Prokop’s Press                                              Dec. 21, 2007

Dear Parents and Students,

        Wow! It is hard to believe that the holidays are upon us. The next time we will be getting together it will be 2008. Unbelievable. Where has 2007 gone? On to what we have been up to, and what January will bring.

Language Arts: Work with literature circles continues as students are really getting into their novels. Students are doing well with their individual jobs. As they present their jobs to their groups, the group critiques them, both positively and with constructive advice. It means a lot to students to know their peers are grading them. Of course, I give the final grade with their input. This is so important, as students do know what it takes to get a 3 or a 4 on an assignment, and are often the first to admit that something was missing or not done thoroughly.

Spelling: When we come back in January, the students will start getting ready for Spell-a-thon. They will get list one to start. This becomes our regular spelling for the week with pre-tests and post tests. The grades go in as regular spelling grades. Each week we will take another 25 words so that we will have studied all 100 before the big test in Feb. The actual testing for all 100 words is given the week of Feb. 4th.

Social Studies: Students are working hard on completing the "Mesopotamia Books" Students chose one area of Mesopotamia to research and report on by completing a fold out book. They have had to work cooperatively to organize and complete this project. They then will become the experts to present to the class what they have learned.

     Students yesterday, took the open book test from the book that consisted of 5 short essay questions. I gave the questions to them on Tuesday. They also had two 45 minute periods to work with partners to start looking and writing the answers to the questions. For many, the test was very easy because they had their books marked and knew right where to go for the answers.

     After students present their books, we will be skipping to chapter 13, and starting the next major civilization of study -- Greece--. We will go back to the skipped chapters towards the end of the year.

Math: We have also finished up chapter 4, the concepts of fractions. We will be moving on to chapter 5, using those concepts to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions.

Science:  Our new unit of study is Weathering and Erosion. We will begin this unit the week of Jan. 14th.

Little Buddies: The class has been great working with their buddies. They really seem to enjoy all the activities we do with them. For a holiday gift, we baked gingerbread cookies, decorated them, and presented the cookies to them. They were very appreciative. We also helped them write letters to characters at the North Pole. We then also answered the letters, unbeknownst to them. They should have received the "frosty" responses from the North Pole today or will tomorrow. Mumms the word. It was fun keeping the secret.

Art Masters: The artist for January is Hardin. We can't wait for the presentation from Mrs. Donfrio.

Have a wonderful Holiday break, enjoy your time with family, I know I will.

                                       Sincerely,

                                      Mrs. Prokop