Mrs. Avram-Williams Blog

I hope that each of you enjoyed your weekend!  I am sure that the children did! As I am sitting here typing it, I wish I was a child again to be able to go outside and play in the snow without a care in the world!

Here is our upcoming week at a glance, please if you have any questions or concerns email me at kwilliams@sjfschool.net

Spelling:  Unit 20 will be covered this week.  There will be a pretest on Wednesday and final test on Friday.

Reading:  Our new story this week is “Sam and the Lucky Monkey.”  We will be reading this together and the students will be assigned to read it at home as well.  They will be tested on this story on Friday.  Please remind your child of the importance of answering each question in a complete sentence.

English:  We are continuing reading “How to Eat Fried Worms” and completing writing assignments and daily questions. 

Math:  Geometry will be finished this week and I am hoping for a test on Thursday.  Please always check your child’s assignment notebook for changes to the test date.

Science:  Continue working on the animal projects as they are due on Thursday the 26th.  We will be finishing up Chapter 4 on Monday and a study guide will be sent home with your child.  They will have a test on Friday. 

I hope that everyone enjoyed their three day weekend!  Here is a glance of what we will be working on this week in school and at home:

Spelling:  Unit 19 will be covered this week.  The pre-test will be on Wednesday with a final test on Friday

Reading:  We will begin our new story “Ananse’s Feast.”  The comprehension test will be on Friday, please make sure to have your child read this story to you.

English:  Continuing our work on “How to Eat Fried Worms,” we will begin writing assignments this week, I will make sure that your child brings home their writing journal to show you their progress and what is being completed in school.

Math:  Geometry will continue this week.  We will take a short quiz on Section A Wednesday.  Your child will be bringing home his or her workbook to complete assignments.

Science:  We will begin Chapter 4 this week.  Animal projects should be worked on at home and are due January 26, 2012.  Your child will be making his or her cover page in class on Wednesday.  It will be sent home in their eight pocket folder.

**Progress Reports will be sent home with your child on Wednesday.  Please review them with your child and if you should have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at anytime.**

As we enter the first full week after Christmas break, we are diving right into two tests this week.  Science will be on Thursday and Reading Unit 3 will be given on Friday.  Both study guides have been given to your child and we are continually reviewing daily in class.  Here is the rest of the week at a glance;

Spelling:  Unit 17 will be covered this week with a pretest on Wednesday and final test on Friday.  The words are posted on Spellingcity.com

Reading:  We will begin our review for the Unit 3 test this week.  The test will be on Friday.  Students will be completing the rough draft of the essay at home on Tuesday night.  We will review the essay and make sure all points are made in the essay to receive credit.

Math:  Geometry will begin this week, that is Chapter 8 in their text book.  We will be completing a few lessons in class, with hands on projects and workbook assignments will be given.

Science:  We will continue our review for the Chapter 3 test, which will be on Thursday this week.  Please make sure all questions are reviewed, there are a lot of fill in the blank questions on the test.  

As we enter our last full week of school before Christmas Break, we will trying to wrap up some of out topics we have been learning. 

Spelling:  Unit 15 will begin this week.  We will have our pretest on Wednesday with the final test on Friday. 

Reading:  This weeks story will be “Brave as a Mountain Lion.”  We will be reading this story in class as well as at home.  The students will have a vocab quiz on Wednesday (please review their vocab vibe sheets) and a comprehension test on Friday.

English:  We will be finishing up our Verb Unit.  The study guide will be sent home today and the Unit 5 Test will be on Thursday the 15th.  We will be reviewing throughout the week in school.  The study guide may stay home.

Math:  We will continue to work on subtraction with regrouping.  Please also continue to work on this concept over the break.  We will not have a test on this concept before break.  I will be giving a quiz next week just to make sure all have mastered the concepts thus far. 

Science:  We have started Ecosystems in class and will continue reading together.  Vocab words and definitions can be found on quizlet.com

**Timeline of your child will be due on the 16th of December**

As always if you should have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me.

Welcome back from a long weekend.  I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!  We are really moving along and will keep pushing forward for the next few weeks until Christmas break.

Spelling:  We are beginning Unit 13 this week, with this being a short week we will having a pretest on Tuesday with a final test on Thursday.  

Reading:  Our story this week is “Tops and Bottoms.”  We will have a vocal quiz on Wednesday.  The words and the definitions are on your child’s Vocab Vibe sheet and can also be found on quizlet.com .  We will be working on summarizing this week and finding strategies that will help us to summarize.  The comprehension test will be on Thursday and as always it will be an open book.

English:  We are beginning our work on verbs this week.  This is Unit 5 in your child’s English book.  Our focus this week will be to master what a verb is, past, present and future verbs.  Besides working in our books we will completing some in class activities to help us understand verbs.

Math:  We took our Chapter 3 test last week, and I must say that I am very PROUD of each and everyone in Room 215.  They did a wonderful job on the test.  We are beginning Chapter 4, subtraction.  The students are looking forward to subtraction.  Please keep practicing with your child at home on the basic facts of subtraction.  

Social Studies:  We will finishing up Unit 2 this week.  Students will be working on Chapter 4 this week and beginning a review for the test.  The Unit 2 test will be next Tuesday (December 6,2011).  The Unit 2 study guide will be sent home with your child on Tuesday.  The vocab words and questions will also be on quizlet.com

If you should have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

As I sat this weekend and entered the final grades for trimester one, I must say that I am very proud of the effort that each one of your children in room 215 display.  They have made great strides for achievement since the beginning of the school year and it will only get better!  Report cards will be sent home on Friday in their Friday Folders, Parent/Teacher Conference slips will be coming home this week also, check your child’s eight pocket folder for this sheet as it contains that time of your conference(s). Here is our week at a glance:

Spelling:  We will be leaving the spelling book this week and working on Thanksgiving words.  The words will be posted on spellingcity.com and your child will also have a list of these words.  The pretest will be on Wednesday with a final test on Friday.

Reading:  We will begin this week with a review for our Unit 2 Test.  This test will be given on Wednesday.  Your child went home with his or her study guide in their Friday Folder.  We will begin composing the essay in class on Monday and I ask that they finish what will be remaining for homework on Monday.  We will begin a new story on Thursday and the students will be tested on this story on Tuesday the 22nd.

English:  We will continue building on our grammar skills.  This week we will be reviewing subjects, predicates, statements, commands, questions, exclamations, clear and interesting subjects.  Your child will also be writing every day during the “Daily 5.”

Math:  We will begin this week by counting money!  This week we will focus on counting coins, using dollar and cents, making change, adding money, and we will end our week with front end estimation. 

Social Studies:  We will continue working on Chapter 3.  Exploring the Community of Jamestown.  The students will be working on a graphic organizer with the focus centering on “Problems in Jamestown.”  We will complete our flipbook  that we started last week.  Towards the end of the week we will begin to look at Chapter 4.

Well we survived Halloween and the class had a blast at our Halloween party, thanks to Mrs. Murnane for her hard work on throwing the perfect “party” in school.  Here is a glimpse of our week ahead, as always I am here before school if your child should need any extra help.

Spelling:  We will begin Unit 11 this week.  Unit 11 is focused on the Long o.  There will be a pretest on Wednesday and final test on Friday.

Reading:  This week we will be focusing on the Main Idea and Supporting Details along with Homophones.  We will be completing activities to better help us grasp this concept.  Our story this week is “Nights of the Pufflings.”  The comprehension test will be on Friday, which as always is open book.  Please remind your child about taking his or her time on the test and to use their book.  

English:  Our focus this week and for the next two weeks will be sentence structure and writing skills. 

Math:  We will be continuing our adding in columns and problem solving this week.  The lesson on problem solving may take a few days for the concept to be mastered.  We will be taking a Quiz on section B on Wednesday in class.  We will end our week by beginning to count using coins.  Your child will be asked to bring in coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) for hands on work in class.

Social Studies:  We will begin Unit 2 this week. The class will be making a flip book for Chapter 3 to help us know the difference and similarities between Native American Communities, and the English Settlement at Jamestown.  Our week will end with a lesson on Veterans Day.  

Welcome to Halloween! I am sure that most of the kids are looking forward to this day, it should be great fun in the afternoon for our party, thanks to our room-mom; Sarah Murnane.  I am going to try to keep Monday morning as normal as possible with a fun twist in there and that will be making slime with the sixth graders!  Thanks to everyone who sent their child in with a container with a lid and a box of corn starch.  It is greatly appreciated.

As always, please remind your child that I am here either before school or after school if he or she might need that extra five minutes of an explanation of a certain topic.  

Here is our week at a glance ( I hope to stay on this schedule but please always check your child’s assignment notebook for any changes!)

Spelling:  We will begin Unit 10 on Monday.  The students have been doing so well with A-B-C order!  You should be very proud of them, I know that I am.  They have worked really hard to get to this point and we made it!  The pre-test will be on Wednesday and final test on Friday.  You can also access the spelling words on spellingcity.com

Reading:  Danger~Icebergs! is our story this week.  We will begin the week by completing the vocab vibe sheet, and reading “About Sharks.”  We will be focusing on fact and opinion as well as words with multiple meanings.  Both of which will be explained to your child.  Workbook pages will be completed together in class and we will also read the story both together in class as well as keeping with one of our components read to someone.  Comprehension test will be on Friday.

English:  Nouns will come to an end this week.  We will be exploring compound words as well as how to combine sentences.  A study guide will be sent home with your child.  Please review this sheet and if they should have any questions please ask them to come in early.  The test will be on Wednesday.  We will finish up our noun study by completing “Nouns with Personality.”

Math:  Chapter 3 Section B will begin this week.  We will turn our attention to adding with regrouping, and adding 2,3, and 4 digit numbers.  Your child will be completing a lot of work in his or her math notebook.  

Social Studies:  We will be finishing up Chapter 2 on Tuesday and the Unit 1 Test will be planned for Friday.  A study guide will be sent home with your child on Tuesday.  As a class we will answer all short answer questions in school.  Please refer to quizlet.com for flashcards that are focused on the questions from the study guide with their answers and vocab words with definitions.  Quizlet.com is a great site for you child to review from as it based on flashcards and games for mastery.  

Religion:  We will be finishing up our study this week on the Rosary and will be discussing All Saints and All Souls Day in class.  There will be an all school Mass on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., please know that you are most welcome to attend.

Room 215 will be celebrating Halloween on Monday the 31st.  Your child may dress in his or her Halloween costume.  They are asked to bring either $1.00, $2.00, or $3.00 for a donation to a few different charities.  Our Halloween party will take place in the afternoon and will be hosted by our room mom.  If your child would like to bring in a wrapped treat they may, we have 22 students in our homeroom.

As we begin another full week of school, I would just like to take a moment and let each of you know how pleased I am with the progress of Room 215!  I would just like to also let you know that I was very pleased with the Chapter 2 Math tests.  If your child may need a little more help, please know that I am available either before school or after school, even if it just for 5 minutes.  Just let me know.  Here is our week at a glance …

Spelling:  We will take a break from our speller and focus on the spelling of Halloween words.  Please check your child’s 8-pocket folder for the complete list of words.  You may also find them listed on spellingcity.com.  As always there will be a pretest on Wednesday and final test on Friday.

Reading:  Our story this week will be “Tornado Alert.”  The theme for the story is context clues.  We will start working on context clues on Monday and learning how to find meanings of words through the sentences that surround the word.  There will be 6 new vocab vibes introduced on Monday and students will be taking a quiz on the words and meanings on Thursday with a comprehension test on Friday.  As always please remind your child the importance of answering in complete sentences.

English:  Nouns will be continued this week, with a focus on singular/plural nouns, plural nouns with -ies, singular possessive nouns, and plural possessive nouns.  On Wednesday your child will be bringing home an activity, this activity will need to be completed by Thursday for final completion of “Nouns with Personality” in class on Friday.

Math:  We will begin Chapter 3 this week.  Please review basic math facts at home with your child.  We will be exploring addition patterns, adding on 100′s charts, finding missing numbers, and estimating sums. 

Social Studies:  We have completed our study on globes, map, and map keys and the students did a fantastic job on these topics.  We will begin Chapter 1 this week and focus on lessons 1 and 2.