Weekly Updates for October 24th

Happy last week of October! Here is what is happening this week:

Math- We will continue and finish out Topic C Module 3 (Fortson/Maestri) that includes multiplication of two, three, and four digits by one digit.  Students have learned several strategies that include place value modeling, partial products, area model with partial products and the standard algorithm.  Please check for homework assignments in your child's agenda.

Reading- This week's reading selection is from our Reading Street series and is "So You Want To Be President".  We will be working on possessive and plural nouns and we are still working on opinion writing. All classes are working on this reading content this week.

Social Studies:  Update on Mrs. Derry's class- we will not be studying the colonies this week. In her classes, students will be learning about the election process and will have an opportunity to vote in a mock election on November 1st.  All other classes will continue with the formation of the 13 colonies.

Science:  We are wrapping up our Life Sciences unit this week by learning about animal adaptations.  Students in Fortson's classes will receive a Feature Creature Adaptation mini project on Tuesday.  There will be in-class time to do some research and the page will be provided to students once the research note sheet is completed.  This will be due on Friday, November 4th.  Fortson's class is planning for this unit assessment next Wednesday.

Looking for some great Halloween themed math resources?  Mrs. Maestri found a great site that provides interactive games that reinforce our math standards.  You can access it here: Halloween math games.

Fortson/Derry Genius Projects

Students have enjoyed their first genius project in Mrs. Derry and Mrs. Fortson's class.  If your child has not completed the first project- please do not worry!  We would like to have everyone finish at least one before mid November.  Here are just a few:

 Zachary has a passion for airplanes!  Great research

 Cora taught us all about dogs

 Brycen explained the science behind baseball

 Vance gave us all a lesson in the science behind flying a plane-loved his model

 Ethan shared his love of hover boards- and the future

 We all learned some new facts about the Constitution

Jack is our Rubiks Cube whiz kid

Weekly Updates for October 17th

Welcome back! We hope that every family enjoyed a time of rest and relaxation this past week. We cannot wait to hear the stories of the adventures of Fall Break. There some important reminders for this week:

Chicken Change Spirit Week- please check the PTA websites for specifics.
*Please note the information that was provided about our participation on Field Trip days*

Field Trips! Please note the days: (Please make sure to have your child wear his/her tshirt!)
Tuesday- Maestri/Johnson/DeBolt and Thursday- Fortson/Derry/Russ/Stansberry

Report Cards will go home on Friday.

Math: This week we will continue our focus on multi digit multiplication.  We will specifically work on two, three and four digit by one digit.  We will also increase rigor through the use of real world application problems.

Science:  We will continue with the last mini unit in our Life Sciences Unit- Biodiversity, change and heredity.  Students will receive notes and other items for the interactive notebook specifically for complete and incomplete metamorphosis/ inherited traits/ adaptations.  We hope to finish this unit by the end of October.

Social Studies:  This week we will begin our study of the building of the 13 colonies.  Students will receive notes as well as maps to help them locate and understand not only the geographical features each colony, but also connect this understanding of how the local resources impacted the people and their way of living (and making a living).  They will be responsible for being able to locate and identify all 13 colonies on a map.  This section of the assessment will not be open book.

Reading/ELA: We will be using our reading textbooks to read a excerpt from "Letters to Yosemite". For writing, we will begin our understanding of opinion writing.

Field Trip-Important Updates!!

Important!  We will be going on our fall field trips on the following dates:

October 18th- DeBolt, Johnson and Maestri
October 20th- Derry, Fortson, Stansberry and Russ

Please note that we need students to wear their class t-shirts on this day.  We also understand that it is Spirit Week with Hoedown on that Friday.  We ask that you NOT send your child to school in PJs (18th classes) or Wacky Hair (20th classes) as we will be representing HVES and this will be a distraction for our students when they participate in the activities at the Great Smokey Mountain Heritage Center.  We appreciate your understanding and enforcement of this request.  Any students who come to school unprepared for the field trip will have to remain at school for their safety.

Weekly Updates for the week of October 3rd

There are some great things happening this week-the week before FALL BREAK!!!

Please note the following dates:
October 6th- parent-teacher conferences
October 7th- Coupon Book Dance Party
October 10-14- Fall Break Week

Reading:  This week in reading we will finish up "Little House in the Big Woods". We will be testing on the story on Wednesday and will not start a new story this week due to break week next week.  The next story that we will be reading is from our Reading Street reading book:  "Letters to Yosemite".

Writing:  We will start writing an opinion piece this week. Students will learn new strategies such as OREO, and UNRAVEL (prompt understanding). This is a major content focus, so we will spend the next weeks working on this type of writing.

Social Studies:  Unit Focus: Settling the Colonies to the 1700s.
In this module, students will be able to describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among American Indians, Indian nations and the new settlers.  Students will begin to understand the political, religious, social and economic institutions that existed during the Colonial Era.  Please remember that we use Social Studies Weekly newspapers as one of our major resources for this unit.  Students should keep these during our unit studies.  

This week we are on SS Weekly #9:  We will summarize the failure of the lost colony of Roanoke and theorize what might have happened.  

Math:  This week, we will continue with Module 3. Students are building understanding of multiplication meanings using the place value chart and arrays. Students are building on base 10 knowledge by decomposing multiples of 10 into smaller units to multiply.  We will be teaching the standard algorithm for 3 and 4 digit numbers by single digits.  We are teaching students several strategies for this type of multiplication, but students are required to be able to use the standard algorithm for these types of problems.  The Math Page of the blog will also be updated with the latest resources if you need additional help.

Science:  This week we will wrap up our mini unit of Interdependency and the Flow of Energy through an ecosystem.  Students in Mr. DeBolt and Mrs. Fortson's science class will be taking a test over this unit.  We have one more mini unit in Life Science that we will begin when we return from the break week.  Please remember that students in Mrs. Fortson's class will have a notebook check on Monday and Tuesday and the test will be on Wednesday.

We look forward to a great week!