In math we finished the teacher made benchmark.  I had the students score his/her own test, and I will review them tonight to create groups for review. (By the look on the faces,  lots of review is needed).  In ELA some people have finished the "Golden Lion Tamarin" menu, and some have a long way to go (due to finishing other work).  I will give them until Friday to finish.  If they are already done, I will find a game/reward for them after checking to see if it is level 4 work.
In Social Studies we continued working on the project on economies.
REPORT CARDS CAME HOME TODAY!!!!  Please sign and return the envelope.  You can keep the papers inside.
Soooo....the students are going to want to get me.....I found out at a meeting Tuesday during planning, that the school DID purchase the Case 21 benchmark tests.   So the benchmarks that were made by the team were a great practice for the Case 21.  We have not been told a testing schedule yet.

Today we started our Math quarterly benchmark.  After about 40 minutes, I could see the smoke rising off of their heads and decided to let them resume tomorrow. They should have finished the grocery store project today (except one group that is having computer trouble).  3 groups presented today.  I hope to see the rest tomorrow after we finish the quarterly benchmark.
In ELA we continued to review the quarterly benchmark in small groups.  I am pretty impressed with their scores.  The questions they missed were usually due to not reading the answer choices carefully.  And those were the tricky ones.
In Economics students started making a Board Builder using Discovery Ed.  They will explain Market, command, traditional and global economies using videos, pictures and words.

RECORDERS!

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/13cyshWlkIJyaFmWFkTZFqjLViCefUfCKDyzPdJYXD3I/edit?usp=sharing

Mr. Colon is asking parents to purchase recorders (much more sanitary)!

In Math we worked on the presentations for the grocery store project.  I hope to present tomorrow.  In ELA, we took a staff made benchmark test.  We will review these in small groups during ELA this week.
In Economics we watched several Brain-Pop videos; Recession, Supply and Demand, Banking, Taxes, Adam Smith, and Gas and Oil.  Kids can log on to see these at home to review.

Today we got close to finishing a week's meal plan for under $200.  We should get to start putting together the presentations tomorrow.
In ELA we started learning how to annotate our reading.  ?, *, C, V, I, S.  See if they remember what each one stands for.
We continued working on our "Golden Lion Tamarin" anthology story.
In economy we talked about recessions, jobs/careers, and how being a student/volunteer is important to our economy.

In math we started the Grocery Store excursion.  The kids have to plan a weeks worth of healthy meals with a budget of $200.
In ELA most kids have now started the "Golden Lion Tamarin" story.
In Economy, we talked more about Global Trade and then played  financial game of football!

I have "quarterly benchmark" assessments.  I will give them next week.

I was very impressed by the math tests today.  Everyone in the classroom passed!  Great Job!
The Elena tests were not as great.  Students gave "true" answers, but did not back them up with quotes from the text.  We will continue to work on providing evidence for answers all year.
In Economics we had a great time with our Global Trade "string" activity.

The kids did so great with adding and subtracting decimals, that I am going to go ahead and give the assessment Tuesday.  The Elena assessment will also be Tuesday.
In Economics, we went over traditional, market, command and global economies.

Parent conferences!
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E084FA8AF29A46-parent

What a wonderful Walk-a-thon day!  Thanks to all the parents for helping.  

Tee-shirt instructions:  Just to make sure the shirt paint is set, wash it inside out, cold water.  

Today we continued working on Adding and subtracting decimals.  

After our wonderful walk-a-thon we watched a Mythbusters episode.  We took time to finish up our Elena menus and our memoirs.  If your student did not turn them in today, they can still turn them in on Monday.  We will take our Elena test Tuesday and we will start Golden Lion Tamarin on Tuesday.  

In social studies, we had just gotten started on the only "book work" lesson when I realized we needed to go to book buddies.  So we will finish the reading about command, traditional, global and market economies on Monday. 

We worked on subtracting decimals using a number line today.  We will continue adding and subtracting decimals tomorrow, and start a grocery store project on Monday.  Our Adding and subtracting decimals test will be on Wednesday or Thursday.
We continued to work on our Elena Menu's and Memoirs.  If your student is done tomorrow, I will collect them.  (Report cards are due next week to the administration, so I want to get a big chunk of grading done this weekend).  If they are not done, I will give them Monday to finish.  We will have the Elena test on Tuesday!
Needs: Please have your student bring in snacks (one or two) EVERY DAY!  The kids are starving by 1:20, our lunch time.  If anyone wants to donate to my emergency snack bucket, cereal fruit bars are a great donation.  (I got cleaned out of 32 snack bars in just 4 days.  Everyone seemed to need snacks this week.)
Also, if you are out and about, and find a great prize bucket item, feel free to donate.  

I forgot to send home Wednesday Folders.  I will send them home tomorrow.

We started adding decimals with the number line.  Tomorrow we will subtract decimals with a number line.  In ELA, we continue to talk about character growth (Gru from Despicable Me) and comparing and contrasting characters in Wonder.
In Social studies we had a great lesson on assembly lines today.  Ask your kids about the crayons!

Don't forget!!!!! PICTURE DAY IS TOMORROW!!!!!  Bring money and dress nice.

Wear Purple on Thursday!  It is Mr. Chappell's last week, and we will celebrate him with our ECU Purple and an applause parade.

If the Presidential budget was not finished in class, then it became homework tonight!  

In math we started adding and subtracting decimals.

We had a long rotation of writing our Memoirs!

We took our Math benchmark today on Decimal Place value and rounding.
We continued working on our Elena menus and our Presidential Budget project.
Picture day is Wednesday.  We will have our pictures taken at 11:30.
Look closely at the homework, it is different starting this week.

Moving math test to Monday

It took longer to create our Decimal Benchmark  posters and our Decimal of the Day posters than I thought it would.  I will give the Day 30 math assessment on Monday.
We are hard at work on our Elena Menus.  The kids should have completed 4-5 things on the menu by now.  Ask them where they are.
In Social Studies we have dug deep into the economy.  We have gone over many vocabulary words: basic needs, consumer, goods, income, producer, service, trade-off, savings, wants, economy and budget.  
We are going to start the President's budget today!  Lots of fun arguments to be had!

Welcome back,
Today in the Wednesday Folder there is A LOT of info.
Field trip permission form - sign and return asap
Field Trip money info - $ asap
Walk - a -thon envelopes - due Sept 18th but can be turned in whenever you are ready.
Picture day information too!

Yesterday and today we reviewed the first 27 days of math.  We started our ELENA menu, focusing on comparing characters and text structure.  We also started our economy unit.

Field Trips

Hi all,
Welcome back from Track-out.

Field trip info:
November 5, 2015 - Camp Flintlock - all day at school - we will need chaperones!
December 11, 2015 - Science made fun - Force to change - at school part of the day
February 1, 2016 - I-Max at Marbles - Lewis and Clark - part of the day
April 15, 2016 - Science made fun - Meteorology Madness -at school part of the day.
The total cost is $52.00.
Payment options -pay in full or in two equal payments of $26.00 each.
1.  Check - make it out to "Brassfield Road Elementary School.
2.  Exact Cash (I cannot make change)
3.  pay online at http://osp.osmsinc.com/wakeNC

Walk a thon is coming up fast!  September 18th!   Volunteers wanted!
Make sure you have registered to be a Wake Co. Volunteer by signing up at any public school.  Make sure to check Brassfield as a school at which you want to volunteer.  You must do this EVERY YEAR!