Important**Please be sure to send your child to school with a water bottle, lunch, and snack each school day. Some students are forgetting these items and are becoming hungry and thirsty during class.
What’s happening at Fortis?
2/7 Mom’s in prayer 9am
2/12 Teacher in service-NO SCHOOL
2/14 Spirit Day!
3/2 Box top collection
Blog Abbreviations-
HIG-Singapore Home Instructor Guide
TB- Textbook (Math and Shurley Grammar)
WB- Singapore Math Workbook
MM-Mental Math (Found in the back of the HIG)
HW-Handwriting
IEW- Institute for Excellence in Writing
PB-Shurley English Practice Booklet
USE-Usborne Science Encyclopedia
Math-
We will start with solidifying word problems and end with our introduction to pounds and ounces. We will be moving back and forth between the American system of measurement and the standard metric system. Memorizing the units of measurement is key during these lessons, so please review daily (conversions in co-teacher notes in math section).
***The students are doing really well on these measurement units! The only caution is that some students want to subtract 2 units of measurement mentally and are not re-naming (borrowing), and therefore getting the problem incorrect (For example: 6 km 25 m – 3 km 350 m = ______). If you find this is happening, please instruct your child to convert the measurement and write the problem on scratch paper and solve. We will always allow and encourage scratch paper if they need it.
***We continue to work on math facts in class, when time allows. Mastering math facts is crucial to the students’ success in math. Please spend time at home working on these. Your child can tell you which facts they have mastered and what they are currently working on.
Please spend no more than 10 minutes on mental math.
Shurley-
We are continuing our review of Shurley grammar concepts taught thus far. Please check for understanding each day. We have been re-visiting the concepts our students have struggled the most with. Some of you will find that your child has already mastered the specific concept assigned for that day. If this is the case, then you may choose something else to review with them. We have reviewed adjective, adverbs, phrases, SCS, SCV, CD, sentence vs. fragment, and pronouns. This week is possessive noun adjectives, direct objects, helping verb & linking verbs, and quotations (which many students struggled with on the last test. With little more practice, and they’ll get it down J).
Handwriting-
We will be frequently taking a completion grade for the handwriting assignments. Please have your child bring their book to and from school each day from here on out.
Continue to watch for proper letter formation of cursive and print letters at home. If your child is struggling with handwriting, encourage him/her to slow down. It takes time and patience to write neatly. Students are writing all final drafts in cursive. Notes have been made with the handwriting assignments on Wednesdays.
IEW-
Important- all final drafts must be written in cursive for the remainder of the year.
Students will be starting their final draft for “Amazing Animals” on Tuesday. It is a combination of Busy Beavers, Tasty Nests, and Honeybees. Please proofread their original final drafts for spelling, punctuation, dress-ups (underlined AND labeled), paragraph indentation, highlighting, double spaced, make sure their title reflects 2-3 keywords from the new final clincher, etc. They will be finishing their final draft on Wednesday and Thursday. They need to turn their paper in on Wednesday 2/14 (no school 2/12), stapled in order: ✔list, final draft, rough draft.
Students can earn up to 3 points extra credit for using this lessons vocabulary words in their paper (adept, sturdy, perplex). Vocabulary words should be underlined and labeled “voc” in the right margin. Students may use some creativity in their story, as long as the theme remains.
Reading-
We have been learning about the adventures of Lewis and Clark as they crossed the West in the early 1800’s. Each day the students were asked to write a few sentences summarizing what they read. The goal is to have a short summary of the book. In addition to the summary, we will be assembling a lap-book in class this week. *On Tuesday, with the map, your student can trace the route taken and complete the 3 boxes at the bottom of the map. We will return the RD summaries on Wednesday 2/7 for students to write their final draft of their summaries on Thursday and Friday.
History-
Here is a link to the Preamble that we’ll be using to help us commit it to memory:
**Note- the actual Preamble begins about a minute into the song. The students are not responsible for the additional words in the song apart from the Preamble that is found in their campus binder.
Memory-
We are currently working on Matthew 5:1-12, Try Again poem, USSR map & song, Preamble, 'Mixtures and Solubles, Oh My' poem and history timeline song.
Geography-
The USSR map can be found in the memory section of the campus binder. We will continue working on this map until 3/21. A copy of the map and song can be found in the geography section on the blog. If your child has any items at home from this region, please feel free to bring them in.
Have a blessed and productive week!
