Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Jan 27th
Dear Parents,
It has been a really good learning week but a very rainy indoor week! I feel bad about all of the indoor time! Hopefully this rain will end soon! Take a look at what we’ve been doing!
Reading- We finished reading the book The Egypt Game this week. We will be doing a few more activities next week to finish up. We will be taking a comprehension test over the book, taking an AR test over the book, sequencing story events, and creating some Egyptian costumes. Students can bring in some beads, cloth, and small embellishments to decorate their costume. Send them in a sealed plastic bag with your child’s name on the bag. This is not a requirement just something extra that I thought would be fun.
Grammar- We finished our unit on adjectives with a review Thursday and Friday. Next week we will begin a unit on adverbs.
Writer’s Workshop- We are working in the writing trait of “Word Choice”. We talked about using vivid verbs to make our writing more exciting. Next week we will be using adjectives and adverbs to enhance our writing.
Math- We finished Chapter 13 with a test on Wednesday. We started Chapters 14 and 15 which both teach fractions. We will be working with equivalent fractions, adding/subtracting fractions, and working with mixed numbers. I will test on Chapter 14 and 15 at the same time when we are finished with 15.
Social Studies/ Science- We finished up Chapter 6 in Social Studies with a test this week. When we return to Social Studies with will be studying the causes of the Revolutionary War and the war itself. In science, we have started our unit over the solar system. Next week we will be learning about planets, why we have seasons, and why we have day and night. By the end of next week your child should be able to answer those questions. I sent home a project sheet this week explaining a solar system model project. The project will be due Friday, Feb.10th. Hopefully your child has started talking to you about this project! The class seems excited to be learning about space!
Have a great weekend! Mrs.Alvarado
Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Jan. 20th
We have had a great learning week! Take a look at what we are working on for next week:
Reading- We are reading The Egypt Game. Our focus for lessons next week will be on comprehension, vocabulary, summarizing, and sequencing.
I hope your child has been working on their mystery packets for their independent reading projects. It has been fun to have a theme for the month of January. These packets will be due next Friday Jan.27th.
Grammar- We are learning about adjectives.
Math- We have been working on Chapter 13 which covers Geometry. We will be reviewing Chapter 13 on Monday and will be testing on Tuesday, Jan. 24th. Chapter 14 covers fractions.
Social Studies- We have been learning about the Middle and Southern Colonies. We will be reviewing Chapter 6 on Monday and testing on Tuesday. I will send home a study guide to help with the review! Then we will be moving back to Science on Wednesday. We will be starting a unit on the solar system. I will also be sending home a project sheet on Wednesday. We will be making solar system models as part of this unit. More information to come!
Writer’s Workshop- We started an essay contest this week for writing. Our theme was “My Hero”. These essays will be submitted as a school wide contest. Next week we will continue with the writing trait of “Word Choice”.
Spelling- We are learning words with a final soft c and g sound.
Have a great weekend! Mrs.Alvarado
Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Jan.13th
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful break from school! I really enjoyed relaxing with family and sleeping in! I wanted to thank the class for the very generous gift card I received in December. I love the Loft! I had so much fun shopping the sales in January!
We are off to a great start! This week has been really busy. I gave part 2 of the checkpoint tests. These tests are like pretests for the 2nd half of the year. The class actually did pretty well on the tests considering they were over material that has not been taught. These tests should give me a good idea of what areas I need to teach really well before CRCT. Take a look at what we are working on:
Reading- We started a book called The Egypt Game .The book is a Newberry award winning book. The book is a mystery with school aged kids as the main characters. It is really well written. If your child is enjoying the book there is a sequel to this book called The Gypsy Game. The author’s name is Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Next week’s lessons will focus on comprehension, summarizing, and cause and effect.
Independent Reading Project- This is mystery month in my class! I assigned a mystery packet this week for the month of January. We got books from the library and reviewed the tasks in the assignment. This is a large assignment and the class only has 3 weeks to complete the work so get started early!
Grammar- We are working on an adjective unit.
Math- We are working on a Geometry unit which is Chapter 13 in the book. I will be encouraging students to bring home their math journals to help with homework. There is a lot of vocabulary in this unit.
Social Studies- In Chapter 5, we learned about the New England Region of the colonies. In Chapter 6, we are learning about the Middle and Southern Colonies.
Writer’s Workshop- We started working on our hero essay. When we have finished the essay we will be starting a unit on the trait of “Word Choice”.
Enjoy the nice long weekend! Mrs.Alvarado
Dear Parents, Thursday, Dec. 15th
We have had a great week! The “Sharing through the Seasons” projects have been wonderful! The books the class read were great! They read with tons of expression and the souvenirs were so creative! The projects were really fun!
We also worked on checkpoint testing this week. I was very nervous about the technology part of the testing. Each student had to input their answers into the computer with I-Respond remotes. I was really nervous about how it was going to go…but it was great! The class was so good during the testing! They listened and were patient when I needed a moment to read directions. This is new technology for me and I wasn’t sure how it would go! You have very kind and patient children!
We have so much going on next week! So, I thought I would send out my newsletter early! Take a look:
Reading- We will be finishing our “Sharing through the Seasons” projects on Tuesday.
Monday- Samantha, Billy, Christian, and Lucas
Tuesday- Connor, Christopher, Melanie, and Ashley
Math- We will be finishing up Chapter 12 in math with a test on Tuesday.
Social Studies- We will be finishing up Chapter 5 with a test on Tuesday. The study guide came home for homework tonight. I will remind the class to take the book home for the weekend.
Wednesday- Wednesday will be “Polar Express” day in the room! Students may wear their P.J.s and bring their favorite stuffed animal. We will be taking a ride on the Polar Express so dress warm!
Thursday- We will be having our holiday breakfast from 8:00-9:00 in the cafeteria. Everyone is welcome! Then we will be having our 2nd nine week celebration in the classroom. I think I have enough pop for the party from the last nine weeks. I do need full sized candy bars and someone to pop popcorn for the party. The class can bring in rated G movies to watch during the nine week party.
Then we will all be exhausted and ready for Friday to be off from school! I hope you have a wonderful holiday break! Enjoy your family and rest! Mrs.Alvarado
Dear Parents, Friday, Dec.9th
We have had a great week! Only 9 more days until our winter break! I have a lot of fun things planned the last 4 days! Next week we will be taking 3 checkpoint assessments in the areas of English/Language Arts, Math, and Science. These assessments will be used as a reflective piece for me. No grades will be taken do there is no need to worry about the tests. I will be looking at the scores to see if there are areas that need to be re-taught before the CRCT in the spring. Take a look at what we are working on next week:
Reading- We finished the book Mrs.Frisby and the Rats of Nihm. We watched the movie on Friday. The class loved it! Next week we will be starting our December Reading projects “Sharing through the Seasons”. I am looking forward to hearing everyone’s favorite book. Be sure to practice reading the books out loud. I will be listening for fluency. The schedule for this week:
Monday- Sam, Nick, Ansley B., Victoria
Tuesday- Katie, Alexis B., Coco, Alexis E.
Wednesday- Lauren, Lindsay, Carter, Ansley H.
Thursday- Clayton, William, Ryan, Libby
Friday- Tiphanie, Kate, Felix, Amanda
Social Studies- We will return to Social Studies next week. We will be learning about the 13 original colonies. That information is in Chapters 5 and 6 in the book. We will be learning about the differences in geography, economics, and products in the three regions. We will also be learning about what life was like for the colonists.
Math- We are going to be starting a geometry unit which is covered in Chapter 12. We will be learning a lot of new terms that will be recorded in our math journals. Math journals will need to be taken home in order to do math homework and to study for the test at the end. I will be encouraging the class to take them home daily.
Writer’s Workshop- We will be doing some fun holiday writing next week! Big Fun!
Spelling- Sort 17 –Words with –cher, -ture, -sure, -ure endings. (Last list until January!)
Have a great weekend! Mrs.Alvarado
Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Nov. 11th
Dear Parents,
Wow! What a quick and busy week! The Fire Safety Village on Monday was so great! The class was so well behaved! I was proud to be their teacher! They had a lot of fun and learned a lot as well!! We also had High Touch High Tech on Thursday on Simple Machines. Since we have already covered that material the instructor was very impressed with the class’ knowledge. They all knew the answers to his questions. He was also impressed with the manners that were shown as materials were being passed out. Everyone said thank you! Manners and smarts! Okay….I am bragging a bit! They really are a very impressive class!
Take a look at next week:
Reading- We will be finishing up the book Homer Price . Our focus lessons will be on comprehension, compare/contrast, and evaluating the story elements.
Grammar- We are going to review the parts of speech learned so far this year. We are going to review nouns, verbs, pronouns, and sentence types in a Thanksgiving kind of way! Fun!
Math- We are slowly learning how to solve long division problems. We are going to continue to practice working problems next week. We will be testing Chapter 10 on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday we are working on Mayflower Math!
Science- We are working on the “Light” unit. We will be finishing up the unit with a quiz on Thursday next week. I will send home a study guide on Wednesday.
Writer’s Workshop- We will be writing about our thankful thoughts!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving break! I feel very blessed to work at Garrison Mill. I feel especially blessed to have this group of children! They make my job so easy with their sweet faces and positive attitudes! Rest and enjoy your family! Be safe! Mrs.Alavarado
Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Nov. 4th
Dear Parents,
I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful fall centers! The class loved all of the activities! You made the afternoon so nice for the class! Thank you for all of your time and energy it was really appreciated!
Next Monday, we are going to the Fire Safety Village for a field trip. Students will need to bring a paper sack lunch and drink or they can buy one from the café before we go. I will bring a cooler for drinks. Please label your child’s lunch and drink if possible. Let’s all wear our red class t-shirts! It will make it easier for me to see the class. Girls, don’t wear dresses. We are going to be practicing getting out of a window! Should be a fun day!
Remember, next Tuesday will be a student holiday. It is a professional learning day for the teachers.
Look at what we are learning next week:
Reading- We are going to be starting a book called Homer Price. The story takes place in the 40s and is very old fashioned! It is really cute! The main character Homer gets into all kinds of problems! Our focus lessons will be on comprehension and subjects/predicates.
Grammar- We are going to be learning about the four sentence types and what you need to make a complete sentence.
Spelling- Our spelling list covers the unaccented final syllable –le.
Math- We are knee deep in long division…we will continue to work on Chapter 10 next week.
Science- We began our “Light” unit in Science. We have several fun experiments next week. We will be learning about the concepts of refraction, reflection, opaque, transparent, and translucent.
Have a great weekend! Mrs.Alvarado
Mrs.Alvarado’s Class News Friday, Oct. 28th
Dear Parents,
Thank you for coming in to conference about your child!!! It was so nice to share your child’s successes! I feel like the class has shown so much growth already this year! Take a look at what next week looks like:
Reading- We were going to finish up the book Wishes, Kisses, and Pigs this week but I over planned! With the shortened days we just did not finish everything so we will finish up next week! Our focus lessons will be on comprehension, summarizing, antonyms, synonyms, and compare/contrast.
Grammar- We are reviewing pronouns at the beginning of the week. Then we are moving onto story elements.
Social Studies- We have been learning about different countries in Europe that made claims in the new world. We will be having a test on Chapter 4 on Wednesday. A study guide came home today to help prepare for the test. The next unit in science is on “Sound and Light”. I am going to break up the unit into two parts. I am going to teach Light first and then give a quiz. Then I am going to teach Sound and give a quiz. The information on “Light” is in Chapter 4, lesson 2 in the Science Book.
Spelling- Words with an r-influenced e sound that is spelled –er, -ear, -ere, -eer.
Math- We have been working on multiplying 3 digits by two digits. We will be having a test over Chapter 9 on Tuesday. Chapter 10 begins long division! Hold onto your hats it’s going to be a bumpy ride! Long division usually takes a while to master so be patient!
Writer’s Workshop- We are working in the writing trait “Organization”. Our lessons will be on transition words and sequencing to organize writing.
Have a fabulous fall weekend! Mrs.Alvarado
