Hello All,
On Monday, students' Famous American speeches will be coming home to be written in final draft, practiced, and "costumed". We have spent many hours in class working on the speeches, and most of the students were able to complete their research and first drafts. It's now homework, so students will be given a very small Homework Packet this week in order to focus on the speech. This week's packet will consist of a Reading Log and the Moon Observation Chart only. (We hope to see the moon this week!) Attached to the packet is the rubric for the speech, as well as a letter explaining dates and expectations. Students in our class will be speaking on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 8th and 9th. It's been exciting watching the kids learn about these special people and I know they are eager to share the information with the class.

This week we will also be wrapping up our unit on fractions. The kids will have an assessment and then will work on an interesting (in class) project to demonstrate their knowledge of fractions. We are then moving on to forms of measurement not yet addressed (capacity and time). In RTI we'll be enjoying a terrific narrative about the explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew.

Finally, we will continue to practice with the Smarter Balanced format and technology. As you've seen, the tests is quite a shift from former ones, and we'd like the kids to be as comfortable as possible with its structures.

Take care, and have a great week,
Carroll Mayer