Scholastic Book Order

Reading Club Order Due Date: October 16

Dear Families,

Please remember to place your Reading Club orders by October 16!

You can shop and submit your order online or return the printed order form with payment directly to me. No matter how you order, every purchase you make earns FREE Books and educational supplies for our classroom.

Happy reading,

Mrs. Wanke

Ordering online is fast and easy:

•     VISIT scholastic.com/readingclub

•     ENTER the one-time Class Activation Code  (GXF3M)

•     SHOP from a carefully curated selection of the best books, value packs, and Storia eBooks

•     SUBMIT your order and earn FREE Books for our classroom

 All book orders will be shipped to our classroom so we can celebrate the joy of reading together!

Common Core Math Help

Has your child brought home some homework to finish at home?  Have you looked at that homework and though, ummmmm????  Well, then this website is for you!

http://commoncore.org/parents

Click on your child's grade and the unit that applies to the homework.

You will see a mini tutorial on all the concepts that we are teaching.

Measurement Explorations

We started our new math unit today. We will be focusing on measurement.  We thought it would be fun to just explore this new tool.  Check out our fun pictures below.

Great teamwork measuring our rug.

Got to love the bendable rulers.

This was my view when the class decided to measure me. 

I am trying to get a Mac Book Pro for our classroom!  I would love to utilize this awesome technology with your lovely children!  We could make project, movies, and "e-books." Please help spread the word! Click on the Techie Teaching link below to view our project.

Techie Teaching

Writing like a Pizza

We think of our writing like a pizza!

First we think about the crust of a pizza.  Without it we would have an ooey gooey mess.  This reminds us to keep our writing organized.  Like crust, organization is the structure, it holds the writing together.  Writing should be clear and have a beginning, middle and end.  The reader moves smooth\ly and naturally through the text.

Second, we think about the sauce on the pizza.  It spreads out all over the pizza so that we can taste it in every bite.  Like sauce, there are enough ideas to be spread through out the writing.  Ideas are developed with relevant details and examples.

Third, we don't like to think about...but we must ANCHOVIES!  Anchovies have a very bold and strong taste.  Like anchovies, voice is strong and powerful.  Voice evokes emotion in the reader, the writing is engaging, not boring.  We all want to put a little "anchovy" in our writing.

For now...the last part of the pizza we think about is the cheese.  When it melts it spreads all over the pizza and connects all the toppings together.  Like cheese, sentence fluency spreads out the sentences so they vary in length and beginnings. The writing has an easy flow.

Today, we talked about sentence fluency.  We learned about simple and compound sentences.  We also learned how conjunctions join two simple sentences together.  We watched Conjunction Junction to help us understand how we can use conjunctions in our writing.

Caramel Apples

We compared a caramel apple to the layers of the Earth. How you ask? Well, this week we read a book about the Earth's crust. We learned the the Earth's crust is made of dirt and rocks. We also learned that lava helped to form the crust. The skin of our apple, the caramel and crushed cookies covering is like the crust. The fleshy inside of the apple is like the hot mantle layer of the Earth. Lastly, the core of the apple is like the core of the Earth.

Mental Math

In our first unit of our new math curriculum we have been focusing on different mental math strategies.  These strategies are designed to help students solve math problems more quickly in their head.  However, these are strategies.  Your child might choose to use one that I have shared, or they might not.  It is my goal to give as many strategies as possible and then let your child choose the one(s) that make the most sense to them.

Here are some YouTube clips that will show you these strategies.