This Week...

September 30- October 4, 2019

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.  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 Monday, October 7th.  (100 minutes)

Math:  We spent the week solving multi-digit addition problems.  Students used base-10 blocks to understand the regrouping process.  They also solved addition number stories.  The unit 3 test will be on Tuesday, October 8th.  A review guide will be going home today.  Also, there has been a change in the IXL log-in process.  Students need to go to IXL.com.  Their new username is: firstnamelastname342.  The password stays the same.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Science:  Students continued learning about the 5 climate zones across the United States.  They analyzed bar graphs that included temperature and precipitation data.  They drew conclusions about the information and provided evidence to support their claims.

Writing:  In writing, students focused on using sensory details.  We read Hello Ocean and In November.  Both books included wonderful examples of how to write details that connect to our five senses.  Students also participated in pair conferences and gave feedback to their peers.   In grammar, students formed compound sentences.  They learned to combine simple sentences with a comma and conjunction.

Word Study:  Students worked on forming compound words.  They learned that compound words are formed from two separate words.  Each word can help the reader determine its meaning.

Miscellaneous:  Thank you to everyone who participated in Walk to School Day…it was great to walk to school with our friends and families!  Students were excited to start their extreme weather projects in the LMC this week!  Students worked in groups to record their prior knowledge and questions about the topic.  We also started researching for our personalized learning projects!  As the weather gets cooler, please be sure your child is dressed warmly for recess…thank you!  Please let me know if you have any questions…have a great weekend!