Week of January 12-16, 2026
*PTO Hanging Basket Fundraiser forms were sent home with your child this past Friday, so please be sure to ask him/her for it.  :)
*Class Spelling Bee this Wednesday right after WIN time~interested students were given a study list this past Friday. Good luck to those who wish to participate!
*Benchmark Testing this week every day starting at 11:30~Monday: MAP Reading; Tuesday: AimsWeb Reading; Wednesday: MAP Math; Thursday: AimsWeb Math; Friday: MAP Language. These scores will be entered onto a spreadsheet (along with current levels in iXL) to determine WIN groups for second semester, so please encourage best efforts on these tests. Thanks!
*WIN Time this week is MATH focused. Check-ups and Diagnostic Arena on Fridays.
*Be sure to check-out the photo gallery! I added pics from last week's STEM challenge of building a sleigh to hold as many pennies as possible.
*Chess: Chess does meet this week on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Schedule and permission slip available on the tab on my webpage. 
January, 2026 monthly newsletter added--Check it out!! Each month, an updated version will be posted that contains general info and is available through a link on the left side of this webpage.

Scott BR Book reading:  Current work--Last Tuesday, students chose a novel to use with the first BR project of this quarter: Novel in an Envelope. This project includes the following requirements: 1) Following directions provided on a slideshow, the front and back of an envelope will be used to write novel info, theme, etc. and also to be addressed properly to me (as though it would be sent, but won't be); 2) a hand written letter to me (following the form in the directions) that tells about the story line and life lessons the book can teach; it will be in a "friendly letter" format; 3) ToSEEC written response describing how the setting (time AND place) affect the story (for example: if the story takes place in a time with no cell phones, the plot could possibly be much different); 4) Pixel Art made on a Google Sheet--this is something we've made in class before~ for this project, they'll need to think of a symbol or picture that can represent the story, create it using conditional formatting, capture it as an image, and paste that image onto a group slideshow that I will print so it can be placed in the envelope with the other two pieces of paper. This project and the signed bookmark will be due Thursday, January 29.  It will be a great chance to earn first AR points for third quarter.
"In-Class"  Reading: (MAP Reading test Monday, AimsWeb Reading test Tuesday, MAP Language test Friday) Together, we're working with a slideshow involving the theme of "Heroism" and using connected texts. We've already created a strong definition for the term "Heroism" and we'll refer back to that definition in our extended writing. Next, to apply a "clock" concept of the Hero Cycle (described in a Ted-Ed Video "What Makes a Hero?" we'll watch a couple times), we're halfway through reading a short selection entitled "In the Nick of Time" that describes the heroics of a young boy who saved his father; each "hour" of the clock represents a stage of the Hero Cycle, and we'll break down the story into those stages as practice for a longer text. 
To prepare for supporting the idea that the author of a story can use setting (time and place) to illustrate the need for heroism, the kids will first try and decide if certain items were available in Nome, Alaska during the winter of 1925 (yes...it's very specific but that's the setting of the next longer text). Knowing these facts will help explain why heroics were necessary to solve the problem in the story "The Great Serum Race." We'll begin the actual story, recording five examples of specific setting-based issues that needed a hero to help. Reading time moves around a bit this week due to the benchmark testing.

Scott Math--Monday: Using data collected last week concerning how many pennies each person's sleigh held, kids will find Mean, Median, Mode, and Range of that data as a quick quiz. HW: i23-1, PEMDAS/Order of Operations problems (to build on what we started last week); also, the IXL 2WK is due by the end of Tuesday. Tuesday: A quick visit to ratios to become familiar with order and equal rates. We'll use a flipchart in class to move pictures and practice writing ratios in three ways. We'll also practice with the centimeter cubes. HW: i13-1 and i13-2 in Savvas. Wednesday: MAP Math Benchmark testing (these tests can take over an hour each to complete). HW: any ixl skills in teacher recommendations. Thursday: AimsWeb Math test. HW: ixl skills practice. Friday: Topic 3-3 work (PEMDAS, target numbers, and starting to write expressions to represent word problems. No HW on Fridays.

Language: I really enjoyed reading the friendly letters the kids wrote to each other about their breaks--their writing has come a long way throughout the year! I've hung them in the back of the classroom.
This week's writing project is called "Fortunately/Unfortunately" and tells about a character's adventurous winter day--the plot alternates good and bad events, using patterns, of course. We'll work on a summer day story together to get the idea of how the story works before students will each compose their own about a winter day. This rough draft will be typed onto a Google Doc I'm providing before being turned into a little illustrated book. This might be worked on after a student completes their testing while others in the classroom are still finishing theirs. 

Social Studies:  One more partnership will present their mummy skit and we'll also see a classmate's slideshow about a trip she took last month.
Last week, we held a quick discussion on federal holidays (and how difficult it is to create one). Next week, the nation celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's holiday; to learn about this great leader, each student has already drawn out of a hat two specific adjectives. Using links and info I'll provide, cited evidence will be found to support each adjective, and then an elaboration will be written for each that explains HOW the cited evidence supports the adjective--this will be displayed in the hallway.
Once finished (if time permits due to testing), we'll move into Feudalism, using our textbook to find definitions for specific vocabs and also focus on castles (defenses).

Science:  
As an ongoing project, partners have each written six definitions (total: 12) onto their paper spinning circles and now are working with the poster they created. This poster contains twelve drawn boxes on the edges; using props, partnerships are setting-up demos and photographing examples to illustrate the vocabs, inserting them onto a shared slideshow. After I print them, the partners will tape them into the drawn boxes and write an explanation of how each picture illustrates the words.