This Week...

October 29- November 2, 2018

Reading:  Students became word detectives using a book about animal tongues!  We discussed how many nonfiction texts have challenging, content-specific vocabulary.  Students learned three strategies to use when coming across an unknown word: using context clues, accessing prior knowledge, and using the glossary.  At the end of the week, students practiced summarizing the key points of a text from Time for Kids about puffins.  They also reviewed author’s purpose with Waiting for Ice, a book a book about polar bears.  Reading Logs are due Monday, November 5.  (100 minutes)

Math:  We spent the week focusing on bar models.  Students are learning to use bar models to help them visualize which operation they should use: addition or subtraction.  Many problems that we solved involved more than one step.  The unit 5 test will be on Monday, November 5th.

Science:  Students continued researching different types of severe weather in the LMC!  They focused on finding important characteristics by using a variety of resources.  We also spent time reviewing important weather tools.  We learned about clouds, wind, and weather forecasts.

Writing:  Personal narrative rough drafts were the focus this week.  Students made revisions to their pieces by adding more showing details.  In grammar, we focused on predicates.  Students learned that predicates give us information about the subject of a sentence.

Word Study:  Students focused on contractions.  They learned that two words make up a contraction and that an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter.  We also looked at words that end with y.  Students learned that words with one syllable produce a long i sound (dry), while words with two or more syllables produce a long e sound (family).

Miscellaneous:  Students had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween this week!  Thank you to Will’s mom, Allie’s mom, and Aubrey’s mom for helping with our party!  Also, thank you to everyone who donated supplies for our upcoming science projects…we truly appreciate it.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions…have a fantastic weekend!