It’s October already! Thank you for
the visits and checking in with me about your child’s needs so far this year.
You can always reach me here in the classroom after school for any reason.
PARENT CONFERENCES (Oct 15-19)
Speaking of which, please find your
child’s Parent Conference invitation in the V.I.P. section of their binder
tonight. If you do not find it there, I am still waiting to hear back from you
on the blue form that was sent home last week. Let me know tonight (alexmcmurray@gmail.com) if that might
be the problem and send me a few times that are most convenient for you. I’ll
try and make it work.
Keep in mind that conferences are
20 minutes long and I book them back-to-back throughout each afternoon. If it
looks like we’re going to need more time, I will schedule a follow-up
appointment with you.
Also, please be right on time for
your appointment. I do book them against one another and I have 32 conferences
to complete next week alone. If you are more than 10 minutes late, we will have
to reschedule. I have family obligations to attend to after my final
appointment. While I would like to stay and make up the time we missed, that is
not going to be a possibility.
Please sign and return the slip on
Monday.
DONORS CHOOSE
A special thank you to all families
that are contributing to the “World of Color” project that I’ve posted for our
class on the charity-website, Donors Choose. We are down to $736 remaining
dollars. I appreciate any effort you can make to donate, or if you know of a
business looking to support your child’s class, this would be a great
opportunity. The end goal would be a color printer here in class which will
make not only a world of color, but a world of difference with our projects.
MATH
This week we completed Chapter 4 on
division. Your child’s test with a special “Test Corrections” sheet is in their
binder tonight. Please review and correct all items to bring back to school on
Monday.
We will be moving into prime and
composite numbers, exponents, and prime factorization in Chapter 5. I
anticipate another visit from our Math Coach, Ms. Penn, in the next week. She
teaches a specially-crafted math lesson with tools and strategies that not only
help the class, but help me to teach more effectively.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Next week we complete Theme 1 with
a summative test on all the grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and reading
comprehension strategies covered this year. Students will act out a Reader’s
Theater piece entitled “The Secret Ingredient.” All class and homework
assignments will be a part of that review.
Students are completing a Personal
Narrative writing assignment. They now have received all of the notes and
corrections necessary to make an excellent typed, final draft. Please remember
to double-space and use size-14 Times New Roman font. If you are unable to
print the final draft, simply e-mail it to me and I will make sure it gets
printed. Essays are graded on a 4-point grading scale which covers content,
organization and structure, and writing conventions.
I am currently reading Bud, Not Buddy as a read aloud to the
class. I am going to launch our Reading Olympics next week with the class. It’s
more of an ongoing project that we will complete – independently – throughout
the year. It involves reading appropriate-level chapter books for your child
with accompanying projects. Students will work their way to the Olympian,
Bronze, Silver, and ultimately Gold Medal this year. Details to come!
SOCIAL STUDIES
We have completed Unit 1 on The
First Americans with last night’s homework on Lesson 2 and 3. A review will be
underway of all that we’ve learned on Native Americans and a test administered
next week, probably on Wednesday or Thursday.
Meanwhile, students are hard at
work on completing an American Indian Album which contains four parts. They
have the outline of those projects in their binders. Part II, which is about
tribes in their assigned region, is to be completed by Tuesday of next week.
Part III which is about the customs and traditions of tribes in their regions,
will be due by Thursday. On Friday, we will share out after doing some
additional work on Part IV in class.
SCIENCE
We kicked off our new chapter on
Weather by watching a Bill Nye the Science
Guy special on atmospheric pressure. Mrs. Foy-Couche did an exciting
demonstration on air pressure in the lab by crushing an aluminum can. That
video is available on our classroom page: facebook.com/mcmurray16.
Our next lesson is on air mass, a
large body of air with similar properties all through it. We will learn that
air masses form when air stays over an area for some time and takes on the
temperature and water vapor of that area. Winds move air masses. We will learn
about the four different air masses around the world, warm fronts and cold
fronts, and cyclones.
P.E.
The class has earned three straight
AWESOME tickets for good behavior at
P.E. with Mrs. Pane. Five AWESOME tickets = class party. That could happen as
soon as Monday when we earn ticket #5. They’re going to have to earn it,
though, as the class will be running the mile once again!
LIBRARY
We’ll be going to the library this
coming Monday. Please check to make sure you have your library books when you
come to school.
BOOK & SOFTWARE ORDERS
The September book and software
orders are due to arrive any day now. I have a parent that is going to help
sort through those orders. I’d like to send them home ASAP so keep an eye out
for those this coming week.
Kindest regards,
Mr. McMurray
