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Monthly Archives: February 2019

February 25th, 2019 – Recycling and Inspiration Week

Good Morning Families,

I hope you’re staying warm and safe with all the snow from last weekend.  It took me twice as long to drive to school today, but I’m happy to be here and ready for a new week!

This week the kids will learn about the importance of recycling, reducing and reusing trash and household items.  As we learn about recycling, we’ll practice summarizing, point of view and homographs in our realistic fiction stories.  We are back to a full week, so we’ll have spelling and a literacy homework this week.

In Math, we’ll continue practicing perimeter and area.  The first few lessons are two days long, so I’m anticipating homework in my class on the following evenings.

Monday – Homework 5.2

Tuesday – None

Wednesday – Homework 5.3

Thursday – Homework 5.4

Friday – None

In Writing, the kids are in the process of writing their Personal Essays.  The topic is, “A Person I Admire.”  We will begin the rough draft this week, and will hopefully finish up the final draft before spring break.

On Friday, the kids will enjoy a special treat, as Arnold will be visited by a handful of student athletes from the University of Nebraska.  The event is known as the “School is Cool Jam,” and the athletes will discuss the importance of hard work and studying to help you accomplish your goals in life.  It’s always fun to see the athletes in person, and hopefully the kids will draw plenty of inspiration from their stories.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Eric Wachter

February 19th, 2019 – Winter Bliss?

Good Morning Families!

I am thankful to start a new week that does not involve the massive Reading and Math tests your children took last week!  However, as much as I hoped for a little normalcy, it sure looks like we’ll be interrupted by snow again, tomorrow.  That being the case, I’m going to put a qualifier on this week’s spelling words.  If we don’t have a snow day…we’ll have a spelling list.  If we do have a snow day…we’ll cancel the list.  So, expect a list to come home tonight just to be safe, and then we’ll play it by ear with the weather.

We will have a literacy homework this week, however.  Our reading theme is week will focus on fairy tales, and what we can learn from them.  We’ll practice summarizing, point of view and root words in our practice.

In Math, we’ll change our focus to solving perimeter and area for the next few lessons.  We’ll learn ways to find perimeter and area in a variety of shapes, using different strategies.  The first three lessons will cover two days, so in my Math class I anticipate homework on the following nights.

Tuesday – No Homework

Wednesday – Homework 5-1

Thursday – No Homework

Friday – Homework 5-2

In writing, we’ll begin preparations for writing a Personal Essay about “A Person I Admire.”  And, in Science our eggs arrived last week for Embryology.  If all goes well, we’ll have 12 new little fuzzy classmates hatching around March 5th.

Thanks for reading and stay warm this week!

Eric Wachter

February 11th, 2019 – Test Week

Good Morning Families,

This week your children will take their unit tests in both Reading and Math.  On top of that, conferences are being held on Tuesday and Thursday evening.  On top of that, our eggs will be delivered on Tuesday for our Embryology Unit.  Oh, and on top of that, we’ll host our Valentine’s Day party on Thursday!  Not to mention the weather may play havoc with our week.  Busy, busy, busy!!!

Hopefully Mother Nature will leave us alone this week!  We will have no spelling due to the unit ending, but there will be a Literacy Homework assignment.  In my Math class, I anticipate two review homework assignments on Monday and Tuesday.  As for Valentine’s day, I posted a list of all the kids’ names on this web site.  I also included a list on the weekly email.  Cards, small store bought candies, pencils, erasers…little gifts like that are approved.  Please don’t bring in an Apple Pie for every student!  Ha!

Thanks for reading, stay warm, and have a good week!

Eric Wachter

February 4th, 2019 – Poetry Week

Good Morning Families,

This week the kids will learn their lessons with the help of both narrative and free verse poems.  We’ll also revisit all the different types of figurative language we’ve learned, including alliteration, idioms, imagery, metaphors, onomatopoeias and similes.  We will have a new spelling list this week, and the kids will have literacy homework, as well.

In Math class we’ll continue practicing telling time, and then end the week with some graphing lessons.  Our Unit 4 test is fast approaching, so we’ll do some review, as well.  I’m hesitant to predict homework lessons this week, as I’m going to have to condense some lessons due to the cold day.  I anticipate homework this evening, but the rest of the week we’ll just have to play it by ear.

In Writing, the kids had fun completing their “What Am I?” animal book pages last week.  A few kids got to share, and we’ll finish that project up early this week.  Soon we’ll begin our preparation for writing a Personal Essay.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Eric Wachter