WEEK OF JANUARY 24, 2011

LIFESKILL OF THE WEEK:

The lifeskill that we are working on this week is Common Sense. It means “to use good judgment”.

READING
This week we will be reading the 16th story in our reading book, “Half Chicken” (U4S1). He was born with only one wing, one leg, one eye, and half the feathers of other chickens, Half-Chicken soon became the center of attention-and very vain! He decided to leave the ranch and pay a visit to the viceroy in Mexico City. Along the way, Half-Chicken found time to be helpful to others. When he himself needed help, his kindness was repaid.

The students will be learning about paraphrasing which means to explain something in your own words. A paraphrase should include only the author’s ideas, not the student’s opinions. Paraphrasing can help students understand what they have read.

We will discuss adjectives, words that describe people, places, and things. They will learn that some adjectives tell what kind (describe color, shape, size, sound, taste, touch, or smell. Other adjectives tell how many.

SPELLING
The spelling words will be taken from there. They are: shown, short, punish, shelter, flashlight, trash, March, chapter, chocolate, church, watch, kitchen, pitcher, catcher, whatever, anywhere, whenever, wheat, awhile, and somewhere. Spelling homework is to use the words in sentences. The students should underline each spelling word. The Tuesday night homework is due on Wednesday. The vocabulary this week is farewell, flung, suggested, tangled, uniforms, and vain.

BOOK REPORT
This month’s report is on a nature book. There is a list of possible books in the classroom, but your child can check with the librarian as well and find many books in our library that would be appropriate for this report. Please review this month’s book report form with your child and discuss with them which book they would like to read. As part of the book report this month you child will need to create a crossword puzzle with words from their book. They may use the Crossword Puzzle website found in Portaportal (or on our BLOG) to accomplish that. They will need between 10 and 15 words from their book as well as definitions. They can access Portaportal at school or from home. The password is ‘Weddle’.

AAI means “ALL ASSIGNMENTS IN.” If students are focused in class they have time to finish all of their assignments except for Spelling homework. Each Monday I will send home a sheet that will tell you if your child is missing any work in each subject area. Please review it with them Monday night, sign it, and have them return it to class on Tuesday. Anything that shows up missing on that sheet is work that was to be completed in the previous weeks. The students need to complete the work and turn it in to me as soon as possible. If students have work listed on their Missing Assignment sheet, I will ask them to stay in at recess to finish that work, but mostly they should work on it at home. The Life Skill of responsibility is very important to learn at a young age. The following students were responsible about all of their work in class this term. They are on AAI:

AAI:
Tyler, Jazmin, Anthony, Jorgie, Juan, Grace, Trinity, Teeona, Rebecca, and Sydney W.