Welcome to Miss Schaefer’s and Mr. Palladino’s

     

Classroom Newsletter

 

Room 6 & 15 Updates February is flying by!

1.  Language  Arts  Homework  Update:  Star%ng  in  February  and  con%nuing  the  rest  of  the  year  students  will  be  asked  to  read  for  a  total  of  30  minutes  each  night.    Most  of  the  students  already  do  this.    Spelling  and  RAFTS  will  con%nue  to  be  staple  homework  assignments  un%l  the  end  of  the  year.        2.  Who  to  No;fy:  If  there  is  a  sudden  change  to  your  child’s  schedule  during  the  day,  for  example,  he/she  is  no  longer  taking  the  bus,  going  home  with  a  friend  etc.,  please  no%fy  the  Front  Office  as  the  primary  contact  on  your  email  and  include  Mr.  Palladino  or  Miss  Schaefer  as  a  secondary  contact.  This  will  ensure  that  your  message  gets  delivered  to  your  child  and  the  Secretaries  (Mrs.  Citron  and  Mrs.  Timpanaro)  will  be  aware  of  where  your  child  should  go  aMer  school  in  the  event  we  do  not  receive  the  message  in  %me.        3.  Homework  Challenge:  Language  arts  homework  is  becoming  more  challenging  as  the  year  progresses.  We  have  moved  away  from  building  our  reading  and  wri%ng  founda%on  to  applica%on.  If  your  child  is  stuck,  frustrated  or  confused  please  let  Miss  Schaefer  know.  A  good  %me  to  clarify  homework  direc%ons  is  before  school  on  either  Tuesday  or  Thursday  between  8:15  am  and  8:35  am.    4.  Friday  Folders:  Thank  you  for  signing  and  returning  Friday  Folders  so  promptly!    This  is  extremely  helpful  as  we  prepare  them  for  the  following  week.

Reading As readers, we will be continue to read our informational books and meet in small groups for RAFT and non-fiction reading strategies. In addition, we have started reading Dahl’s autobiography, Boy. This read-aloud provides a nice connection between reading and writing since students will be able to identify small personal moments Dahl used in gathering ideas for his widely popular children’s novels. During this read-aloud students will identify the non-fiction text features in an informational book. Students will be asked to identify the purpose of a heading, table of contents, index, glossary, caption, photograph, timeline, diagram and illustration when writing and reading informational pieces of text using their informational book.

Up Next We will then move into a biography/autobiography book club. Students will complete a culminating final project that builds on writing a non-fiction summary. In addition students will be asked to identify why their book is a biography or autobiography in the form of a RAFT question, one interesting fact and illustration about their person of choice, and three objects/pictures/illustrations that reflect the importance of the individual he/she had read about.  

February 2014

For your Calendar

February 12 Pictures for Clubs and Candids

(Band students – Bring Instruments

February 14 ½ Day of School

12:45 Dismissal

February 17 NO School

Presidents’ Day

Writing We are wrapping up our realistic fiction stories! Next week we will have an author’s day were students can share their stories with the class. Next, we will start learning about how and why essays are written! Students will gather and commit to a thesis of their choice. We are working on developing mini stories to provide support and evidence that coincide with each essayist’s three topic sentences. These topic sentences are used to support your child’s thesis statement. February will used to start learning about how to write an essay and the purpose it serves for the audience. In addition, we will also be doing some creative writing that allows students creativity to foster and grow!  

Coming up this month: The main purpose of our essay is to persuade or inform the writer’s audience. Again, individual writing conferences will be happening regularly during our Writing Workshop time. This ensures that each child is given the appropriate instruction and guidance he/she needs as a developing writer in a new genre of writing.    

February Birthdays: 2/3 – Audrey 2/13 – Jake 2/18 – Sara 2/24 – Carly

2/29 – Elizabeth

 

August Birthdays:

8/2 – Cate 8/5 – Nick 8/23 – Eric

 

Contact Information Room #

6 Class Website:

http://www.chatham-nj.org//Domain/429 Miss Schaefer Email:

lschaefer@chatham-nj.org

Room # 15

Class Website: http://www.chatham-nj.org//Domain/613

Mr. Palladino Email: vpalladino@chatham-nj.org

Friendly Reminder: We will be having a Valentine’s Day party on Friday, February 14th. The party will be held in class at the end of the day. It is up to your child if he/she wants to distribute Valentines to his/her classmates. If your child does decide to participate, we ask that he/she bring in enough cards for the entire class. (It is optional to provide cards for students outside your child’s homeroom.) There are 25 students in 4-Sch and 24 students in 4-Pal. Class lists were sent home in January.

 Save the Date:

Community Food Bank Field Trip  

Thursday, March 6 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Social Studies In January we took a break from our

Region Unit and focused on Martin Luther King Junior’s nonviolent message of equality and love for all humanity. This message still rings true in both 4-Schaefer and 4-Palladino and is a remains a constant thread as we have resume working on our Region projects. Students continue to work in flexible groups of up to nine students. Students are asked to complete ten practice pages and projects on each of the five United States regions over long term projects. Students are enjoying being able to work with a variety of students in 4 Palladino, Schaefer and Valluzzi. Students have been creating maps, writing letters, designing informational brochures, and even some songwriting!        

Math Students have done an amazing job

learning the important methods of multiplication of larger numbers. The purpose for working with all of these methods was for students to build a strong number sense in multiplication as they incorporate the place value of the digits of each factor. Though the standard algorithm was one of the most challenging methods we learned, students will realize that it will be the most useful algorithm for multiplying even larger numbers.

In upcoming weeks, we will revisit the skill of division, as we seek patterns in how we divide, based upon what we’ve learned about multiplication. Soon, students will be dividing large numbers using mental math and the skills of “long division”. Much like the standard algorithm of multiplication, the long division method will be the most effective way for students to divide large numbers and interpret remainders. With practice, and some handy pneumonic devices, students will be dividing quickly and accurately!

 

Science Students in both homerooms have

finally completed all of their Shoebox Circuit dioramas and have presented their work to their classmates! I was so impressed by the hard work and creativity students displayed as they showed off what they learned about electricity and displayed pride in their work as they spoke to a group of their peers.

We have completed some memorable labs these past few weeks in science, as we complete our study of electricity and begin learning about the water cycle. We will again engage in valuable hands-on activities including observing evaporation of water under different conditions in our classroom and exploring weather phenomena in our environment.

As we progress, students will have a solid understanding of the stages of the water cycle, and how each step changes water into the different forms we see around us. Students will utilize skills of measurement and estimation, as well as incorporating their technical drawing skills in observation.