Monday, October 8, 2012

An interesting article on homework!

I thought you folks might fight this interesting.  It give you some real world strategies that can help you help your student, be warned, it does require a free membership to view:

http://www.parents.com/kids/development/intellectual/homework-success/?sssdmh=dm17.622396&esrc=nwpmmdailytip100812t

I like the TV off and the house quiet until everyone is done.  That is an issue in MY house too!  I'm going to try, how about you?

What's up in Mr. Case's Class this week: 10/8/2012

Hi all,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  We had a great time at Owen's Science Center this past Friday as we learned about the location of stars in the night sky and how the sky is so different in places around the world.  Not only did that lesson touch on upcoming topics in Dr. Dowuona's science class it also reminded the children about how the world is split into four hemispheres and how time is different too!  Great Stuff!

It's going to be a busy week in Mr. Case's Class.  So here's the highlights:

Reading:  We are starting an new story about volcanoes.  In this story the children will be using their monitor/clarify strategy to help them read.  Please have your child practice this strategy in this week's reading logs.  Next we will be looking at passages of the text and we'll be identifying the main idea for each part.  That is, your child should be able to tell you the most important ideas in a particular passage of text.  Have your child try that as well as they do their reading this week.  This week your child should complete six reading entries in their reading folder.

Spelling:  This week's list is:  steal, stealth, cave, cavity, wise, wisdom, deal, dealt, athlete, athletic, crime, criminal, breathe, breath, wild, wilderness, shade, shadow, revise, and revision.  Challenge words are nonrenewable, renewable, mineral, decision, conservation.
This week's strategy is discussed in your child's homework packet p. 83.  Page 83 is due tomorrow, p. 84 Wednesday, 85 the top Thursday, and the bottom with the writing assignment on the bottom of 85 is due Friday.  As always the writing assignment must use 3-5 spelling words that should be underlined. This is an advanced list covering a story we haven't read, so tell your child that a tall tale is a wild story that is meant to be fun and that the truth is really stretched.  Examples include Paul Bunyon, Davy Crockett, and John Henry.  They should have fun with this!

Writing:  This week we are writing a personal news article.  Your child, earlier this year, created an expert list (things they are good at) and now they will write a short essay- up to three paragraphs about this topic.  Take a moment with them to look at news articles on-line and in your local paper.  Point out to them that articles show the reader who, what, where, when, and why.  You can even make it a game where you both try to answer those questions.

So as you can see, we have a very busy week coming up!  Have fun at home and we'll see you next week!

Mr. Case