It’s almost time for our Valentine’s Day party! The DeWitt/Edwards house is having our party on Tuesday, February 14th. We will have time in the afternoon for passing out valentines to classmates and enjoying some sweet treats! If your child would like to bring valentines to school, they need to make sure they have one for every student in the class. You can find our class list below for addressing valentines. Your child may choose to decorate a box to put their valentines in, but that is not required. If your kiddo does not wish to decorate a box, he/she can bring a bag to school to put the valentines in to take home. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions!

We started Unit 4 this week, which is all about algebra. I explained to the kiddos that this was my absolute favorite subject in math to learn as a student, and I love it because it's like a puzzle! We started the week learning about the order of operations, or PEMDAS. We listened to a rap on Flocabulary.com that explained what each of the letters of PEMDAS stands for. The students loved it! We filled out a "cheat sheet" that can be used during classwork and was included on the backs of the homework assignments. This will not be allowed to be used on the test, but while we are still working on memorizing the order of operations, it is perfectly acceptable to use it as a resource in class and at home. Each day, I have included a challenge problem on the board to start off our math class. They get longer and longer each day, and they are having so much fun trying to solve them!

We also put our order of operations knowledge to practice while solving for variables and simplifying expressions. We talked about equal to and not equal to signs, and how to determine if an expression is equal to another expression. We also used our knowledge of inverse operations to solve for a variable!

This week we dug deeper into our unit and discussed different forms of energy. There were eight forms of energy that we read about and came up with examples of. The eight forms are: motion, gravitational, heat, electrical, elastic, light, sound, and chemical. We also talked about how one object could belong in multiple categories. For example, a lamp has electrical energy to allow it to work and light energy when it is turned on! We read our first chapter in our Science Companion Prime online notebooks and took notes on definitions of each type of energy and examples that we could come up with on our own.

Reading: This week in reading we continue to read our historical fiction read aloud, Number the Stars. We did a little research by looking at what was really happening in history during the timeline of our own historical fiction choice book and how our book matches or disagrees. The students learned what a perspective is and that the character’s perspective is shaped by their role (mother, daughter, grandma), and by the setting (what was happening in history to shape their life/view). The students were given about 30 minutes each day during reading to work on their final book club project (graphic novel or comic strip with ten events from the book). There were a handful of students who were not finished due to REALLY taking their time and making it perfect, or being pulled out with volunteers for practicing their fluency; however, the other handful of students who did not finish were not using time very well. The project will be extended for those who need it until Monday.

Writing: This was a big week for writing. The students are moving along with their literary essay work. We began the week by making sure we had a good picture book to work with. We reviewed how we find a thesis, or a big idea on a character. The students did a practice essay outline with me on The City of Ember, our previous read aloud. Once the students went back to work on their picture book suddenly they were working with a different type of beast. We took a step back and did a practice outline together on The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. We had to talk about character traits, vs feelings, and to clarify that you need to be able to support your thesis with lots of evidence found in the book. The evidence could possibly be found through the character’s actions, words, attitude, relationship with other characters, or many other ideas. To help guide the students in their essay work, they were given a literary essay recipe sheet (graphic organizer). Whether you are watching a movie this weekend, or reading with your child, please discuss with your child theories on characters and see if they can defend their answers with support from the book/movie!

If your child still has their Language Arts binder at home, please send it back on Monday so we can continue to fill it up with work :)

Email: dewilyn@pewaukeeschools.org
Website: http://pewaukee.schoolwires.net/site/Default.aspx?PageID=1028
Phone: (262) 701-5557