This Week...

October 2- October 6, 2017

Reading:  Students learned that good readers use the words in a story to create visualizations in their mind.  Creating these visualizations helps readers better understand the story.  We reread portions of Patricia Polacco’s The Bee Tree to practice this useful strategy.  Students also reviewed the key elements of fiction.  They used a story map to outline the main characters, setting, problem/conflict, plot, resolution, and theme.  They reviewed author’s purpose: to persuade, to inform, and to entertain.  They determined the purpose of various texts and used evidence to support their thinking.  At the end of the week, students read various poems and determined the “big idea”.  They used text clues and prior knowledge to determine the author’s message.  Reading Logs are due Tuesday, October 10.  (100 minutes)

Math:  At the beginning of the week, we reviewed major concepts from unit 2.  These concepts included rounding, estimation, and mental math strategies.  Although students will not take a formal assessment for this unit, they did spend time practicing these areas.  At the end of the week, we began unit 3!  An informational letter went home today detailing the areas of focus.  This unit mainly targets addition concepts.

Social Studies:  Students reviewed important concepts from our map skills unit.  They took the unit test on today.  Next week, we will begin our first science unit: weather!

Writing:  In WEX, students wrote about sounds by focusing on tiny details.  They also made careful observations to describe various settings.   In grammar, we worked on identifying the subject in a sentence.

Word Study:  Students worked with high frequency words this week!  They looked for patterns and commonalities.  Then, they played a concentration game where they paired similar high frequency words.  Students learned that it’s important to learn these types of words because they help us successfully read and write.

Miscellaneous:  Thank you to everyone who participated in Walk to School Day…it was great to walk to school with our friends and families!  We are excited to have our first book discussion about A Nest for Celeste next week!  We will be discussing chapters 1-9.  Your child can listen to recordings of each chapter on the LMC website.  Just a reminder, there will be no school for students on Monday (Columbus Day).  Enjoy the long weekend!  As always, please let me know if you have any questions!