Week in Review

We had a full week in Room 31!  One of the things we did this week is finish up our Monster Exchange Project.  We started the unit by researched legends from around the world.  Students learned about Godzilla, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and more!  Then, using the information they gathered about these imaginary monsters, they created their own monsters! We had monsters named The Five Eyed Bed Monster! Vambana! and The Electrical Ape! After creating their monster, students wrote, revised and edited a description of their monster.  Our partner class from Presidential Meadows Elementary in Texas received our description and drew our monsters as best they could.  We did the same for them. You can check out our Monster Gallery here. You will see the original monster, description and redrawn monster in the gallery.  We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about following directions and using describing words in our writing.

Our mini-unit on the election is in full swing!  We will spend next week learning about the candidates.  Our school will be holding a mock election on Tuesday, November 6th. While the rest of the nation decides the next president, Great Works will too!  The election is great learning opportunity for our students. I encourage you to bring your kids with you when you vote on November 6th!

Multiplication facts are flying in our room! We've been working with our facts all week - learning about patterns, square numbers, tricks and memorizing the difficult ones. We will now be having weekly multiplication fact tests. We practice a lot at school, but there are some great ways you can practice at home. Flashcards are great.  We also have fact triangles at school that can go home to practice as well. If you have an iPad, iPod or tablet there are some great apps to practice, too. Everyday Math Multiplication Baseball (1-6 and 1-12) is a fantastic app.  There is also Everyday Math Beat the Computer (multiplication). Another cool app is Match-Up Math Multiplication and Division and Flash to Pass.

During a conference last week I was introduced to a great website to help with spelling.  The site is Spelling City. You can sign up for a FREE account and set up your child's spelling list to practice all week. Let me know if you want to try and have any questions or problems accessing the site.

All the talks of the storm coming next week have the halls and classrooms at Great Works buzzing.  This is a great time to talk about my expectations of students if we miss a day (or two!) of school due to weather or power outages. If school is canceled (say, on a Tuesday) and students have already received their Reading Log for the week, my expectation is that they read and respond that day.  The only time students are excused from reading is if they are sick or out of school for family reasons.  Snow, rain and lack of electricity shouldn't prevent us from reading. :)

Conferences went very well last week! Thank you to all the parents that came to see me.  I'm looking forward to meeting the the other half of you on Thursday!  I still have a few openings left if anyone would like to schedule a conference.

With Halloween and Trick or Treating coming up this week, I'm sure students will be asking questions about costumes and candy. No costumes can be worn at school and I would prefer no more than two pieces of candy be sent to school per day. Big bags of candy will be confiscated! ;)

Upcoming Dates to Remember:
November 1 - Parent Teacher Conferences
November 7 - MGWS Veteran's Day Assembly
November 7 - MGWS Sneak Peak, Oliver!
November 12 - No School, Veteran's Day
November 21-23 - No School, Thanksgiving

Week(s) in Review

The last two weeks have been extremely busy in Room 31!  After Columbus Day weekend, we returned to find three of our Painted Lady Butterflies out of their chrysalis!  During lunch, the fourth one emerged. We were very lucky to catch the last butterfly emerging late in the afternoon!

We created our own imaginary insects during the week and student presented them at the end of the week. The insects are hanging from our ceiling.  You can check them out during your visit to our classroom for Parent/Teacher conferences. The kids worked very hard on them, they are fantastic!!

We will make the switch to Social Studies for a mini-unit on the election process and then we'll move into maps and regions.  

Last week in Math we finished up unit two and moved onto unit three. Unit three focuses on multiplication and division. We'll dive head first into memorizing our facts and we'll learn several ways to multiply and divide large numbers. It's a tough unit with a lot of new information. We're going to take our time and get it right!

Last week we started a new unit in our Junior Great Books series. The story is called "Tuesday of the Other June."The story is about a little girl who is bullied at swimming class. It has made for some great discussions in our classroom.  This upcoming week we will complete a writing piece to go along with the story.  Mrs. Goettlich and Mrs. Shaw will be co-teaching in our room during our Literacy block from now on. :)

Feel free to email me at anytime with questions or concerns. 

Just a reminder, Parent Teacher Conferences are October 24th and November 1st. See you soon!

-Mrs. Starkey

Week in Review

Not much to update today...we've been NECAP testing all week!  We have one more math test on Tuesday and then makeups will begin for students who missed testing due to absence on Wednesday.

While we weren't testing, the students have been creating imaginary insects for our Science project! We will be presenting our projects to the class on Monday and Tuesday. Most students were able to finish the two paragraphs required for the project in class yesterday and today. If not, they will need to finish them over the weekend.

No spelling next week due to the short week!

I will be contacting parents who signed up for volunteering next week.  Things have finally settled down enough for me to plan what I could use help with.  Thank you to all those who volunteered!

...and just a quick note about toys in the classroom.  We've had a few issues this week and last with students bringing in stuffed animals, toys and Pokemon cards. Unfortunately because of these issues, I am no longer allowing those things to be brought into class.  They may bring them to use on the bus or at recess, but they may not be brought into class.

Dates to Remember:
October 8th - No School (Columbus Day)
October 10th - No Learning Lab (due to Staff Meeting)
October 11th - MGWS PTO at 6:30pm
October 13th - MGWS Camp Out
October 18th - Flu Clinic at MHS