March 4th through 8th


Keenoy Kardinal News                                     3-8-19 

Dear Families,

I’m sure that you are feeling the same way………”Finally, a five day week of school!”  It was nice to be in a regular schedule and I’m glad that we did not have to use another snow day on Monday.  Hopefully the weather will turn a corner quickly.  My son has a soccer tournament in St. Louis this weekend.  He is super excited as he has been injured and had to take three weeks off.  Caleb has been miserable not playing!  My girls are also keeping us entertained and busy each day.  Natalie (my fifth-grade daughter) is participating in gymnastic competitions and is doing really well in her age division.  Gabby continues to be a pistol and makes us laugh with her comments daily. 

Have a wonderful week and I really enjoyed visiting with each of you during conferences. Ms. Sullivan and I feel extremely supported and appreciate everything that you do.   

Kardinals of the Week-Kenicia L. and Emerson K.

Keenoy Kardinal of the week- Kenicia

Hi, my name is Kenicia. I have 8 people in my family. My favorite hobby is singing and my favorite place to eat out is China Garden. I am excited to be a sixth grader next year!

Keenoy Kardinal of the Week- Emerson

Hi, my name is Emerson and I have 5 people in my family. These include my mom, dad, Lucas, Adler, and me. I also have 3 pets. Millie the dog, Princess the mean cat, and Ellenore the puppy. I love to act and go other places like Florida. I’m excited to go to middle school and meet new people.

The next Kardinal of the Week is Reagan on March 18th . Please bring any pictures or items that you would like to put on our bulletin board that is located outside of our classroom.

Writing
This week we had terrific discussions about the similarities and differences between persuasive and argumentative writing.  Argumentative writing is more research based and is more respectful of the other point of view.  I also guided students through the process of writing an argumentative essay.  We will practice growing through this process with several argumentative ideas (as a class).  I’ll be asking students to involve their parents with brainstorming topic ideas during this unit.  I enjoy when my own children involve me in their learning at school. 

Inventions (Writing/Soc. Studies)
One of the argumentative ideas that I am going to have students focus on is an invention (between 1700-current) that had the most impact on the world.  The process will take a couple of weeks and will look like this:

*Students brainstorm a list of invention ideas after looking up information.
*Narrow down their long list to 3 inventions.
*Research information about the 3 inventions.
*Select 1 invention and create a brief argument about how the invention impacted the world.
*Each student presents this information to the class.
*The class votes on the top 2.
*Our class creates an iMovie for the 2 inventions.
*After spring break, 5th graders will watch the top videos and then will vote for

Reading
We just finished reading aloud the book Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges. We had great conversations on the process of integrating schools in 1960. The students really shared some great deep level thinking throughout. The main focus was on the comprehension strategy of cause and effect. After we finished the book, the students were assessed over this skill. They showed off their knowledge of cause and effect, and I am proud of them. This assessment was sent home today. Yesterday, I started our new read aloud, Children of the Dust Bowl by Jerry Stanley. I will be modeling my thinking aloud and asking students to practice the skills taught each day (listed below). This is a wonderful book and I am excited to dive deeper into it.
*Theme
*Point of View
*Cause and Effect
*Main Idea

Word Study
Students were tested over their words last week.  These were graded/returned to students and they should be coming home in their Friday folder.  We will be focusing on words that have the ending sounds:  er, ar, ure during our next word study cycle.  Please look for these words in your child’s planner next week.  Quizzing your child from their word list is also very helpful.

Social Studies
Students will continue to learn about how the country grows in chapter 11.  These lessons focus on a) Industrial Revolution b) Immigration c) Texas and the Mexican War   d) Movement West-Gold
Rush

Math
On Wednesday, we completed the Topic 5 assessment. These assessments will be sent home on Monday. They did well on the assessment and I was proud of how hard they worked during the unit. Our next unit will focus on multiplying and dividing decimals by the power of 10. We started the unit yesterday and we will be continuing to apply the skills we learned from previous units, as well practicing new skills from Unit 6.
PK5K School Color Run
This year, Paxton will host our annual school color run!  This is an exciting program that will help create awareness for healthy living, raise funds, and is sure to be a blast.  Register by April 12th for a $20 registration fee.  Late registration is available but will increase the fee $5.  A yellow informational page will come home today in your child’s Friday folder.


Reminders
Thursday, March 14th   Paxton Keeley Picture Day
March 25-29                No School/Spring Break
Friday, April 5th           Paxton Spring Fling
Friday, April 26th         Color Run
                                                                                                Sincerely,
                                                                                                Dan Keenoy


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