day

Curriculum News:

Math News:

Topics of Study –
**Math: In math, we are still working on multiplying fractions. We have been using fraction bars and arrays to help us illustrate our thinking, and what happens when you multiply fractions. We will continue this, and on Monday, we will start to work on dividing fractions.
Homework: Unit #4 p. 86-88

Science News:

Topics of Study –  

**Science: In science, we are still working with matter. Our focus will now be on chemical and physical changes. This week we will start some hands-on experiments with acids and bases, and how to decide which is which, through a chemical reaction.

Language Arts News:

Topics of Study -

**Writing:  We began Narrative Writing today.  This will be our focus for the next 3 weeks.  

**Book Talks: Students will be giving book talks each day. By the end of 2 weeks, every student should have been able to get one book talk in.

**Language/Language IXL-  We will continue a review of adjectives this week and will shift into adverbs.  Students will take their DOL test on Thursday.  This will be different, as I have made a test on the computer.  I am starting to prepare your child for the ACT Aspire Language portion in which they will be assessed on the computer.  

Social Studies:

Topics of Study – We are working on a "Black History Month" project using Animoto. Ask your child about this. We will finish learning about the three branches of government after we present our projects.

                   

We hope everyone has a great week!

February 1-4, 2016

General Announcements:

• Global Scholar Testing is this week. These are our mid-year assessments that we give in Math and Reading. See schedule below for more information.
• Please continue to collect Box Tops for our school.  Every box top equals money for our school!

• Please check your child’s grades from time to time on INOW.  
• We are always in need for more pencils. :) :) :)

Valentine Grams will be on sale from Thursday, Feb. 4-Thursday, Feb. 11 in the lunchroom beginning at 7:30. Grams will come with a bracelet, of your choice, and are $1.00 each. Please bring in cash, not coins. We ask that you come knowing the homeroom and the name of the person you are sending the gram to. 

Thanks! 

Student Council

Important Dates for This Week

• 2/2/16: Global Scholar Testing in Reading
• 2/2/16: Brock's Gap Zaxby's Night
• 2/3/16: Global Scholar Testing in Science
• 2/4/16: Global Scholar Testing In Math

Important Curriculum Dates

• Thursday, 2/4: DOL Test
• Friday, 2/5: Vocabulary Test; Comprehension Test
• Friday, 2/5 Math Test- Decimals

Looking Ahead

• Monday, 2/15-Tuesday, 2/16: No School For Students
• Friday, 2/19/16: Career Day

Curriculum News:

Math News:

**Math- We are very close to wrapping up our first session on decimals. We will finish this first part of decimals by continuing with adding and subtracting them, but we will also be looking at converting fractions to decimals and percentages.Next week, we will return to fractions, but move into multiplying and dividing them.
Homework: IXL and Unit #6 page 37

Science News:

**Science- We are still working very hard to put together our experiments with a better understanding of matter, and more importantly, the conservation of matter. We will continue with matter, as we look at the differences between physical and chemical changes. We will soon have a fantastic lab on acids and bases, and how to use an indicator to tell the difference.
Homework: None

Language Arts News:

**Reading-  Our text this week is called, "A Game of Catch." We will be working on Comparing and Contrasting two or more characters, settings, or events in a story, using specific details from the text.

**We are beginning to do "Book talks" everyday, versus only on Fridays. I would like to have each child do a book talk each week. :) The students are excited about this!

**Vocabulary: We will have homework using the words from the text.

**Language/Language IXL-  We will begin understanding adjectives and identifying them in a sentence this week.  The test will be on Thursday!!!
Homework: Read, Read, Read! Vocabulary: homework due tomorrow; study for the vocab. test; make sure IXL is completed for the week (I will check tomorrow)

Social Studies News:

Topics of Study – We took our test last week covering the American Revolution. This week we are moving to "Forming a New Government."

We hope everyone has a great week!