February 25-March 1

Reminders:

Mar. 2- Caraway City Limits

Mar. 8- Last Spring Academy

Mar. 11-15- STEAM week

Mar. 18-22- Spring Break

Apr. 9- STAAR testing- No Visitors

Apr. 19- No School

Apr. 26- Field Day

Apr. 29-May 2- Book Fair

May 13-15- STAAR testing- No Visitors

May 23- Last Day of School

Homework-
Read nightly - 20 minutes- 6 Flags sheet due at the end of the month
Dreambox- 10 minutes a night (you can do chunks of time instead of logging in each night.)
Spelling- 5 minutes or as needed (there is no new spelling on this short week,
 but it is a great time to review).
Writing- Ungraded optional prompts- great practice for the upcoming Writing STAAR

1. Write about one problem you have had to deal with. Explain how you have changed
as a result of overcoming this challenge.

2. Write about something you were successful at doing. Explain why this
experience was important to you.

Writing- This week we will be practicing some writing skills that are
important for writers to use in their writing. We will focus on good hooks,
strong conclusions, using transition words and adding details and examples.
We will also be taking some writing samples this week to check where\
we are at in our independent writing process.

Reading- We will be working on paired passages and main idea and details.
We will be reading and informational text and analyzing the passage to find the
details and the main idea.

Spelling- We will be focusing on grammar and grammar rules for
the next month up to the STAAR test during the time that we have used for spelling.
During this time we will focus on things that may be linked to spelling-
like the correct homophone to use in a sentence based on the context.
We may also focus on things such as subject/verb agreement and tenses.
For the next few weeks there will not be a spelling list going home or a spelling test,
but there will be some grammar and editing work that you will see coming home in future
Tuesday Folders.

Social Studies- We will be learning about the Reconstruction era.

February 20-22

Thank you! Thank you parents for making our party so special for
Valentine's Day.
I think the kids really enjoyed the games, food, decorations and
picture booth area.
I really appreciate our homeroom parents for working so hard
and for so many of
you coming or sending things in to make our party special.
Also, Thank you all for my lovely class gift! I loved the flowers,
card and beautiful
reusable pitcher. I loved all the individual cards and gifts of coffee,
chocolate and flowers too.
You guys really made me feel appreciated.

Important Reminders:

There is no school on February 18-19.
This will be a student holiday while teachers will have a work day.
I will see your child again on Wednesday, February 20th.

March 18th-22nd - Spring Break 

Homework-
Read nightly - 20 minutes- 6 Flags sheet due at the end of the month
Dreambox- 10 minutes a night (you can do chunks of time instead of logging in each night.)

Spelling- 5 minutes or as needed (there is no new spelling on this short week,
 but it is a great time to review).

Writing- Ungraded optional prompts- great practice for the upcoming Writing STAAR

1. What are some recent moments of happiness in your life?

2. Describe the people in your family. Do you all have similar likes or dislikes?

3. What is special about your hometown?

Writing- This week we will finish drafting our expository
essay and then edit and revise with partners. Then we will write and share
our final stories.
We will also review what we did on the Writing STAAR last week going over the
right answers. Next week these will come home for you to look at with your child.

Reading- We will continue to work on fact vs. opinion, theme and summary as
well as working with our reading partner.

Spelling- No spelling this week due to a very short week.

Social Studies- We will wrap up talking about the civil war and will move on to the
Reconstruction era.

February 11-15

Reminders:
Our Valentine Party is this week on Thursday from 2:00-2:45!

Please join us if you can. We would love help with set-up at 1:30.

Thank you to our homeroom parents for all the hard work in

 making this a fun event for our kids. 

You child got a note with their classmates names this past

 Tuesday tomake their Valentine's.
  Please make sure they make one for every classmate. 

Thursday- February 14th- Valentine Day Party

Monday/Tuesday- February 18th/19th- Student Holidays-No School

March 18th-22nd - Spring Break 

Homework-

Read nightly - 20 minutes
Dreambox- 10 minutes a night
Spelling- 5 minutes or as needed
Writing- Ungraded optional prompts

1. Use 8 of your spelling words in a story.
Bonus challenge: Use 15 of your words in a story!

2. If you had the choice to live in the countryside
or in a big city, which would you
choose and why?

3. Why is it important that we practice the 4 agreements
and follow our class contract?

Writing
This week we will start on Monday with a practice test for the
 STAAR writing.  This is only a practice to guide our instruction 
and let the kids know what the test will be like.  We will have a
 slightly modified schedule on Monday for our testing and on 
Tuesday for testing done in other grades. We may have a slightly 
different recess, specials and lunch time.  On Monday our first few 
hours will be dedicated to testing. Please remind your child to
 eat breakfast and arrive at school on time. 

The rest of the week we will be taking one of the planning pages
 we created this past week and turning that into a well developed story. 

Reading-
Our new reading groups are under way. We will be meeting with
partners to read the books we have picked. Each partner pair is
working at their own
pace and may have time to read more than one book.
We will also be focused on the reading skills of identifying author's
 purpose and
fact and opinion.   We will also continue to work on using our 
reading skills to 
answer questions on our weekly TFK (Time for Kids) magazine.

Spelling- 
At the end of the week we will have our spelling test.  
We practice in class each day, but I encourage your
 children to also practice at home. 

Social Studies-
Next week we will learn about specific battles in the Civil War
 that were fought in Texas. By the end of next week we 
hope to wrap up discussing the Civil War and move into
 Texas during reconstruction. 

February 4th-8th

Reminders: 
Our Valentine Party is next Week on Thursday from 2:00-2:45
Please join us if you can. You child will get a note with 
their classmates names this Tuesday to
Make their Valentine's.

Monday - February 4th - Class Picture Day
Wednesday-February 13th- Spirit Night- Newk's
Thursday- February 14th- Valentine Day Party
Monday and Tuesday- February 18th and 19th- Student Holidays
March 18th-22nd - Spring Break 


Homework:
Read nightly - 20 minutes
Dreambox- 10 minutes a night
Spelling- 5 minutes or as needed
Writing- Ungraded optional prompts
1. Where would you like to go on a field trip and why?

2. Your class gets to suggest food for the lunch menu one day next week.
Write an essay to convince the principal to choose your favorite food for the menu.
Use reasons and examples to show why your favorite food is the best choice.

3. What book are you reading right now, and what is it about?
Would you recommend it to someone else?

Reading-
We have wrapped up our unit on folktales and will be returning
to studying expository texts.
We will study cause and effect, compare and
contrast and sequencing.
We will look at captions, heading, subheadings and
summarizing expository text.
We will also be reading with our partners on new
books for reading workshop.

Writing-
We have started back on expository writing. We will be focused this week mainly on using
boxes and bullets to plan and organize our writing.

Spelling-
We have new spelling words this week and will test in two weeks. Remind your
child to also study at home.

Social Studies-
We will be testing over Texas becoming a state and the Mexican American War.
We will then be starting the unit over the Civil War in Texas and its impact.