11 13 09 Newsletter

HIGH POINTE ELEMENTARY SPELLING LIST

The Brubaker Buzz I S S U E

1 3

N O V E M B E R

1 3

, 2 0 0 9

new no myself really probably teacher inventor hunter player actor tourist leather Christmas Arctic Ocean Indian Ocean DATES TO REMEMBER 11/25 Early out for Thanksgiving vacation 11/26-1127 No School—Thanksgiving vacation 11/19 Luigi’s Pizza night Book Orders due 12/1 We’ll have them for Christmas this wayr

A Look Back We had a fantastic week of learning! The students got a chance to do a really neat experiment during science after we learned a little more about matter. We fried ice! That’s what Bill Nye the science guy would tell us we did. What we actually did was change water from a solid to a liquid and then a gas. What I really wanted them to see what the change in the temperature in the matter. We studied how to read thermometers and what to look for on different types of those tools. The students now know what the freezing point is in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, as well as the boiling point to change

water to a gas. They should be able to explain both of these to you. We’ve talked a lot about multiplication and the properties of multiplication. We’ll be moving through this quickly and learning some more strategies to solve higher level thinking problems with multiplication and division. We will start timed tests after Thanksgiving. We are practicing in the classroom, however the students will make flashcards and use those to practice at home and at school. Those notes will come home soon. During reading, we read a story called Thunder Cake, by Patricia Palocco. We focused on context clues, cause/effect,

author’s purpose, and sequence of events. I also threw in a favorite word for students to say…onomatopoeia. It’s a word that is a sound that sounds like the word. For example, boom or moo, are both onomatopoeia. During writing, we focused on nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. While leaning those lessons we wrote about our heroes. The papers are turning out wonderfully. I’m touched by these writings.

Classroom Rule:

Have fun at lunch, but use your best manners.

A Peek to Next Week With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we will start a story about Pilgrims. It’s called Molly’s Pilgrim and tells the story of a little girl who grows to understand what and who a pilgrim really is. This story really helps the

students grasp pilgrims in a different light than what we traditionally think. We’ll focus on comparing/ contrasting, vocabulary and context clues, summarizing and friendly letters. This story will take us all the way

to Thanksgiving break! We’ll also work on learning new concepts in multiplication and division, while working on fact fluency and practice. During science we’ll continue working with changes in matter and sneak in a few science experiments. We’ll get to

PAGE

2

Next Week Cont. study a bit about why our founding fathers wrote the Constitution and what the importance of the Declaration of Independence is. We’ll take a look at how life was different back then and how what they did changed life for us now. Overall, it’s going to be a busy week, but it should be a lot of fun!

Ask Me, I Know! Children need models rather than critics. -- Joseph Joubert

How is the water cycle similar to changing matter? At what degree Celsius does water begin to boil?

What does an adjective describe? What does an adverb describe? What is the answer to a multiplication called?

At what degree Celsius does water freeze?

Appreciation and Reminders Thank you to everyone who could be sending in cleaning wipes! We try to keep our room clean and these help out a lot!

THE

BRUBAKER

BUZZ

Please remember to sign your child’s assignment book each night. Don’t forget to sign and return the math check-ups that come home each Friday.

Thank you for helping your child be successful in third grade!