December 11th through 15th

Keenoy’s Pups News                                                            

December 15, 2017

Dear Families,

It was great seeing everyone at our Winter Open House today.  I hope that everyone enjoys spending extra time with their family over the Holidays.  This will be the last newsletter shared prior to Winter Break.  Thank you for your support and everything that you do.

I’ve decided to send the green forms home next Wednesday instead of today.  Due to my absence earlier in the week, I only had a few days to base the marks on.  I also did not get their reading notebooks checked yesterday so I was unsure how to mark the homework section.  By waiting until Wednesday, this will give you a more accurate picture of their last week and a half.  These were not originally scheduled to go home next week.  Please sign and return the forms Wednesday evening since Thursday is our last day next week.  Thank you and if you have any questions, please feel free to email or call me.

dkeenoy@cpsk12.org

Keenoy Pup of the Week-Sher H.

Hello, my name is Sher.  I have five people in my family.  One brother and sister and my mom and dad.  I like to play outside and my favorite subject is writing.  I also like to jump on my trampline.

Pup of the week on Monday-Kyah B.

Please bring any pictures or items that you would like to put on our bulletin board that is located outside of our classroom.

Science

Students will start learning about experimental design by creating testable questions.  We will then try and answer the question by conducting an experiment.  During the experiment we will collect, record, graph, and analyze the data to form a conclusion.   

BizTown

Students learned more about…

Checking Accounts-wrote checks, found out the difference between personal and payroll checks, used deposit slips, and kept up with a checking register.

Savings Accounts-visited about how having money in these accounts can accumulate interest.

Debit, Credit, Checks-We compared and contrasted benefits and disadvantages of each.

Math

Graded Topic 3 math assessments were sent home today.  We started Topic 4 (decimals) this week and students are seeing the connections between fractions and decimals.  We are off to a great start.

Reading

This week students took an assessment over the comprehension skills: inferring, context clues, and predictions.  These will be scored and sent home after the Holiday Break.  We started the new read aloud, The Watson’s Go To Birmingham-1963.  The next comprehension skills that we will be focusing on are main idea and theme.

Writing

Students worked very hard planning, drafting, editing, and revising their mini social studies writing project this week.  Although there were some challenges getting these reports into the Photo Speak App, students learned a lot from this process.  I hope that you enjoyed the finished product during our Open House today.  Students will continue learning about non-fiction writing through the month of January.

Word Study

We did not have time to go through a formal word study cycle this week.  Graded tests from last week will be sent home today. 

In preparation for the Paxton Keeley 4th and 5th grade spelling bee, students were given fifty very challenging spelling words.  The two students who spelled the most words correctly will represent our class in the Spelling Bee.  The final 10 words will be given on Monday.  I will then let the students know who the winner is.  Those two students will have the entire Holiday break to prepared for the mid-January Bee.

Social Studies

Students learned a lot about the Revolutionary War in chapter 8.  They have also discovered the difficulties that our country faced creating a government in chapter 9. 

Important Dates:

Dec. 21  Winter party at 2:15

Dec. 22-Jan. 3 Winter Break

Jan. 4 School Resumes

Jan. 9 Fine Arts Extravaganza (field trip) - note is in the folder

Jan. 10 Biztown (field trip to Chesterfield)

Jan. 15 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day-No School

Jan. 25 PTA movie night 6:00-8:00

Have a wonderful week!

                                                                                                            Sincerely,
                                                                                                            Dan Keenoy