March Newsletter

Happy March everyone! With a full month ahead, our classroom will be full of fun things to do while learning! Here's what we will be doing:

Math: We just finished a unit on fractions and decimals and took a test on it this last week. We will now be learning about multiplying and dividing by larger numbers. This includes multiplying 3 by 2 digit multiplication and dividing 3 by 1 digit division. We will also be talking further about the different properties of multiplication and division such as, the distributive property or associative property.

Once again, I wanted to remind you that if your child has taken home math assignments that have "Please Correct and Return" stamped on them, this is because their score on that particular paper was lower than 80%. This means that your child can redo the problems they missed on a separate piece of paper to show that they can do the problems. I will look at it and give them back half the points they missed if the problems are correct. If a math test is also 80% and below, students can correct the problems and tell me why the answer is correct.

Reading: Your child should be reading 30 minutes every night of the week, for a total of 150 minutes for an "A" grade on independent reading. Please help your child total these minutes up at the end of each week and sign that they read them. I collect all reading minutes each Monday. Also, please check to make sure your child is reading a book that is on their level of reading. If they are reading a book that is too hard for them, help them choose another one.

Please also keep signing the days, in the planner, that your child reads, so I can help them count up the total days for "Road to Success" reading tickets each month.

The next book report is a science fiction book. It will be due in April before we go off track. Please watch for information regarding what to do for the report in the next couple of weeks.

Science: We just finished a unit on rocks, minerals, and soils. We will be starting a unit on fossils next. Students will learn about the different types of fossils, such as trace, mold/cast, mineral replacement, and preserved. We will learn how each of them are formed, what they look like, and what they feel like. We will also talk about why fossils are important and where we can find them.

We will be having Mr. Nance come again at the end of the month to do more hands-on science involving rocks! Yea!

Social Studies: We recently finished up talking about the pioneers and the trek they took to Utah. We will be learning about how they settled Utah next.

Writing: We have just started the process of writing a persuasive paper. Students have been assigned to choose a topic they feel strongly about and come up with good reasons to support it. They will then learn to organize their reasons into a persuasive paper.