Looking into next week

Oh dear friends, it has been a busy couple of weeks for Mrs. Kelly.  I'm going to let you all in on a little secret.  When I got this job I had another job (have to pay the bills right?) and up until this Thursday, I was still working that other job.  Let me tell you, 60 hours a week is NOT my idea of fun.  Because of this some things slipped through the cracks.  Mostly this blog, sorry all, but it was last on my priority list.  School, my kids, my husband, other job, and the house were on the top of that list.

Luckily for me, that will no longer be a problem!  While I will miss my coworkers, I am so happy to finally be starting this new chapter in my life full force.

So, onto my plans for the next week!

Monday: Back to school night!!!

I can't wait!

Parents: Please come out, you'll get to know some more about me, my expectations for the year, and some other nifty stuff.

Science this week: MATTER! I love science, have I mentioned that?  It's the most hands on subject I teach, and it's amazing.  We have some cool stuff in the works for science this year (more you'll learn about during Back to School Night, so be there or be square) and I can't wait!  Back to matter, well, matter is anything that has mass and takes up space.  So. Just. About. EVERYTHING! We will be having fun with this, I'm sure.  Students and Parents, once I get better with Edmodo, I will be posting videos, sound clips, slideshows, and so on to help bring science home.

Math: We are finishing up patterns (numerical and geometrical) this week.  I feel better about this week than last week.  The kids seem more into this (it's much easier to do and make this in hands on visual ways than prime and composite) and I feel like we are enjoying and learning more.  I'm thinking we will test on this on Tuesday, but maybe Wednesday.  We did lose a day due to county pretesting, but man, are we going to have to catch up after this!  I hate being behind on pacing, but it's better than having all of the kids lost and confused.

Reading:  We are continuing our character study through a series by reading Howliday Inn, the second in the Bunnicula series.  Please encourage your students to read at home, read to them, have them read aloud and silently.  

Writing: We are going to focus on creating longer pieces with more vivid vocabulary.  Encourage your students to add details when they verbally tell a story.  Get them used to trying out new words.  I am also going to spend time on parts of speech and editing their work.

Word Study: This week starts our differentiated word study groups.  Students have words menus glued to the front of their word study notebooks.  My Edmodo account has been started and students have accessed my class.  I will have spelling challenges for them their also.

Also, I am going to assign the job of photojournalist this week.  One of my students will be in charge of taking pictures of what we do through the day so I can post them here.  I hope to make this a much more exciting blog now that I have the time.  

Looking ahead: watch out for a blog post about DreamBox.  I will be discussing this during Back to School Night, but will put the information here as well.

I can't wait to see all of your lovely, smiling faces on Monday!

~Mrs. Kelly