Wednesday's Activities

Today the students were very energetic and they used that energy as they participated in our activities.
Bible- In Bible today the students learned about The story of Ruth gleaning grain from the field of Boaz. We began to understand how this story shows the true faith of Ruth and how it shows that Ruth and Boaz are true believers and followers of God. Their Bible memory verses come from Ruth 1:16-17 and is due on Friday, Nov. 18. 
Social Studies- Today in Social Studies we spent about 50 minutes reviewing concepts for our Unit 3 Explorers Test which will take place tomorrow. The students seemed to have a good understanding of the Explorers and the important events that happened in Michigan at the time of the explorers and settlers.
Literacy- Today the students reviewed the concept of homophones with the words they're, their and there. The students had to write two sentences fro each of these words. They did well with this activity. Unit 9 Spelling Words/Skills Test will be tomorrow. Unit 9 Spelling Take-Home is also due tomorrow. Their Pen Pal Letters are due tomorrow as well as their My Choice Story in Cursive. They will have time to work on these tomorrow. 
Math- Today we worked again with Decimals and Fractions. The students seemed to grasp the concept better today. We practiced with the Base-10 blocks to find fraction and decimal equivalents. The students also began to understand how to compare fractions and decimals. MB & SL 4.2 due MONDAY, Nov. 14; MB & SL 4.3 due Tuesday, Nov. 15.
 Science- We all made landfills together today and the students used the litter that we picked up on the DCS playground yesterday. The students worked in pairs to create a landfill and then we discussed the importance of each part of a landfill.

Tuesday's Activities

Bible- Today we began our 5th Bible Unit which will look at the life and times of Ruth. We looked at how Ruth and others in the first Chapter of Ruth made either wise or unwise decisions. Ruth 1:16-17 is the memory passage due on Friday, Nov. 18. 
Social Studies- Today the students had time to finish their explorers posters and begin studying for their Social Studies Unit 3 Test which will take place on Thursday. 
Literacy- Today in our literacy block the students worked diligently as we studied Irregular Verbs in both our Grammar and Spelling Lesson. In our spelling lesson the students began making a flash cards game in which we will review the irregular past tenses of irregular verbs with a partnered activity. The students were very excited about opening the letters we received from our Pen Pals and reading them. The students began writing a letter back to them. The Pen Pal Letter is Due on Thursday. Unit 9 Spelling Take Home and Spelling Words/Skills Test will be on THURSDAY!
Science- Today the students had the great privilege of caring for our environment here at DCS by going around the playground area and picking up every piece of litter that we could find. The students enjoyed this activity and learned about what kinds of litter exist as well as the harm they can do to the environment. It was interesting to see what kinds of litter the students found and to study where those pieces of litter came from based upon the opinions of the students. We devised a plan for what we might be able to do to educate DCS about the problem of litter on the playground. The students should bring a shoebox, or small box to school tomorrow, one that can be cut up. I will provide several boxes for the students if you are not able to provide one. 
Math-  The students began our investigation of decimals today. We used base-10 blocks to help us understand the relationship between fractions, base-10 blocks and decimals. If the students would like to re-take the Math Assessment from Unit 3 i will allow them to do that tomorrow. MB & SL 4.1 Due tomorrow. MB & SL 4.2 due Thursday. The students should have all Math Boxes 3.7-4.1 done by tomorrow. 
Have a great evening! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow or Thursday!

Monday's Activities

The students and I were re-energized as we began our week together. Just a reminder for you, the permission slips for our field trip to the Kent County Recycling and Education Center are due on Thursday. I have received many already! Thank You!
Bible- Today we concluded our brief look at the many different tools that our Bibles have in them that we can use to help study the Word of God. We will begin a new Unit tomorrow which focuses on the life and times of Ruth. The students have a new memory verse that is due Friday, Nov. 18. It comes from Ruth 1:16-17
Social Studies- Today the students were given time once again to continue working on their Marquette Explorers Posters. Some groups finished and others will be given time to finish tomorrow. We will begin tomorrow reviewing for our Unit 3 Assessment which will take place on Thursday.
Literacy- We studied Irregular Verbs today and the fact that they dont have an -ed ending to their past tense. We also began our spelling Unit for the week. The students received their Take Home activities for the week. The Spelling Test Unit 9 will take place on THURSDAY. 
Math- We spent the first 25 minutes of math today discussing and reviewing the Unit 3 Tests that we took on Friday. I gave the students an option that if they got more than 5 wrong, a score of 32 or less, they would be given the chance to take the test again on Wednesday. So please talk this over with your child.  MB & SL 4.1 are due on Wednesday. Also we will be going through our Math boxes on Wednesday which means i would like them to have all Math Boxes 3.7 through 4.1 done so that we can check them together. 
Science- Today we discussed the impact of liquid waste upon the environment. We did an experiment in which we looked at oil spills and ways that we could clean them up in our environment. We talked about what we knew about the recent oil spills in the Kalamazoo River and also in the Gulf of Mexico. The students should have a shoe box at school on Wednesday for our science project.

Fun Friday

Today the students received a field trip permission slip for our upcoming field trip to the Kent County Recycling and Education Center. Hopefully you received that from them. Please return that slip by Thursday, Nov. 10. 
Bible- Today the students completed their New Testament Books Bible Memory Quiz. They all did very well! We will investigate maps on Monday then begin Unit 5 on Tuesday.
Math- Today the students took their Unit 3 Assessment. We will begin Unit 4 on Monday.
Literacy- Today the students took their Unit 8 Spelling Words and Skills Test. We also viewed a folktale story presented in video form. We completed a grammar mini lesson about Linking and Action Verbs. Finally, we read our Prompt Practice Stories to one another.
Social Studies- The students were given time to work together with their group members to begin creating their posters about Jacques Marquette and other explorers who came to Michigan.
Science- Today in science we completed an activity that allowed us to look at solid things that many people would throw away and bring to a landfill. We discussed together the idea that if we take our time and decide what things can be recycled or reused, we can reduce the negative effects that trash has on the environment.
The students have no homework over the weekend! Enjoy!

Thursday's Activities

We gave the students their progress reports today,  I hope you look for them and talk with them about their progress when you have time!
Tomorrow(Friday), we will pass out our class pictures to one another, just as i had mentioned in the parent letter at the beginning of the week. The students seem very excited to be able to hand out and collect pictures from their classmates. 
Bible-  Our focus today in Bible was to learn how to use the Footnotes in our Bible to find out more information about something in our text. The students practiced using the footnotes and referring to passages or other notes to fully understand the meaning of the original passage. The students will have a fill-in-the blank New Testament Books Quiz tomorrow.
 Science- Today the students were given the time to focus on and complete the "Trash Pizzas" that we had started. The goal of this activity was for the students to be able to see how much of what we throw away on average is plastic, paper, metals and other categories. The pictures below show the students working on this activity.
Literacy- Mrs. VanHofwegen visited our class today to introduce to the students the new break-out groups that we are starting next week. In these groups we will be focusing on the specific skills that we have noticed that our students can be challenged in related to literacy. We read through a folktale story entitled; " ", and we also had a mini grammar lesson about linking verbs. We concluded our literacy time today by looking at consonant blends that appear in the beginning, middle and ending portions of words.  We have our Unit 8 Spelling Words/ Skills Test tomorrow. 
 Math- Today the students and i reviewed the basic concepts that we would like them to know for their Unit 3 assessment tomorrow. The students all did very well with this and it seems to me that they are prepared for their assessment tomorrow.
Computers- The students have been working recently on designing a scrapbook page related to a folktale story they had read last week in class. The students are working to include the main elements of folktale on their page.
Music- The students had music this afternoon. They played their recorders with Miss Feyen. This is one thing that the students should remember to bring with them every Thursday so that they have the chance to fully participate in these activities with their classmates.

Wednesday's Activities

Bible- Today in our Bible discussion we reviewed how to use Section Headings in our Bible to guide us in our studies of the Bible. We also talked about whether or not these Section Headings are actually part of the infallible word of God or if they are guidelines added by publishers. New Testament Books Fill-in-the-Blank Quiz on Friday, Nov. 4
Math- Today the students were given a review sheet which covers the topics for our Unit 3 Assessment on Friday, Nov. 4 We will review these concepts together in class tomorrow. MB & SL 3.11 Due Thursday. 
Literacy-  Today in our Literacy Block we read several Folktale stories. "How the Ox Star fell from Heaven" by Lily Toy Hong, and "Martina the Beautiful Cockroach" by Carmen Agra Deedy. We once again looked through the books attempting to find the elements of folktale. We also noticed the different cultures represented by the books. For spelling/grammar today we did an exercise in which i asked the students to change several irregular verbs into the past tense. After we had done that i asked them to look at the Past Tense Verb and then find a homophone for that word. The students did very well with this activity.
Social Studies - Today i introduced our Social Studies Project to the class. I have split the class into groups of 3 and they are working together to gather and display information about Jacques Marquette and the other Explorers. Their final product for this project is a poster which they will display.

-The students are always busy on Wednesday with various "specials" classes. These include Physical Education, a trip to the Library, and also some time with Mrs. Koning studying Spanish.

Tuesday's Activities

Today the students were all very eager to share their experiences and stories from last night. I'm glad to hear that everyone had a safe and enjoyable time.
We began our day with Art class and the students did an excellent job with their projects.
Science- We continued our science studies about caring for our environment. We began today by looking at Trash. We studied where trash is stored, how much trash we produce, what kinds of trash we produce and the impact that trash can have upon our environment. We began a small project in which the students will create a "pizza" displaying the types of trash that on average we all throw away.

Literacy- Today we looked deeper at helping verbs. We practiced with determining the helping verb that fits in the sentence and finding the main verbs in sentences as well. We also participated in a compound word activity in which the students had to determine the smaller words within the compound word and also determine the main vowel sounds that each of those words contained and sort them out. I read a folktale story entitled; "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples Ears" and the students determined the elements of a folktale within that story. Spelling Skills and Words Test Unit 8 is on Friday. The students have been working on a Prompt Story in class that is due on Friday as well. 
Math- Today we investigated Open Number Sentences which involve variables in the form of letters that we must solve for. This was a tricky concept at first, but the students quickly grasped it and learned to solve the problems.MB &SL 3.10 are due tomorrow. MB & SL 3.11 are due on Thursday. The students have a Unit 3 Test on Friday. 
Social Studies- Today we read through a lesson of our book about the impact of the British and the Americans fighting against the British in order to gain independence as a state. We will begin an explorers group project tomorrow that will last the remainder of the week.