Weekly Update 3/5/12-3/9/12

I had a fabulous weekend. How about you? In fact, I am a grandmother once again. My daughter, who lives in Washington D.C. had her second little girl. She and husband, Tim, gave her a very German name, Heidi Marie. I'm anxious to see her over the spring break!      With just two weeks before the end of the quarter, we are starting to wind down in some subject areas. However, we are really revving up the MAP preparation. You can help at home by making sure your child is fluent with the multiplication facts and has a good handle on subtraction. Also check out any papers for missed answers and go over the work with your child. It is the little things that can make a big difference. Reading carefully and following directions is especially important. Here is what is happening this week: Math-  We are studying probability.  What fun we had flipping a coin to find out how many times we landed on heads or tails.  We discovered it was equally likely.  However, when we loaded down a bag with 15 orange tiles, 6 red, and only 1 blue, we found that it was likely we would pull out an orange, and unlikely we would pull out a blue.  It was impossible that we would pull out a yellow or green!  All this is a study of probablity. Reading- Details, details, and more details, along with summaries, main idea, causes and effects - you name it and we are doing it!  Some of our review is done on MAP prep stories, while some is done through our literature books.  Everyone is enjoying the wonderful selections! Spelling- Tests this week for all groups:  Yellow Group on Tuesday, Green Group on Wednesday, and Blue Group on Thursday.  Science-  We are going to study standard and metric measurement. Social Studies-  The Economic Fun Day is fast approaching!  Students should be developing their product and should bring it to school on Thursday, March 15th.  The business sign is also due that day.  Many have already made their sign here at school.  However, students may take their sign home to add any finishing touches.  Check with your child to make sure he or she has one. Writing-  We will practice functional writing for the next two weeks.  It will be geared toward MAP testing. Special Events: Mon. -  Multiplication review tests all week! Tues. - Tungsten Math Test for March, Yellow Group spelling test; Wed. - Green Group spelling test, library; Thurs.- Reading Tungsten Test, Blue Group spelling test; Fri. - Possible ice cream party if all have successfully reviewed the multiplication facts that were learned.