Mr. Mathis

The latest

Here is a quick update from our classroom:

Curriculum night is Thursday, Feb. 2.  The Chick-fil-a dinner is 6-6:30 and benefits Relay for Life

Our field trip to the Cobb Youth Museum is 2/10. We need all permission slips and payments as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for information about the 'SOS' (Save our science lab) campaign.

On-line CRCT practice information will come home today. This requires computer and internet access. Please let us know if there are any problems with this so we can make arrangements here at school. These on-line practice tests will become part of assigned HW. More details about that will be forthcoming, just make sure to keep track of the green paper with user ID and password information.

These online tests cover material from the entire year. While they can be difficult, they are a great preparation tool. We appreciate your support in seeing that they are completed with a satisfactory score.

IN CLASS:

Math

We just wrapped up a fairly thorough study of fractions. This segues into our next couple of weeks on decimals. We are responsible for identifying, comparing, ordering, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing them.

Reading:

Still all about non-fiction. We are spending our time with textbooks, newspapers, and magazines in class. We are focusing on using the text features and locating information.

Social Studies:

We have just begun the war! Well, learning about the actual war. We have spent several weeks studying the events that led to the Revolutionary War, and are just starting to look at the important battles and people involved. Our field trip is completely centered around this unit, and is sure to be a great learning experience.

That's basically all for now. Email me with any concerns as usual.

2012!!!

First, and very belatedly, I want to thank you all for your wonderful Christmas gifts. They made my break extremely enjoyable!

Invitations to our 2nd 9 weeks AR celebration will go home this week for anyone who met their 2nd 9 weeks goal. We will enjoy some extra desserts after lunch on Thursday.

Stay tuned for field trip information coming home soon.

Here's a little taste of what's going on in class in 2012....

Language arts: It's all about non-fiction. We are going to spend quite a bit of time working with strategies to preview and read non-fiction text. Hopefully these strategies can carry over to the text book reading at home.

Math: Fractions and decimals. We start with a couple weeks of fractions. We go as far as identifying equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting them. We also investigate the relationship between mixed numbers and improper fractions.

Social Studies: We cover everything from the causes of the revolution to the formation of our government in the aftermath. A great deal of this will be incorporated into our reading unit. Our field trip in February is to the Cobb Youth Museum to participate in and watch some Revolutionary war theater. It's a fantastic field trip that is well worth the money.

We are halfway to 5th grade. :) 

 

Halfway....almost

We are almost closer to 5th grade than we are to 3rd. It certainly goes quick!

I want to first off belatedly congratulate Phillip Surratt and Cameron Charles for being elected as our class representatives for student council. We know these guys will do a great job representing our class.

Information about our holiday celebration is on the way. Our wonderful room mom will be coordinating a simple get together for 12/22.

Thanks for the generous canned food donations. Our class, and more importantly Ford as a whole, did a fantastic job. That's what the holidays should be about!

In class:

Language Arts: We have been focusing on elements and aspects of fiction lately. We have talked about different parts of the plot and the basic pattern for all stories. We will being to analyze theme and mood of stories next week. We are also spending some time each week with traditional literature, i.e. tall tales, fables, fairy tales, etc...

Math: We'll pretty much be in Geometry world until the break. Line relationships, classifying triangles, quadrilaterals, and other polygons as well.

Science: Thank goodness for our science lab. It allows us to cover our content rather thoroughly. We have another week of science left where we will tackle light and sound after wrapping up simple machines today. There are some decently cool science games on light and sound linked from the blog.

Social Studies: We will have a couple of weeks to cover the colonization of America. It will be quick, but doable. It's important we cover this content so that we are prepared for our study of the American Revolution when we return.

That's the quick version of what we will be up to.

Need a Christmas tree?

Download Christmas Tree order form

North Cobb soccer is selling fantastic Frasier Fir trees and wreaths. We can accept orders until 11/18. The trees are very fairly priced, and we will even deliver them to your house if you live in the Kennesaw/Acworth are for an extra fee of 10 dollars. Everyone I know personally that has purchased a tree has been thrilled with the quality. I will also put the link to our website where they can be purchased using pay-pal. Email me with any questions. Sorry for pushing this on mostly Harrison fans, but everybody needs a tree and North Cobb soccer appreciates your consideration.

http://www.nchssoccer.org/

Moving right along

Hello all,

I'm sure I will see many of you next week at our friends and family feast. I am looking forward to the 3 days of turkey and stuffing as a little thanksgiving appetizer.

Student Council:

I am sending home some information about student council responsibilities tonight. We spoke about this earlier in the week, but we didn't have much interest. Anyone that said they were interested is coming home with a little bit of info tonight. Sorry for the late notice, but we will choose a representative and an alternate tomorrow. They meet one Monday a month.

In class:

Language Arts:

Our focus has been on fiction text lately. We are reading several books together and trying to further develop our skills and strategies as readers. We will send an AR and 25 book update home tomorrow. There is plenty of time left for both in this 9 weeks.

We are putting the final touches on our narratives while we continuously work on summarizing throughout our shared reading.

Science:

Now that explorers are done we move on to a hectic period of science content. The class has a chapter review to complete tonight. This will serve as a study tool for one of the many science assessments we will have before the 9 weeks ends. We move right ahead to simple machines next week. I shared several on-line games that cover content in these areas, as well as light and sound. All the games are pretty fun and actually have a lot of quality information. Hopefully we generated a little bit of interest today and some time can be found to explore these games at home.

Math:

The class has done a fantastic job with a long unit on division. We will wrap that up and move into geometry next week. I plan on sending a small amount of multiplication and division review problems home each week so we can keep our skills sharp. We have worked too hard to let all our new knowledge fall by the wayside. We should have a final assessment in division with a 2 digit divisor tomorrow and early next week.

 

See you soon

Conferences:

Yesterday your child should have brought you a paper with a proposed conference time on it. Please sign and return this at your earliest convenience. If the time does not work for you please put some alternatives on the paper when you return and we will make sure to find something that works for everyone. I look forward to seeing you all then.

AR/25 Books:

This is the last week to turn in organizers for 25 books. Everyone should have 6 by now. Remember, this counts as one test grade per 9 weeks. Please email me if there is any confusion over this. By this time everyone in class should be very aware of the expectations and requirements.

This is also the last week for each student to make their AR goal. Many people have ample points, but do not have the necessary 85% average to attend the celebration. Details and invitations will be coming home soon.

In Class:

Reading: We have focused on a variety of different skills thus far, and we will now begin to work in small groups more often to reinforce these and other strategies. We had a great time reading Mary on Horseback and SkinnyBones. Both books were great platforms for practicing questioning and clarification. Our focus of late has been finding the main idea by eliminating extraneous details. This skill leads into summary writing for both fiction and non-fiction.

Writing: The poems turned out fantastic and should be coming home soon. We have already begun work on our personal narrative. I have an opening paragraph from everyone ready to be graded. The class has done a great job hooking the reader and setting the stage for the main action. We will be hard at work on these this week, and everyone should have a final product by next week sometime.

Social Studies: We had 6 different native american tribes to cover, according to the GA standards. Hopefully it was a little bit enjoyable to rotate through the classes learning about each new tribe. Today the students will use their notes to fill out an organizer about all the tribes. This will be used as a study tool for our SWYK (show what you know/assessment/test) on Thursday. Once we complete our newspaper we will be finished with this unit and right back to science next week.

Math: We just began multiplying by two factors. We will discuss several different methods for solving two by two multiplication in hopes that everyone finds one that works for them. Last night was all about the distributive grids. In my opinion those grids are the simplest method for solving those type of problems. Students will have an opportunity to explore two other methods, including the traditional algorithm. This first 9 weeks was a lot about refining and establishing some basic skills. We continue to build off these skills in longer more complex problems as the year goes on. There is more multiplication and division to come in the next couple weeks.

Again, I look forward to seeing everyone at conferences.

See you in September

The honeymoon is over....

Quick update regarding our classroom activities:

Hopefully your child has shared First in Math with you by now. Everyone has a user name and password and should be spending time on this site several times a week. Basic multiplication and division facts can cause problems for anyone throughout the entire year. Our first 9 week focus in FIM is on facts. There are several fantastic ways to practice both multiplication and division. Don't let this resource go unused!

More info on FIM and everything else at open house 9/15.

In class this week:

Reading: We will incorporate some of science into this time period by discussing how to preview non-fiction texts. Our main focus for the next couple of weeks will be asking questions about the text. We have several books to read together to reinforce these strategies.

Writing: We are still working on our descriptive poems. Our emphasis has been on ideas and organization. They are coming along nicely and I hope to have final copies from everyone by early next week.

Science: Water cycle. We are reviewing matter and its states today. This will segue nicely into a study of the water cycle, weather, and weather instruments. Homework from both he text-book and work book will be coming home soon.

Social Studies: We have a short quiz on some economic terms this Friday. They have the terms in their SS notebook. They will get another copy of them from me. They will also be given time to make flashcards in class. There is more to 'study' for this year, so let's work together to create some positive study habits for each student.

Down to business

Here is a quick rundown of what we will be working on this week in class.

Reading: We begin today with a little story called "The Green Man." We will work with this text all week with a focus on supporting our opinions with evidence from the story. We go through a lot of sticky pads this week. It's such an important skill to be able to support what you say/think with examples from the text.

Your child should also be able to tell you his or her AR goal, and give you a basic idea of what the 25 book campaign is. There will be plenty of information on both at open house.

Spelling: We have our first spelling sort this week. As the weeks go by we spend less and less time on spelling in class, but we will certainly take our time in understanding the way the words are sorted. Every Friday students will be graded on the spelling and sorting of the 15 words.

Writing: We have begun to talk about the 6 traits of good writing. We will begin work on a descriptive poem this week with a focus on ideas and organization.

Math: PLACE VALUE! Most of what we do this week will serve as a review from last year. We are responsible for place value from millions to hundredths. We will practice different ways to model each number and also work on rounding to the nearest ________.

Social Studies: We will develop a budget for our allowance and look at the opportunity cost of our spending decisions.

2 down, 178 to go!

Hello to anyone bored enough to read this blog.

I've had such a good time getting to know everyone these first couple days. We are busy getting into routines and getting things set up for the year. We have discussed our AR goals and the 25 book campaign. There will be more information on both of these, and much more, at open house. I just wanted to take a moment and welcome all our parents to the class as well. You are as much a part of this learning community as me. I know that we will have a successful year working together to prepare your student for 5th grade and beyond.

We read a book call The Garden of Abdul Gasazi today. I am attaching a link to the author's website. There will be a little extra reward for any student who can write me a quick postcard from the site telling me why they did or did not like the book. It can be sent to my email: zachary.mathis@cobbk12.org

http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/home.html    (It was not working earlier, but maybe at home....) It would still be cool for them to explore the website. It's always nice to find a new author!

This is not a formal assignment. I just wanted to give them the chance to look around the website and learn about one of my favorite authors. Please feel free to use that email address for any questions you may have. Everyone seems to have all their supplies, and we have gotten off to a great start.

p.s. lunch is 12-12:30  

Important CRCT Testing Practice Information

In your Red Folder you will find two sheets. Please read over this information. One sheet lists the assigned tests you are required to do weekly. The other sheet provides the website and login information. Please note it starts the week of February 14th. We will review scores on Fridays. You must take the test until you score at least an 80%. Today we taught the class how to access and take the tests. . If you misplace your information it is posted under pages to the right.