Kindergarten Learning Buddies!

Yesterday, for the first time this yes, we met with our kindergarten Learning Buddies in Mrs. Courter's class! We'll be meeting with them every other Wednesday throughout the year to practice math, reading, and to do special craft projects with them! Yesterday, the third graders helped their buddies practice with counting skills on IXL.

Since I meet with Student Council at this same time, it would be a big help if a parent would like to volunteer to help supervise during these half hour visits. They're every non-early release Wednesdays at 2:00. Let me know if you'd be willing and able to help out!
























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Science Test

Click here to take your science test!

Opposite Change Addition Strategy

We have been working on different addition strategies to help students add more easily and efficiently, and most importantly maintaining understanding of the place value of the numbers.

Today we worked on the "Opposite Change" strategy. Here's a brief overview of how it works.

Take the numbers 297 + 368.

Since 297 is very close to 300, we can change that number to a 300 from moving some amount from the other number - 368. 297 is only three away from 300, so we move three from the 368 to the 297, giving us:

300 + 365

Now the problem is MUCH easier to solve.

Suppose we had to add 748 + 155.

If we move two from the 155 to the 748, we now have:

750 + 153, which is again much easier to solve.

Another, more advanced way we could have done that would be to take 45 away from the 748 and move it to the 155, making:

200 + 703

We worked on several problems like these in class today, and the students took four problems like it home for homework. We will eventually work on the standard algorithm, but only AFTER the children have a firm understanding of how the numbers work. Please work on the Opposite Change strategy with your child and make sure they understand how to use it on their homework.

Tomorrow, we will work on another strategy called "Partial Sums".

Updated Plant Review

I've updated the Plant Review Quiz to fix a mistake, and I've also added a few extra questions!

Click here!

A Little Early, but this is the COOLEST Halloween pumpkin EVER!

Plants End of Unit Review

We have a science test this Thursday on Plants!

Click here to take the review quiz to help you study!

End of Unit Science Test This Thursday!

This Thursday students will take an End-of-Unit test on Plants. Here's a quick rundown of the things they'll need to know for Thursday's test:

*What a plant needs to grow
*The parts of a plant and what each one does
*What a plant takes in and gives off during photosynthesis
*The three main differences between deciduous and coniferous trees
*How a flower is pollinated
*The four main ways that a plant scatters its seeds, and why a plant needs to scatter its seeds
*The following vocabulary:

seed
seed coat
seedling
sprout
germinate
roots
stem
leaves
flower
photosynthesis
carbon dioxide
oxygen
chlorophyll
deciduous trees
coniferous trees

I will post a review quiz online later today or tomorrow for students to use to practice for the test. They will also have homework next week that will prepare them for the test.

Student Council Reps and Visitors

Today our class held an election for Student Council representatives for our class! It was a close vote, but ultimately Klea and Amber came out on top! Congrats girls! I can't wait to get started with Student Council next week!


After school, I was pleasantly surprised to get a visit from three of my best students from last year - Jonathan, Hailey, and Teagan! It was so great to see you guys again! You rock!




After school, we also got a visit from Winnie the Pooh! Looks like he needs to tuck in that flap of fur!


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Vocabulary Quiz

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This Week in Room 40!

We have a lot of new things going on this coming week in Room 40!

All this past week we learned about different kinds of landforms around the world. Next week, we'll have a quiz in social studies on the landforms. But you can get ahead of the game by using this review to study for the test!

Click here!

Also, in social studies, we'll be continuing our study of geography, learning about the different parts of a map - map key, scale, title, and compass rose!



In science, we'll continue learning about plants, this week continuing our month long plant-growing experiment, while also learning about the different ways that plants reproduce and scatter their seeds.



We didn't make much progress on "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" last week due to the Benchmark Testing, but this week we'll read a few more chapters while we focus on our new skill for the week - Sequencing. Students will practice recognizing the order of events in a story and how that skill relates to cause and effect.

Similarly, we'll continue to expand our writing skills by practicing with transition words in our Power 2s.

Finally, this week we'll be starting some exciting math clubs in the afternoon! Students from Ms. Ramanan and Mrs. Perry's classes will be mixed with us and we'll rearrange into three Math Clubs that will get to meet most afternoons to work on math games, puzzles, and challenges to make us math superstars!

Vocabulary and Social Studies Tests

Click here for your vocabulary quiz!

Click here for your social studies test!

Building Landforms Part 3

Still more pictures of our landforms project!




































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Building Landforms Part 2

Today, after our landform projects had some time to dry, we painted them. Look how great they look!







































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Building Landforms

This week students made their own islands out of modeling dough to help them learn about different types of landforms.

































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