This Week...

January 21- January 23, 2015

Reading:  This week, our main focus was how authors use figurative language to convey messages.  We talked about the following poetic techniques: similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeia.  Students learned that similes and metaphors are used to compare two different things in an interesting way.  They learned that onomatopoeia helps readers experience the sounds of the text.  Reading Logs are due Monday, January 26.  (100 minutes)

Math:  At the beginning of the week, students focused on symmetry.  Students learned how to draw the mirror image of an object from the line of symmetry.  Congruent and similar shapes were discussed and investigated.  Students also studied various characteristics of 3-D shapes.  Vertices, faces, bases, and edges were identified on the shapes.  The unit 6 test will be on Thursday, January 29.  A review guide will be going home on Tuesday.

Science:  We discovered that our eyes are not light sources.  Instead, light bounces off objects and then travels in a straight line to our eyes, allowing us to see. Our first light quiz will be on Monday, January 26.  A review guide went home on Thursday.

Writing:  Students worked on identifying the subject and verbs in excerpts from My Name is Maria Isabel.  They also wrote showing details to describe a time when Maria enjoyed an activity or when she disliked an activity.  Students worked on incorporating details from the text to support their ideas.  In grammar, students reviewed major concepts from unit 3, including verb tenses and sentence combinations.

Spelling/Cursive:  Today, we had our review test.  Next week, we will resume regular spelling and homework.  We also wrote the uppercase “C” in our cursive packets.

Miscellaneous:  I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!  Just a couple of reminders…January 28 will be the January writing words test and book orders are due January 27.  3 “I Wonder” questions are due every Monday.  As always, thank you for your support at home…I truly appreciate it!  Have a wonderful weekend!