Dear Parents,
Good morning everybody!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend 
The upcoming events are as follows:
Dec. 5 – Spelling/Grammar Quizzes
Dec. 6 – Lessons 5.6-5.8 Math Quiz
Dec. 7 – Reading Tests
Dec. 7 – Daily Geography Quiz
Dec. 12 – Delayed Start
Dec. 13 – Chapter 8 Test (Government) -- has been changed
Below is what we are learning in the classroom this week. 
Reading: We are going to be reading a story in our text book titled, Aero and Officer Mike. Our focus skill is
determining the author’s purpose. We will also be reading a series of short informational texts that the children
will be choosing from based on their reading levels.
The vocabulary words the children will be tested on this Friday are:
ability – skill
patrol – walk through an area to watch or guard it
loyal – firm in supporting someone
partners – two people who work together
shift – the period of time a worker does his or her job
snap – to bite quickly
lying – stretching out on the ground
quiver – to shake or tremble
The children are still working on how to frame their answers by using part of the question in their responses.
This is a very difficult skill to acquire – and a necessary one for the fall and spring OAA reading tests. We will
be continuing to work on this skill in all subject areas throughout the year.
The children will be taking their Reading Tests this Friday.
English: We will continue to complete proof reading work this week. We also will be working on the skill of
identifying subject-verb agreement.
You can practice this skill with your child by writing out sentences and then asking your child to point out the
simple subject and predicate – then asking them how they know that they agree. You can then write a few
sentences where the subject and verb does not agree and ask him or her to correct them – explaining why it was
wrong as well as why their correction makes sense. For example:
The group of squirrels scampers across our backyard.
group: simple subject
scampers: simple predicate
Does the verb agree with the subject? Yes. How do you know? If you take away the prepositional phrase of
squirrels and reread the sentence, the group scampers across our backyard, you can see that the verb agrees with
the singular noun group.
The squirrels scampers across the yard.
Does the verb agree with the subject? No. How do you know? Squirrels is a plural noun, therefore the verb
must be in agreement with a plural noun. The squirrels scamper across the yard is correct.
We also will be working on pronoun-verb agreement.
You can practice this skill with your child by writing out sentences with pronouns and then asking your child to
point out the simple subject and predicate – then asking them how they know that they agree. You can then
write a few sentences where the subject and verb does not agree and ask him or her to correct them – explaining
why it was wrong as well as why their correction makes sense. Examples of sentences where they agree are:
she walks to school every morning.
He walks to school every morning.
Singular Pronouns
They walk to school every morning.
We walk to school every morning.
Plural Pronouns
I walk to school every morning.
You walk to school every morning.
Exceptions to the Rule
Another important skill we will be focusing on is identifying the prefixes in- and im- and their meanings (not).
Examples include:
Prefix
imin
Base Word
possible
active
New Word
impossible
inactive
Meaning
not possible
not active
Spelling: This week our spelling will focus on contracted words. Next week’s spelling will focus on
r-controlled words.
This week’s spelling words are: I’d, he’s, haven’t, doesn’t, let’s, there’s, wouldn’t, what’s, she’s, aren’t,
hasn’t, couldn’t, he’d, they’re, can’t, isn’t, we’re, weren’t, could’ve, shouldn’t
The children will be taking their Spelling Test this Wednesday
Next week’s spelling words are: horse, mark, storm, market, acorn, artist, March, north, barking, stork, thorn,
forest, chore, restore, dark, story, partner, fortune, authority, sword
Social Studies: The next couple of weeks will be devoted to studying the levels and branches of government.
The test has been moved December 12 – I added a pocket organizer that covers each level of government along
with its branches to the lessons and it is taking longer than planned to complete.
We will be completing Daily Geography this week – Map Key. The following vocabulary words are:
General Assembly, governor, local, county, city, city council, mayor, public works
You will see that these words are related to the content we are studying in Chapter 8.
Math: We have started Unit 5 – Decimals!! 
Please continue to practice all math facts up to 12 to encourage automaticity of them.
Websites to check out include:
www.factivation.com
www.mathfacts.com
http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_.htm
www.mathmastry.com/cyberchallenge
Science: The children are reinforcing their understanding of food chains through investigation of owl pellets.
Together, we will reassemble the bones to determine what our owl ate and if the habitat it lives in seems healthy
for him. We will finish this project with a written summary Friday. Next week, scientific method investigation
and preparation for the Great Egg Drop- an eggcellent opportunity for learning! 
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Enjoy your week!
Sincerely, Homer Knightstep