Newsletter Info

Second Step
In our Anger Management unit we have concentrated on the importance of calming down so we can make logical decisions. Ask your child about their calming down technique. This week students will be presented with a problem and they will work in small groups to brainstorm solutions to the problem. They will test their ideas using the Super Sensible Solution Question Poster. Help them use these questions when working through problems with friends and family at home. When they are calm and think they have an idea to solve a problem, test it with these questions: Is it safe, How will it make others feel, Is it fair, and Is it possible? If they answer no to one or more, then they need to keep brainstorming.

Social Studies
We will use the basic map skills we acquired last week to begin a journey across the five regions of the United States, starting with the Southeast. We will learn about the states that make up this region, as well as some of the landforms and special features of this part of America. We will not be using the textbook, as it does not contain information on this standard. Instead, we have worked to create a folder that contains info on all five regions. These belong to the class and can be checked out, but students are asked to return them each day and not make any markings in them. We appreciate your support in keeping these pristine, so they can be utilized year after year without being reprinted. The quiz will be Friday.

Science
We will be starting a new unit on Light Energy this week. We will use the following questions to guide our initial investigations: What happens when light hits objects or travels through a different substance and What happens when light energy is absorbed? We will use flashlights and baby powder to observe how light travels (in a straight line until it strikes an object or travels from one medium to another). Later in the week, we will use flashlights and index cards to see what happens when light is blocked. There will be no science quiz this week.

Planner: Important messages that come up last minute or cannot fit in the newsletter are put on the board for your child to copy down each morning. If they consistently bring home a blank planner, please send us an email so we can encourage them to record these important notes that keep the whole team (us, your child, and you) on the right track and in the know. We do our best to monitor this, but we are unable to check 55 of them each day.