Field day is canceled for tomorrow

Due to the weather and how wet the fields are they have cancelled field day for tomorrow. The make up day will be next Monday, May 5 from 12:30 to 2. Please be sure your student dresses comfortably on Monday and brings tennis shoes, a towel and a water bottle. You may even want to send a change of clothes with them. 

The theme for field day this year is a luau. So if anyone would like to donate any tropical fruit for us to have as a special treat that would be great. 

Pictures from our weekly book club meeting 4/30/14

Orange 

Highlighter yellow

Neon Green

Aqua

Fuchsia groups finished reading Flat Stanley and made a poster to present it to us. Awesome job!!!

You can see a few of the post it notes (colors ordinate with their book club color group) in their books. Every week each book club picks a strategy that they want to focus on and they work on creating notes for that strategy to share back with their group next Wednesday. Strategies include cause and effect, main idea and details, story elements, compare and contrast etc... Similar to the skills off their reading logs. 

Non-Literal Language

This week we will be reviewing non-literal language

Notes taken from Monkey Business on 4/28/14

Simile and Metaphor song

Idiom Song

4/29/14

Metaphor and Simile activities 

Metaphor and Simile Battleship

Rags to Riches Similes and Metaphors

Onomatopoeia Sound Monster Game

Simile and Metaphor Games

Pyburn News 4/29/14

• Thursday, May 1:  FiElD DaY 12:30-2:00pm (Rain Date Monday 5/5) and Literacy Night 
• Saturday, May 3:  Garden Project at Douglas, 9am-12pm Volunteers Needed! 
• Monday, May 26:  Holiday, No School
• June 2-6: EOG Testing Window, please be at school!!

Please remember to return all photo orders by this Friday. If you do not want to order or keep any of the photos send them back as soon as possible. You may keep at home any that you wish to purchase and send in the money. 

This week is the book fair. Students may bring in money for the books they wish to buy. 

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed and some students' work on their math homework from Monday night. It is towards end-of-the-year and by this point they should be spending 10-30 minutes on their math homework at least and some nights even more. Today in math class we spent 20 minutes on each problem. The students know the expectation that I have of them and I would appreciate if you would follow through with them at home by being sure they give 100% and not flying through it in 2 minutes.

Vocabulary words 

Weekly spelling words 

Fraction word problems

Today (4/29/14) we spent the whole class (one hour) working on 3 word problems with our partners. Below are 2 of the 3 we did. We talked about how this amount of time and details is expected every time we do a problem... Especially on HW

Problem from wcpss 

Fraction Freddy

My class did awesome on their Fraction Freddy. As you can see in the key they had to follow the directions to complete Freddy. Then after they finished Freddy they were able to cut him out and put him in any scene that they wanted to. They were so creative. As they're finishing them and turning them in I will post more!!

Fraction strips to number lines

Each group worked on a poster today (4/23/14) and then voted for their favorite..... and this group won ;) 

Practice test taking questions 4/25/14

Math- Using shapes as a whole

4-22-14 math lesson/activity and notes 

Sequence and Cause and effect

4-22-14 we worked with partners to determine what column these clue words belonged. As the student came up to tape their words up they explained their thinking and used it in an example. So proud of their work AND for getting them alllll correct :) 

While learning about Antarctica we found several cause and effects 4/24/14

Colar Mix Earth Day activity

Here is the link to the website http://colarapp.com/ and you can download it to Iphone and Ipads... not sure about other devices. 

Ask you student about it and/or watch the video on the link to see more. It is really cool. 

Pyburn News 4/21/14

Please be sure your student is bringing home 2-3 Douglas library books EVERY week that you are reading together. Also I have "take home books" in my room that they can swap out every single morning if they'd like. Students MUST be reading good fit (not too hard and not too easy) books every night!!!!!! The best way your student can improve in reading is doing it with YOU every night. Not to mention EOGs are right around the corner.. less than 6 weeks ahhhhhhhhh 

Scholastic book orders are due Friday. Be sure to check the side bar for instructions on how to order online. 

Weekly spelling words

Weekly vocabulary words. Remember they do not need to spell but rather recognize and use these words. 

Language Arts testing questions/game called Whaddaya Know? Quiz Show http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/braingames/iknowthat/QuizMaker/L3-Language%20Arts.cfm this site is also on the sidebar under vocabulary 

We are continuing our work with fractions. Focusing on using all the vocabulary we have learned to APPLY what we know to real world situations. Ask your students about what we did in math today to make it "real". 

Dance informance 4/21/14

Thank you Sam for reading our overview

 So proud of all their hard work :)

Researching States in the U.S.

Here are some helpful websites to locate information on your state! 

Take notes that go along with one of your 4 headings.  Those headings are: Geography, Important Cities, Attractions, and Fun Facts.

http://www.factmonster.com/states.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/

http://kids.britannica.com/

http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/US_States

www.netstate.com

www.theus50.com

www.mrnussbaum.com/united-states/fifty_states/

www.50states.com

If you have extra time, check out tourism information:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004586.html

Crazy school temperatures

So the AC went out in school yesterday afternoon... So by math class today (4/15/14) it was too hot and muggy to stay in the room. We had a great time listening to a math story and doing math work with our partners in the breezeway by the cafeteria. When we returned to the room the AC had finally been fixed but then we were freezing.... So just a heads up be sure to dress your student in layers tomorrow because who knows haha 

Fraction number line

Fraction number line we practiced today 4/14/14. We first did this about 3 weeks ago and let's just say it wasn't so smooth... However today our students not only could find their place but they could explain how they knew where to go yayyyyyyy SO proud :) 

Economics Unit

4/10/14

4/14/14

4/15/14

Pyburn News 4/14/14

Homework changes tonight

Spelling words

Vocabulary words 

Don't forget our informance next week. 

Make-up days for Traditional-Calendar Schools

• Monday, April 21
• Wednesday, June 11
• Thursday, June 12 (last day of school)
• they waved June 13th so we do not have school that day!!!

Spring Food Drive

FYI - Douglas is holding our bi-annual spring food drive to benefit the backpack buddies program.  In order to collect more food, we are going to have a competition.  Any class that brings in at least 75 pounds of food will earn a pajama day.  The class that brings in the most food, by weight, will win a popcorn party.  There will be a weigh in station in the main hall each morning, so food can be dropped off their during arrival.  

The food drive will be today (Monday 4/14) through next Monday (4/21/14). Every donation helps!

Learning through illustration, pictures and the text

Facts we found as a class in a nonfiction text by using the photographs and then by reading it 4/10/14

Students worked with partners to create their own facts 4/11/14