Mr. Blanc's Class

Updates Thank you to everyone who stopped by for conferences. Your students are doing lots of great things, so it's fun to get a chance to share them with families. It's also nice to identify areas in which students can make improvements and make a plan to work towards those improvements. When students return to school on Monday, 2/29, they will have reading logs due. In addition, they will be given a vocabulary test on the science terms introduced last week. In order to give more time to prepare their westward expansion presentation, there will be no new vocabulary words given out on Monday. There will also be no reading log due on Monday, 3/7. Math Students were given back their mid module 5 assessment at their conference. We will continue with the remainder of module 5 when they return to school on Monday. This week we will extend our ability to add and subtract fractions by adding and subtracting a whole number, like 2, with a fraction, like 1/3. Students will use nu...

Updates Next week will be a short one for students. There will be no school on Thursday or Friday. When students return from the weekend on Monday, 2/22, they will have reading logs due and they will take their vocabulary test. They will also get their vocabulary words for next week. Conferences Our class conferences will take place on Wednesday evening 2/24,  and all day Thursday 2/25. Please bring your child with you to their conference. If you have not yet signed up please go to the link below and select a time. If you are unavailable to meet at any of the available times, let me know and we can schedule a conference for another time.   https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/West_Tualatin_View_Elementary Inquiry Students have been working hard to find supporting facts to answer their inquiry questions. They should now be putting all of the information they have collected into a written draft. On Wednesday 2/24, the final draft of their written paper is due. Once we mov...

The students had a great time at their Valentines' Day party. After passing out valentines, they played Bingo, Apples to Apples, Pit, and Reverse Charades. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped plan our class parties this year!

Updates Monday, 2/15 there will be no school because of Presidents' Day. When students return to school on Tuesday, 2/16, they will have reading logs due. The reading log can be completed online by going to the "Websites" tab and clicking the link below Reading Log Form. Students will take a vocabulary test and be given new words for their vocabulary test next Monday. The new set of words are Latin stems. Math Our study of fractions will focus on comparing fractions and adding and subtracting fractions. I have added two math links on the "Websites" tab of the blog. One of the links is titled "Daily Lesson Tutorial" gives a quick overview of the concept taught that day. All you have to do is select the lesson we covered that day. The other link is called "Homework Help". This link has a teacher going over a couple of the homework problems for each lesson. Our weekly fact fluency practice will focus on dividing by 7's. Reading Most o...

Updates When students return to school on Monday, 2/8, they will have a reading log due. They will also be tested on their vocabulary words. The new vocabulary words they get for the following week's test will be math terms. The online link to the reading log form can now be found in the "Websites" tab. Inquiry Next week our westward expansion inquiry unit will transition into more of an individual inquiry. Students will select an open-ended question about westward expansion and then begin researching the question. Over the weekend students need to come up with their open-ended question and three subtopics within the big topic of their question. To keep parents updated on what their children are researching, we are asking parents to sign the blue paper to acknowledge that they are aware of the question their student will be working on. The first week of the inquiry will focus on collecting facts to help answer their question. In an effort to increase the technolog...

There is no school on Friday, 1/29. It is a Staff Development day. When students return from the weekend they will have a reading log due. They will also take a test on their vocabulary words. They will be given new vocabulary words to study for next week's test. Help your student prepare for their vocabulary test by having them practice defining the words, or have them use the words appropriately in a sentence. Last week in math students took their end of module 3 test. They will get their scored test back when they return to school on Monday. Please look over your student's test with them and go over any problems they may have missed. Next week we will begin module 5. We are skipping module 4, which covers geometry, and jumping to the next two modules, which cover fractions and decimals. We are doing this because fractions and decimals are huge units and we want to make sure they are thoroughly covered before students take the Smarter Balance state assessments. We will come...

When students return to school on Monday, 1/25 they will have reading logs due. The reading logs can be completed online or on paper if there is no access to a computer. There was no spelling packet sent home last week, so the only homework due on Monday is the reading log. There will be a slight change in the weekly homework beginning next week. Students will continue the reading logs, but instead of spelling packets they will be given vocabulary words to study. They will then be tested on those vocabulary words the following Monday. The first set of vocabulary words will be terms that are related to westward expansion. In writing, students are working on informational papers about the Corps of Discovery. We have learned about finding reliable sources, how to avoid plagiarism, how to organize our information, strategies to start our topics, and strategies to end our topics. At this point students should have a first draft complete. Next week, we will use a checklist to revise and ed...