Ms. Tovey's Blog

English
We will begin Chapter7 this week on Linking Verbs. This is a very short and relatively easy chapter. I hope to cover pages 224 - 227 this week.
Writing
The children will complete their paper on sportsmanship this week. To date they are have way through it, having written the introduction and body paragraphs one and two. On Friday, the children will begin typing this paper and they will finish typing it next Friday.
The children will also begin setting up their "Book of Possibilities" this week. Please make sure that your child has a black composition book by Thursday. This project will be researched during computer time and put together during English class. The children will be working on their book for the rest of the school year, devoting one computer class and one English class per month to its completion.
Science
The Respiratory System will be covered this week as well as beginning the Skeletal System. We are coming to the end of this unit. The test should be late next week or at the beginning of the following week.
Please remember

English
We will continue the chapter on linking verbs this week.
Writing
Alliteration will be introduced this week. The children will understand what alliteration is, write a poem about an animal using alliteration, and create a shopping mall with 26 stores whose names use alliteration.
Friday the children will go back to the computer lab to finish typing their sportsmanship papers. This will be last scheduled class time to use the lab. If your child does not finish their paper on Friday, they will need to come in earl or use recess time to finish it. The final copy is due Friday, January 22nd.
Science
The Skeletal and Muscular Systems will be covered this week. The test is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20th. We will review in class on Tuesday, January 19th. There is a lot of information for this test, so please encourage your child not to wait to the last minute to begin studying.
The children will begin making their t-shirts on Thursday, January 21st. Each child will need a t-shirt that fits as well as markers to color in the body parts.

English
We will continue the chapter on Linking Verbs this week. I hope to finish the chapter this week and test the following week.
Writing
On Friday 1/15) the children went into the lab to finish typing their Sportsmanship papers. Please confirm with your child that he/she printed their paper and handed it in. Any child who was unable to finish in the two class periods allowed will need to come early this week or use recess time to finish. All papers are due on Friday, January 22nd.
The children will work on their alliteration project this week. This project has them designing a shopping mall and creating twenty-six stores to be apart of the mall (one for each letter of the alphabet). All store names, as well as the name for the mall will have to use alliteration.
Science
The Human Body test is Wednesday. It will cover all the notes under Cells to Systems in your child's notebook. On Thursday, the children will make their t-shirts. On Friday, each child will write a summary for a part of the body and on Monday, the children will present their t-shirts and read their summaries to the second and third graders.
I also hope to start the unit on The Solar System on Friday.

English
We will wrap up the chapter on Tuesday and the test will be Thursday, January 28th. The test will cover pages 224 - 233 in the English book. A review sheet should also come home on Wednesday to help study for the test.

Writing
The children will continue working on the alliterative shopping malls.

Science
On Monday, the children will go to the second and third grade classrooms to show their t-shirts and teach the younger students about the human body.
On Tuesday, we will begin the next science unit: The Solar System.
This will be the first unit that has vocabulary words. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Friday. These words can be found in your child's notebook under the heading Solar System Vocab.

English
The test on Linking Verbs will be Tuesday. The children will be given a review sheet to study from on Monday. Later in the week, I hope to start the chapter on Adjectives.
Writing
All Sportsmanship papers have been graded and passed back. For the most part the papers were excellent. Please be sure to ask your child to read his or hers.
We will begin Expository writing this week with a compare and contrast essay. As a class we will read an article written by Rick Reilly about two very different twelve your old basketball teams. We will then set up a Venn Diagram together and then the children will write a four paragraph paper comparing and contrasting these two teams.
Science
We will continue our study of The Solar System.