Week of February 10th

Greetings everyone!

I hope each of you had a nice weekend.  A few announcements first...

We will be having a brief Valentines/Friendship Day Card exchange this Thursday prior to dismissal.  This opportunity promotes friendships which students have created in class. Students will briefly enjoy treats and exchange valentines cards before dismal. Also, to make valentine distribution easier….please don’t address each valentine for the students, this way your child can easily walk from table to table handing out valentines without having to match names. A simple paper valentine is perfect. We have 21 students.

If you would like to donate any items such as sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, treat bags, etc., please feel free to sign up at To view your sign up page, go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/60B0F49AAA722A31-friendship

Any contributions will be greatly appreciated.

I have also asked Ms. Alicia Smith to send out a signup form for classroom supplies.  Here is the link:  http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0F49AAA722A31-classroom   Absolutely no pressure and please know that these supplies will go a long way towards the remainder of our school year together!   Thanks in advance for any generous donations!

Here is what we will be learning this week.  Please keep in mind that school will be closed on Friday, February 14th and Monday, February 17th. 

Reading:
We will be introducing new stations this week for our review of Main Idea within a story.  The students will also be identifying main idea within sentence grab bags and working in small groups.  I will also be finalizing the reading assessments for students to help me identify their reading level.  I continue to encourage reading at home for up to 30 minutes if possible and working on comprehension.

Social Studies:
We will continue our Civil Rights Unit this week and begin gearing up for our Unit Test.  Jackie Robinson and MLK will continue to be our focus.  We will be sending home a study guide for the students to review over the long weekend.  The test is tenatively scheduled for Tuesday, February 18th when we return from the long weekend.

Writing:
The students have been working with planning persuasive/opinion writing and we will continue this genre.  They have done a great job with their persuasive letters to adults.  We will also be reviewing irregular verbs and how to infuse this into their writing.

**I hope everyone has a great week!

Best,

Mr. Dowd

Week of February 3, 2014

Greetings all,

I hope everyone is recovering from the Snow last week.  What a whirlwind! 

Here's what we are working on this week:

Reading
Reviewing Nonfiction text features.  Students were quizzed on these features: Caption, Heading, Diagram, etc.

Comparing Characters in the story.  We are reading the book: Stellaluna and comparing characters.

Writing:
We reviewed Irregular Verbs and practiced writing persuasive letters to adults (Mr. Dowd, Mom and Dad, and Mrs. Gamble for example)

Social Studies:
We have started our focus on Jackie Robinson and continuing studying Civil Rights.  The students will create Jackie Robinson decorative baseball cards and researched facts.

***Parents, if at all possible...We are in need of sanitatary wipes,pencils, and note for the classroom.  Any generous souls please feel free to send them in!