Coming home tonight is our first week of Fab Four in math.  Each day I give the students four specific math skills as a quiz.  I bring them back to the table one-on-one to discuss any missed problems.  The next day I give them four more problems over the same specific skills.  We continue doing that from Thursday to Wednesday each week.  Hopefully, by the fifth day, the students have mastered that skill.  (Wednesday would be the last day on their sheet.)  I keep track of those students who missed three or more problems for each skill.  I also keep record of those who mastered it the last day.  I will be going back to those same skills for those needing more remediation.  Please look at your child's sheet to see where,if any, their weaknesses are.  Today we began a new set of skills including perimeter/area, adding unlike fractions, dividing (and knowing the divisibility rules), and finding the average. 
They are also bringing home a practice 9A Saxon sheet.  Please look over this sheet as well before they take their test on like problems tomorrow with 9B.  Their sheets should be corrected.
I will be listing any papers in reading or social studies that I am still needing for this week on the board tomorrow.
Hope your child is enjoying our new book, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.  You might ask them about the characters, setting, and the beginning plot.  Our writing each morning is also connected to the book.  We are working on a compare/contrast essay together.  We are looking at the differences between China in 1942 and the United States in 2013.  Each paragraph needs a contrast transition word from the sheet in their folder.  We will be working on it for a few more days before it is complete.
I am going to be talking to the kids tomorrow about a new system in reading homework.  I will be recording minutes on Tuesday and Friday.  Between those two times, everyone needs to have read for one hour each week minimum.  Our two sentence summaries will be used for our language writing grade.  Please help encourage your child to be consistent in their enjoyment reading time.

Math spiral/ practice test 9A
Read for 20 minutes.

Tired Teacher Tries to Teach on Tuesday

(I haven't forgotten that I owe my King Ethans a Royalty picture.  My browser is not cooperating with me.  Help is on the way on Thursday if  I don't figure it out before then.)

Don't forget spelling is due tomorrow.  Homework passes can be used for two sides only.
Spiral Math sheets if not finished.

Good luck to our boys at their game tonight.

Practice spelling test signed tonight
Math spiral if not already finished
Please read for your 20 minutes

Friday's our Forever Favorite

Congratulations to This Week's Math Royalty:  Kings Ethan R and Ethan T, Princess Kelsie, and Duke Dakota... (picture coming as soon as I can get it to cooperate with me.)

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you on Monday!


Come in with an example of an interrogative, imperative, exclamatory, and declarative sentence (all labeled so I know you know...) and I'll be happy to pay you for your labor.

Thankfully Thinking Thursday was Thrilling

(Besides a possible hyperbole, what is that title an example of....$$$$??....tell me in the morning. )

Reports are going home tomorrow.
Homework tonight (besides reading for 20 minutes):  finish math sheet and social studies sheet

Skills we're working on:

•  kinds of sentences (we should be well past this, but still have too many that haven't mastered classifying sentences correctly.)
• practiced using interjections
• finished our Junie B. Jones packet (great book for figurative language)  will discuss theme and author's purpose, and point of view tomorrow
• slavery in the colonies (quiz tomorrow - worksheet covers same material)
• math reviewing equivalent fractions, decimals, and percents
• math finding area of triangles

Took a math benchmark test to see who has mastered beginning of the year material.  I'll also be giving four review problems each day, Fab Four, to see what skills still need to be reviewed.  There will also be a sheet with a specific skill on one side and review questions on the back. 

Welcome to 2013!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning.  (What is that an example of......   tell me in the morning, and you'll earn some early monarch bucks.)

Science Fair sheets will be going home tomorrow.  I hope to see several of you interested in taking a project this year.  It will take place on February 16th. 

See you soon!