This Week...

            December 9- December 13, 2019

Reading:  This week, students read a variety of nonfiction texts with different text structures.  We read a biography about John F. Kennedy and created a timeline that showed chronological text structure.  We also focused on descriptive text structure by writing main ideas and details from a chimpanzee article.  Students became word detectives.  We revisited the nonfiction article “New Hope for Beauty”.  Students practiced using context clues and the topic of the article to figure out the meaning of unknown words.    

Reading Logs are due Monday, December 16.  (100 minutes)

Math:  We spent the week reviewing key multiplication and division concepts.  Students shared helpful strategies with each other for solving two-step number stories.  On Wednesday, students took their unit 6 test.  At the end of the week, students previewed unit 7.  A family letter went home today highlighting the areas of focus.  Please remind your child to be practicing his/her basic multiplication and division facts at home.   

Social Studies:  Students completed their Midwest state research projects!  After learning about popular landmarks in their states, students created Google tours in the LMC.  These tours highlighted tourist locations in their particular states.    

Writing:  Students did an expository writing project focused on how to build a snowman.  We read All You Need for a Snowman, by Alice Schertle.  They used transition words to describe the steps in an organized manner.  We also started writing our personal narrative rough drafts.  Students learned the importance of including temporal phrases to show when certain events occurred.  In grammar, students focused on possessive nouns.

Word Study:  Homophones were our focus this week!  Students learned that homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.  We analyzed how to use “two”, “to”, and “too”.  We also talked about “you’re” and “your”.  Students understood the importance of applying this to their writing so that the reader can understand the text.

Miscellaneous: “Secret Snowpal” names went home on Monday!  Students need to create a homemade card with a special message for that particular classmate.  Snowpal cards are due Wednesday, December 18th.  Shh…remember, it’s a secret!  Today, students were excited to share their Cardboard Challenge projects with other classrooms in the school!  Just a reminder, next Friday is Winter Wonderland and Pajama Day!  As always, please contact me if you have any questions…have a great weekend!