Dates

April 28 - All-District Art Show @ Queeny Park (12-4pm)
April 30 - 5th Gr Music Field Trip
April 30-May 10 - MAP State Testing Window for Grades 3-5
May 2 - Kindergarten Field Trip
May 7 - 4th Grade Field Trip
May 8 - Pkwy Board of Ed Mtg at Central Middle (7pm)
May 9 - BOGO Book Fair (4-5pm)
May 9 - Menchie's PTO Fundraiser (4-9pm)
May 10 - 4th Grade Field Trip
May 10 - BOGO Book Fair (4-7pm)
May 10 - SVE Family Fun Run (5:30-7pm)
May 14 - 5th Grade Concert (6:30pm)

Math

This week we are finishing up our Measurement unit. Last week students began learning to tell time to the hour and half hour. We will assess this week. Next week we will begin our final unit for the year - geometry! This is always a very fun unit as students learn how shapes are composed and decomposed. During this unit students will learn to...

-identify shapes based on their defining attributes.
-build shapes with defining attributes.
-draw shapes with defining attributes.
-sort shapes by their defining attributes.
-recognize when an attribute is non-defining.
-use two or more 2-D shapes to create new shapes (e.g., put triangles together to make a rhombus or a hexagon).
-use two or more 3-D shapes to create new shapes (e.g., combine two right triangular prisms to create a right rectangular prism).
-make new shapes from composite shapes.
-recognize what shapes are used to make composite shapes.
-partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares.
-describe equal shares as halves, fourths, or quarters.
-use the phrases half of, fourth of, or quarter of.

Writing

The students are doing an amazing job with their google presentations so far! They have done such great work in finding important facts, organizing those facts, and are now working to type their facts onto slides! This week they will learn how to format slides and add photos. I am hoping to wrap these up by the end of the week so students can begin presenting Monday! I will record the presentations and share on SeeSaw.

Following this presentation, we will do some work with narrative writing and work on using rubrics to improve our work. We also create a class compliment book which will be part of this work.

Dates

April 15 - Project Parkway Meeting at South High (6:30-8pm)
April 16 - Spirit of Excellence Awards at UMSL (6:15 pm)
April 18 - PAMEE Mtg (6-7:30pm) at ISC Building
April 18 - Parent Survey DUE -- SURVEY LINK
April 19 - NO SCHOOL
April 23 - PTO Meeting in the Library at 7pm
April 24 - 2 Hour Late Start Day (school starts at 11:05am)
April 25 - 4th Grade Music & Strings Concert at 6:30pm
April 25 - Parkway Park Tour (Free Event) Creve Coeur Park (5:30-8pm)
April 26 - Spring Walk/Bike to School Day at 8:15am
April 26 - PTO Movie Night 7pm in the Gym (Doors open 6:30pm) NO Drop-Offs
April 27 - Spring School Property Beautification Day (8-11am)
April 27 - All-District Art Show @ Queeny Park (10am-4pm)
April 27 - Parkway STEM Night at Blue Chip Soccer Village (7:30pm)
April 28 - All-District Art Show @ Queeny Park (12-4pm)
April 30 - 5th Gr Music Field Trip
April 30-May 10 - MAP State Testing Window for Grades 3-5

Science

Oh boy the kiddos are EXCITED about our new science unit that focuses on observing the sun, moon, and stars! They've already begun tracking the moon each evening. Yesterday we created sun trackers so we can also track the movement of the sun!

In the previous Light and Sound module, students explored how light and sound travel over distances. The primary source of light on Earth is the Sun. The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system. Students will learn that stars, including the Sun, generate their own light, while objects such as the moon reflect that light.

Throughout the module, students will document patterns as they observe the Sun, moon, and stars. The ability to recognize patterns is an important scientific skill that researchers use to develop explanations of observations in nature.

Finally, students will be challenged with the task of designing, building, and testing a device to protect students from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Students will analyze media to determine the peak times during the day for UV radiation and then design a cover for a playground structure.

Reading

We are starting a fun reading project this week - reader's theater! After our character study unit we always conclude by performing reader's theater. Students enjoy "becoming" characters as they work on fluency, voice level, expression and incorporate details as they create settings (backgrounds) for their performances. The three plays our students are working on are: The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. When we perform these in class they will be posted on SeeSaw. :)

Math

We are assessing this week on our current Addition and Subtraction 2 unit. Next week we will begin our measurement unit which lasts about 5 weeks. This unit focuses on the understanding of length by comparing objects to determine which is the shortest and longest. Students measure the length of objects using nonstandard units, such as pieces of string, cubes, and paper clips.  Students learn that objects can be compared directly or indirectly.  This unit also includes time, under the big idea that time is measurable and can be represented on a clock using hours and minutes.  Students are introduced to telling and writing time to the hour and half hour using both analog and digital clock Additionally, we will do some brief work with basic coin identification during this unit.

Essential questions for this unit:

Why do we measure?
What is important when we measure?