Nolen

Checking Over Work/What We Are Learning/Upcoming Dates

Please look over graded papers that came home today.  Please go through them carefully, and take the time to go over these with your child.  Also take a look at their timed tests.  I have 75% of my students who have either passed the 0-9's, 0-12's or 0-9 Division facts.  If you go through and notice your child has not passed their 0-9 multiplication fluency, please make sure you work with them daily.  Some are getting very close to the 90% needed to pass, and I believe they will be passing their fluency within the next week or two if they practice at home.  It is imperative they know their facts.  We have been working both on measurement to the nearest 1/4 inch, as well as two digit by 1 digit multiplication.

 

I was very please with the tests on Eleanor Roosevelt.  I will be sending you home a note for their writing on both FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, as I am still grading them.

 

For science, we have been working on our maps for the different regions of Georgia.  This week we worked on the Coastal Plains, which included the barrier islands and reefs, and swamps/marshes.

 

In language arts we have been focusing on comprehension, vocabulary, and adjectives (articles and comparing adjectives). 

 

I noticed that more andmore students are not turning in their homework.  This is our way of allowing students to practice skills at home.  They are also rewarded with Econ money weekly for homework and if they have their agendas signed daily.  Market Day is just around the corner.  If they don't have money for market day, they will  not be able to purchase items.

 

VALENTINES Day is on Tuesday.  We will not be having a party, as Cobb County only allows for one party.  I will be allowing students to exchange valentines if they want to participate in this exchange. 

Next Week for Valentines, Frey will have a pro-active drive to restock "health helpers".  Some of our supplies are completely out.  Clorox wipes, Kleenex, and Hand Sanitizer would be greatly appreciated.

 

February 16 is Frey Spirit Night at Chic-Fil-A from 5:00 - 8:00

Frebuary 20 is President's Day and also a holiday.  Therefore, there will be no school.

February 24 is our school's 80s dance.  It is from 6:00 - 8:00 

What's Happening In Our Classroom?

SOCIAL STUDIES REMINDER:  Eleanor Roosevelt quiz is next Wednesday, February 8.  Study guides were sent home Tuesday before last so students had ample time to study.  They will have to be able to write five important facts about Eleanor as well as having knowledge of the vocabulary meanings. 

Science:  We have been working on habitats of Georgia.  Thus far, we have covered the mountains and the piedmont regions.  Our next region will be the coastal plains, which will include barrier islands and reefs, and swamps/marshes. Students will receive a paper book for studying each region.  They are being assessed within the classroom on these areas.

Math:  In the mornings we have been working on measurement (to the nearest whole inch and to the nearest half inch.) This will also include inches to feet, feet to yards, perimeter, and area.  In the latter part of the morning we have been working on multiplying two digit numbers by one digit.  They have been exposed to the partial product method so they can get a better understanding of what is actually going on when multiplying multiple digit numbers.  Our next step will be to perform multiplication using the traditional method.  Please ask your child about the partial product method and see if they can actually explain it to you.  This deals mainly with them being able to recognize the place value each digit represents.  NOTE:  Students that do not know their multiplication math facts without hesitation are the ones that tend to struggle.  Please work with your child daily on these facts.  This is a skill that is a necessity throughout the rest of their school years.  Students tend to be less stressful in completing math assignments when math facts have been mastered.

Reading/Language Arts: We continue to work on reading comprehension.  This week we have also been identifying the setting and plot of a story.  We have also been working on identifying adjectives and writing sentences using adjectives to describe nouns.

Remember it is still not too late to contribute to the GIMME 5 for education.

Dates to Remember and What We Are Studying

FDR test on vocabulary words and essay portion on Wednesday  Students have had ample time to prepare for this test. 

 

Eleanor Study guide went home yesterday: practice essay portion with your child at home, same format as FDR test: Eleanor Test will be on Feb 8th!  This gives your child your child over two weeks to study.  We went over the first two chapters on Eleanor yesterday.  We will continue to study her biography the remainder of this week.

 

Study Island letters were sent home on Friday.  Please make sure you read over this and sign the bottom and return to me as soon as possible.  I have received only 7 as of this morning.

 

We took our Mock CRCT tests last week.  I will be sending you home the results in Friday's work folder. If you feel your child did not perform as you would expect them to do so, please feel free to call me and I will go over the areas of weakness.  Also, if you feel a need for a conference, please let me know as well.

 

We started decimals today.  Students are writing corresponding fractions with decimals.  We will be working on decimals/fractions for the next couple of weeks.  Students are also identifying that when we add money, it is presented in decimal form.

 

As students continue with the writing process during our implementation of this through our Social Studies and again with our Science unit on regions, they will also focus on the different parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives).  Adjectives will be our focus this week.

 

In Science we will be working on the regions of Georgia.  Students should be able to identify the Mountain, Piedmont, and Coastal Regions, which also includes swampland and oceans.  Writing will be a way for students to explain the characteristics of each.  They will also identify plants and animals for each region.

 

No School on Monday, Feb 20th.

 

In house field trip with Puppeteers in Media Center on Feb 21st, 9:00 AM

 

Our next Market Day will be on March 2nd, a Friday and the last one will be May 18th, also a Friday just before the end of this school year. This one is one that we call a garage sale. Students can still make products or edible items to sell, set up service stands, or they can bring their gently used items, books, games, etc, to "sell". This is a great way to have an exchange of items before summer.

 

Spring Break will be from Saturday, March 31st, until Sunday April 8th!  We will have a full week and two days to review for the Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), which will be April 18-25th.

 

Since this year is passing so quickly, and because we have so much planned before the end of the year, be sure to put these dates on your calendars.

 

Use Study Island, review graded papers, ask your child how they are doing, read comments on graded papers, discuss errors with your child to be sure they understand what went wrong and why and that they have a plan to improve on the next assignment. Read e-mails, use study guides, and keep pushing your child to strive for excellence.

 

REMEMBER: It is very important for your child to be in school every day.  We learn new concepts daily, so when students are absent, they have to double up to learn what they missed on those days.  Learning is taking place every day and every minute inside the classroom.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

WELCOME BACK AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Tomorrow, most students (unless they have an older sibling in another room) will receive a large brown envelope on Tuesday which contains a county survey. Please fill it out with a #2 pencil and return it unsealed to school with your child. Thank you so very much. Refer to the notes below for all of the details!

 

• Parents please complete the survey using a number 2 pencil only.  NO PENS!
• Parents should NOT write names on the survey or the envelope.
• Parents should return the surveys in the envelope by February 10^th.
• Parents should NOT seal the envelope and return to the teacher or the front office.

I just made a Sam's Club run, so snacks have been replenished for this week and next.  However, if anyone would like to donate bread, it would be greatly appreciated.

Tomorrow we will hit the ground running academically (as usual) back on the fast track to prepare for the CRCT, which will be here before you know it.

Grammar: General Grammar skills with a focus on writing with dialogue, capitalization, and possessive nouns.

Writing: Students will be completing their response to literature this week.  This is a writing that is graded and sent to the state.  We have done several writings this year, so students should be prepared for this.

Reading Focus: Mary McLeod Bethune: non fiction conventions: bolded words, glossary, index, table of contents, pictures, graphs, etc.

Math: Fractions and fractional parts: how to add and subtract fractions with like denominators and comparing fractional values with cross multiplication strategy.

Report cards will come home on Friday along with my detailed grade book report as well. Please DO NOT seal the brown envelopes but, instead, sign and return the white card in the envelope to me as soon as you are able. Envelopes are needed for the next grading period.

Next grading period we have combined some areas of our report card rubric for grading purposes. Because so many of our concepts are embedded in other areas, we found a way to make the compilation of grades more effective and efficient. This will be reflected on my detailed report next grading period.

Have your child go on Study Island for practice in any weak areas and also do some work on fractions and decimals as this will be covered in the coming weeks in class.

Hope you all enjoyed your break!  Now I hope your child is ready for tomorrow!  I know I am.

 

Cameron West Day Friday

This is just a reminder that Cameron West will be in our building tomorrow morning.  We want to encourage all students to wear red.  If parents are here during that time (10:00), we encourage you to wear red as well.  Students purchased red shirts at the beginning of the school year.  If they can't find that particular one, just have them wear red, white, or blue.

Math Test and Important Dates

We have been working on geometry in class for the past few weeks. For the final test, which will be Wednesday, December 21, your child will look at pictures of shapes and should be able to identify: line, line segment, intersecting lines, angles(right or 90 degree, obtuse, and acute) ray,  parallel lines, pentagon, hexagon, quadrilateral,  octagon, and the three types of triangles (scalene, equilateral, and isosceles). They will also be given a circle and will have to identify the center, radius, and diameter.

 

We have gone over all of these areas extensively.  A polygon is a shape that is closed and formed by straight lines; a quadrilateral is a closed shape formed by four straight lines. So a quadrilateral is a polygon but not all polygons are quadrilaterals since they may have more than four line segments.

 

Ask your child to show and explain to you what they have learned in geometry. Ask them to draw and label items for you. See if they can identify a right angle (90 degree angle) and compare that to an acute or obtuse angle.

 

They should also be able to answer the following questions which will be essay questions:

1. What do you use to identify geometric figures?

By counting how many line segments an object may have, by looking at its angles, edges, etc. They can explain how they use the kinetic motions to remember parallel lines, intersecting lines, and angles.

 

2. How can you tell the difference between acute angles, obtuse angles, and a right angle?

They can tell what each one is and then how they remember it. A right angle is 90 degrees, an acute is less than 90 degrees and an obtuse is more than 90 degree angle.

 

3. What tricks do you know to tell the difference between the three types of triangles?

For instance: Isosceles Triangles: we think how many eyes we have and then we can remember that an isosceles triangle has two sides that measure the same and one that is different. For scalene triangle we think of leaning angle in which no sides are the same, and equilateral triangles we see and hear the word "equal" inside the word so we remember that all sides measure the same.

 

DATES TO REMEMBER

December 22, Holiday Party from 8:00 - 9:15

December 23, Teacher Furlough Day

December 26, 2011 - January 9, 2012 - Student Holidays

January 9, 2012 - Teacher Workday/Student Holiday

January 10, 2012 - Students return

We Have a Special Visitor to Frey

Last year, we adopted Lt. Cameron West's platoon and began to send care packages to his platoon in Afghanistan.  Shortly after, Lt. Cameron West was wounded and had to come home; however, Frey continued to send care packages to his platoon in Afghanistan until the end of the school year. On Friday, 12/16/11 Lt. Cameron West will be visiting our school to thank all of the students.  We are holding a "Coins for Cameron" drive on this Tuesday and Wednesday.  We are planning to present Lt. Cameron West with a check for the Wounded Soldiers Organization on Friday, 12/16th.  At 10:00 AM, our students will line the hallways for our "Hero's Welcome Walk of Honor".  The students will stand in the hallways, holding the American Flag, as Lt. Cameron takes the "Walk of Honor" at Frey.  He will walk down each hallway so that each student will be able to see him and thank him for his service to our Country.  Our staff and students are asked to wear their Lt. Cameron shirt from last year, the Patriotic Frey Shirt, or red, white, and blue on this day. The presentation of the check will be broadcasted from the Media Center to the classrooms and Lt. Cameron will take a moment to speak to the students from this broadcast.

This won't be the first time Lt. Cameron West has walked the halls of Frey.  He took his first "Walk of Honor" as a 5th grader in May of 1997, when he graduated from Frey Elementary School.  Lt. Cameron West is very special to us because he was a former Frey student.  It is an honor to have him come and visit us and we are so proud of this Marine.

In addition, each student that sends in a donation on this Tuesday and Wednesday will receive a link to add to our Rachel's Challenge Chain of Kindness.

Thank you so much for your support!

What is Your Child Learning

What Have We Been Studying?

Math: We started on our geometry unit last week, which includes lines, line segments, point, ray, angles, three different angles (acute, obtuse, right angle or 90 degree), and the three different types of triangles (isosceles, equilateral, and scalene)  We will continue to extend skills by introducing plane figures and finding the diameter and radius of a circle.

Social Studies: We have studied Paul Revere and Frederick Douglass, and students were introduced to the accomplishments of Susan B. Anthony last week.  We have had spot checks throughout the study of each character to determine the knowledge obtained from our lessons.  We will be finishing up with SBA this week.  Students are also covering map skills.  They should be able to identify major US rivers, mountain ranges, continents, and use their compass rose to determine directions traveled.

Language Arts- We continue identifying cause and effect, main idea, vocabulary development, contractions, and choosing correct sentence development.  This is in addition to applying our daily language skills that cover antonyms, synonyms, correcting sentence structure, syllables, and common and proper nouns.

REMINDER

Next Thursday, December 22, we will be having our holiday party.  It will be held from 8:00 to 9:15.  If you can, please join us.  We will be having finger breakfast foods.  If you would like to send something in, please let me know.  I have had four parents so far to volunteer to bring in mini muffins, cheese, grapes, sausage and cheese balls, and pig in the blankets. 

Only 10 more days before winter break!  That means half of our school year will be over.  We have much more to cover before the end of the school year.  Your child has been exposed to many new concepts.  My goal is to make sure they are ready for fourth grade.  Until then, please continue to offer support at home.  When papers come home on Fridays, please go over these with your child.

REMINDER OF UPCOMING EVENTS

REMINDER:  Pine Mountain Field Trip is Monday, November 7.  I have a head count of who IS purchasing a lunch from the cafeteria.  For those of you that have elected to pack your child’s lunch, make sure they are in a disposal bag.  Also, if for some reason you forget to pack their lunch, they will have the opportunity to purchase one from the cafeteria.

SECOND REMINDER:  Student Holiday/Teacher Workday is Tuesday, November 8.

THANKSGIVING FEAST- I placed the lunch times and dates on the side bar of my blog.  I am also sending a hard copy so you can place on your refrigerator to save that date.

MARKET DAY is on November 18 from 12:45 – 1:45.  Parents are welcome to come.

THANKSGIVING BREAK – November 21 – 25.

Homework Packets are due on Fridays.  Students receive their wages for completing the entire packet.  New Homework Packets come home on Fridays.  They have an entire week to complete this.  I have had several students not completing them or just forgetting them.

Please take time out to help your child with their multiplication facts.  They have mastered the first strategy (brain-based songs), but now it is time for them to know them by recognition, which also involves fluency.

What Is Happening?

Please check out my link on the side bar for our Thanksgiving Feast schedule.  You will find the times and days your child will be celebrating their feast.  You can also print out the form for pre-orders, in case you are planning on attending.

Please be aware that the Cobb County Police are ticketing those that park in the "Red Zone", which is our Fire Lane.  Even if you think you can make a quick run in and run out, you may have to pay the consequences.  Several parents have already faced this problem.

MATH - We have started our unit on multiplication.  Students are doing great in understanding the concept that multiplication is repeated addition and are also able to set up word problems from pictures, but some are still struggling with their multiplication facts.  Please save 10 minutes a day to go over these.  When you receive a copy of their timed tests on Fridays, use this as a guide for those facts they need to work harder on.

SOCIAL STUDIES - We will be starting Frederick Douglass next week.  Paul Revere Quiz in on Thursday.  Study Guides were sent home last week, and they should be in their study guide folder which can be found in their "GO BINDERS".

LANGUAGE ARTS/READING - We will be working on Daily Oral Language skills and our focus is on forming singular nouns into plural forms.  We will be working with non-fiction skills and reading for information.  Students will be writing Thanksgiving stories, using their 4-Square strategy.  Capitalization, punctuation marks, and organizational skills will be examined from their writing.

REMINDER:  We will be going on our Third Grade field trip to the Pine Mountain Gold Museum on November 7.  This will be a fun trip for the students.  Please make sure they dress for the weather.  They will need good walking shoes as well.  If you have NOT turned in your response as to whether your child will need a lunch from the cafeteria, please do so as soon as possible.

NOVEMBER 8 is a student holiday, due to voting day.