The Fall of the Roman Empire

Our Roman Feast was a blast. The students did a great job making the bread.  I was impressed that many of the students tried all of the interesting foods made by the other grades.  They even convinced me to try artichokes.   Next week we will wrap up the Roman Unit.  We are looking forward to the culmination performance next Friday.  Our class is working hard on our project for the performance.  Please send a flashlight next week before the show.  We will need them to practice for culmination. 

Some of the students did not finish the topic 4 quiz today so we will finish those on Monday.  We will then move on to topic 5.  This topic deals with multiplying.  There will not be a test on this topic until the week of Oct. 10. 

Mrs. Jennifer and I are both reading Crispin by Avi for the next unit.  Jennifer will be ordering the books on Monday.  Let me know if you would like her to order yours as well.  Just send eight dollars for the book to school and I will give it to Jennifer.  Here is the link on Amazon with a summary of the text. 

Next week we continue with our writing lessons.  We will begin to focus on each stage of the writing process (pre-write, write, revise, edit, and publish).  It is my goal to complete these mini-lessons before the Medieval unit in preparation for a writing project I have in mind for the unit.   

As always let me know if you need anything,

TRENT

cooking time

Our cooking time is 9:45.  We plan on eating the Roman meal at 2:00.  I hope to see you there.

Tomorrow

Hey Parents,

Don’t forget that tomorrow is our Roman Feast Day.  Your children are welcome to dress in Roman garb tomorrow.  Here is a link to a site that shows how to make togas.  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Toga-out-of-a-Bedsheet .  If they would like to dress as a Roman soldier that would be fine too.  I have talked to some of you about bringing supplies.  Please drop off the material in the morning.  I will be posting on this blog again a little later today to let you all know what time we will be in the kitchen.  Several of the grades have cooking projects.  The teachers will discuss who gets the kitchen and when.   I know several of you have asked to join in, so be sure to check the blog night for our cooking time. 

You probably noticed that your child has “study for math test” written in their planner.  We are going to be taking the topic four  test tomorrow, but I am considering it a quiz/homework grade.  Many of the questions we will work as a class.  They are bringing home their journals to study.  If you have any questions just give me a call.  Visit this site with your child and review topic 4.    http://www.pblunit10.com/envis4math/envisionmath.html

Thanks,

TRENT

supplies for Friday

Hey parents, I do not need those supplies until Friday not today. Thanks!

Hey Parents,

It was another great week at BDS!  It is hard to believe how much we have already accomplished this year.  Every week offers something new and exciting.  This past week we played Roman games, talked about Roman government, and held a mock trial.  This upcoming week we will continue the learning with more great lessons.  This week we will learn about the Punic Wars, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar.

 I was very pleased with the performance of the class on this week’s math test.  I hope you all have seen their test.  It is clear they all worked very hard during this math topic.  I know they will continue to perform well throughout the year.  On Monday we will start topic 4 which deals with division.

I will be sending the grammar test home Monday night for you and your child to review.  This week we will finish up our lessons on nouns and start learning about abbreviations.  We will take a closer look at the parts of a book and end the week with learning about compound words. 

Please remember to sign their planners, test, and work that is sent home.

*For an activity that we are completing on Friday, could you please let me know which material you can bring from the following list.  Our class is contributing bread to the Roman feast.

Flour (6 cups), 3 packages of fast-rising yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, large plastic bags, rolling pin, 6 loaf pans, grease spray

Thanks,

TRENT

Hey parents,

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  My weekend was very busy to say the least. Lisa and I are in the process of moving into our new home so please forgive me for this newsletter being a little later and a touch briefer than usual.  

On Friday we will have a grammar quiz on nouns (singular, plural, common, proper, and possessive).  Please remind your child to bring their journals home, so you can look over their notes with them.  We are also going to have our math test for topic 3 on Friday.  

I hope you have noticed the new homework planners the students brought home with them today.  Cindy Thames purchased these for our class, and I think they are going to be immensely helpful.  Please be sure to sign off on all of the days.

Thanks,

Trent    

When in Rome......

The boundaries of the Roman Empire have reached the grounds of BDS!  This unit promises to be packed with fun activities and engaging lessons.  I enjoyed the Greek unit so much and am looking forward to transitioning to a new topic. 

Math: We have begun topic three which deals with understanding multiplication.  Today we talked about multiplication as repeated addition.  We used Lego blocks as manipulatives and designed our own arrays.  I feel confident that the students will do very well with this topic.  We will not test on this subject until next week. 

Language Arts:  “Far down the mountain, on the narrow ribbon of road, he spotted a moving line that threw off reddish flashes of metal in the sunlight.  Legionaries.  At the sight, black hatred churned up in him.  Out of habit he spat violently.” – Elizabeth George Speare The Bronze Bow.  Today we started reading our book for the unit.  Every Tuesday the students will have reading homework.  This would be a great night for you to discuss the text with them.  For our grammar study session, we will learn about time order words and different types of nouns.  There will not be a test on this until next week.  Wednesday is “bring your favorite noun to school day”.  The student can bring three of their favorite things to school.  For spelling, please note that “Legionaries” has only one n.  It is correct on the spelling list but incorrectly spelled on the vocabulary list (whoops).    

Conceptual- This week in conceptual we will learn about the topography of Rome by studying key features of maps.  We will learn about the creation of Roman: both myths and facts.  The children will even create their own versions of how BDS began.  On Thursday we will start our Fourth grade classroom project from this unit.  We are going to design and create a three dimensional map of Rome.   Supplies will be needed for this, so I will get you information on this project very soon.  On Friday we will learn about the religion of ancient Rome.

Test tomorrow

Parents, tomorrow’s grammar test will cover: compound subjects, compound predicates, complete subjects, simple subjects, complete predicates, simple predicates, and correcting run-on sentences.  The students should have their journals with them today to study.  They can use these journals during the test, so they might want to add additional notes and examples tonight.  The math sheets in their folders are just additional practice to get them ready for the test.  They do not have to complete all of the problems on those sheets.  

This week at BDS

Even though this is a short week we have a lot happening in the next three days.  The students have learned so much during the Greek unit.  This week in conceptual we are going to learn about the Persian War and the Peloponnesian war.   We will also discuss Greek art and the students will get to design their own mosaic. 

In language arts we are going to finish reading The Lightning Thief.  The students will take a comprehension quiz for this book on Friday.  In grammar we will talk about run-on sentences as well as review some of last week’s lessons.  The students will take grammar test #2 on Thursday.  The students should have their journals at home on Wednesday to help them study.    On Friday we will begin to talk about time order words.  This week we will analyze the writing process and examine traits of authors and good readers.  I would like the students to bring in their favorite book.  We are going to research authors and find commonalities between them. 

Our science lesson this week will focus on the importance of using scientifically descriptive words to explain materials.  In the previous weeks we have tried to start thinking like scientist, now I would like to start seeing the students incorporate scientific terminology into their lexicon during our science times. 

This week for math we will be finishing topic two.  The test will be on Thursday.  I will send home a study packet on Wednesday.  On Friday we will start topic three on multiplication.  Please stress to your child the importance of checking over their work.  Many missed problems on the last test were caused by inattentiveness.  Also, let them know that I never mind if they need help understanding the wording or directions of a word problem.  It is much better to get something clarified, than to miss a question.

Friday at 1:30 you are invited to our culmination performance.  The kids are looking forward to expressing some of what they have learned in the first four weeks.  Our class will be sharing a little about the paper making activity and how history has been recorded.

*If you have not already ordered the book for the next unit, please do so soon.  Thanks          

Book for next unit

Hey parents,
I have picked the next book for the Roman Empire unit.  It is The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare.  Here is a link to purchase the book on Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Bow-Elizabeth-George-Speare/dp/0395137195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315072717&sr=8-1
Please order this as soon as you can so that it will be in for the next unit.  Thanks, and be safe out in this crazy weather!

No tests tomorrow

Hey parents, I just wanted to let you know that we will not have a grammar or math test tomorrow, but we will have our spelling test.
We are having our BDS Olympic Games, so the students should dress accordingly.  This should be something light they will be comfortable running around in.   Make sure to send a bottle of water or Gatorade with your child.  Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Trent