The B Hive 1.15

Hello all!  I hope you had a chance to not only rest and rejuvenate this weekend, but celebrate MLK in some spectacular day.  Even with the four day week, we were busy.  Check out what we were up to:

Ms. Pelton is now with us full time and we are very grateful to have her.  This was her first week and her first snow day.  :)

Reading - This week we got back into the flow of extended self selected reading.  We finished up Rules and will begin reading The City of Ember.  This is a great dystopian novel that is just right for 4th graders.  If you need a fun book to read and like young adult, you should check it out.  I am in the process of doing reading records on all students and it has been lovely to sit down and read with each students.  This week we will be taking the NWEA Reading and Math assessment so look for more information on benchmarks and NWEA in the coming weeks.

Math - We spent two days this week completing a large mid year math assessment.  It was nice to see the growth that students have made this year and there are some obvious places for students to practice particular skills.  We also began the new math unit, which is Unit 5 on fractions.  We are heading back into fractions and will spend time adding and subtracting with like denominators.  Several students will move into adding and subtracting fraction with unlike denominators as well.  Please make sure that you are helping your student practice their math skills with either study links, IXL, or Front Row at home.  We spend some time on it at school, but they should be working on it at home as well.

Spelling - Because of the short week last week and the short week this week, students will not have new spelling words tomorrow.  They will take their spelling test on Wednesday and get their words for next week on Friday.  Look for the tests on Friday or Monday.

PBL - We are in our second week of a great Project Lead the Way unit called Energy Conversions.  In this unit students need to learn about energy conversions so that they can create a system that uses energy conversion to help move boxes in a Food Pantry.  This is very small scale, but a very fun and engaging unit.

Dates to Remember:
Penny Wars begins - Tuesday, January 16th (see flyer on Tuesday and on blog)
NWEA Reading Test - Tuesday, January 16th from 1 - 2
NWEA Math Test - Wednesday, January 17th from 1 - 2
NWEA Make Ups - Thursday, January 18th from 1 - 2
MLK Assembly is rescheduled for this Friday from 2:00 to 2:30
Early Release Day - Wednesday, January 31st at 12:52