Purse Pages

January 27, 2017

Edition 9

READ, READ, READ!

Dear Parents,
As I shared with you
in the last Purse
Pages I-read is in full
swing. Our class is
really excited about
our goal to be the
top readers in the
school. They have
been recording their
minutes. Some have
been reading a lot
more than their
required 30 min. each
day. WOW!! We are
going for 100%

participation from
the class, so please We have discussed
remind your child to here what it will look
record their minutes like and that the
and keep track of
conversations might
their sheet. This is be a little
our final weekend! uncomfortable at
times, but they are
On another note,
important for the
next week the
students will begin students to hear.
the Angles Health Please help
Education Program. reinforce this at
home.
I just want to
remind you as I sent
the letter home last
week.

Whats Happening in the Classroom?

ELA
During ELA this week
we continued to
discuss Heroism. We
read a Realistic
Fiction story called
Any Small Goodness.
This was a story
that had the
students thinking
about what everyday
people do to be
heroic.
We tackled two
essential questions:
What can we do to
be heroic? What
small ways can
someone be heroic
each day? The class
even discussed how
your values play into
why you might act in
a heroic way.
We discussed the
literary device
imagery and how it is
used in writing to

make what we read

more interesting. We
also discussed other
types of figurative
language.
We explored
different types of
questions this week
to help us gain
better insight to our
thinking while
reading.
In reading Amelia
Lost, The Life and
Disappearance of
Amelia Earhart, the
class is learning more
about how Amelia
came to be so well
known. They also
are learning how to
read a nonfiction
piece of text that is
not completely
written in
chronological order.
We are still debating
and discussing

whether Amelia can

be considered a hero
and if so from whose
perspective.

The students have

been working on an
informational piece
on Westward
Expansion. This has
been a real learning
experience in the
writing process.
We have been
looking at history,
recording events.
Then they have been
considering the
impact of geography,
growing their ideas,
and speculating on
what happened to
write pages of what
will become a book
on Westward
Expansion.

Page 2 of 3

Continued
Math

Social Studies

Science

This week the students

continued their
research on their
explorers and are
putting together
presentations to share
with the class. They
are learning about
what motivated these
explorers to come to
the new world, who
sponsored them and
the impact they had on
history.

The Earth and Sun is

our focus and this
weeks investigation
had us thinking about
the distance between
the Earth and Moon.
This is harder to
understand, as it is
something the students
cannot go out and
measure. We played
around with numbers
and used to scale
models to replicate the
distance.

We also working hard

during Genius Hour
where the class is
researching what they
are passionate about.
Most students are
almost finished with
their first project and
ready to share their
research and passions
with the class! We
have so many unique
and interesting topics
to learn about.

In math, we are
working on a variety of
concepts. We are
wrapping up our work
with decimals in the
coming week.
The class had a great
time working on
several complex tasks
and games throughout
the past week. They
have had to show their
knowledge and
understanding of place
value to approach some
of these challenges.
We had great
conversations on what
SMP-standards of
mathematical practices
were required to work
through the tasks and
how using multiple
strategies could
change the outcome.

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

Tues. 1/31 & Thurs. 2/2
Health Education
1/31
I-read ends
Tues. 2/7 & Thurs. 2/9
Health Education

Questions to Ask Your Child

.

1.

Phone:
(224)-765-3674
E-Mail:
rpurse@nssd112.org
Twitter Handle
@PursePlace4

What did you do in art, gym, music, and

library this week?
2. What are some of the new words you have
added to your vocabulary over the past few
weeks? (hint: languor, countenance etc..)
3. What work did you do with a song in class
this week?
4. How is your piece on Westward Expansion
coming? What are your pages about?
5. What activity did you do this week that
was compared to a fishbowl?
6. What is the kindness challenge? What is
one thing you talked about as a class
regarding kindness?
7. What kind of club is Ms. Purse going to
start at lunch?
8. How did Amelia Earhart first become known,
(famous)?
9. Does Ms. Purse want to win i-read? Who
does she think your biggest competition is?
10. What does it mean to grow your ideas when
writing your informational pieces?