Weekly Update- 11/12

Even with days off and upcoming half days, we have been very busy in class!  In math we are finishing up chapter 3: adding and subtracting.  We will have our chapter test on Wednesday the 17th and then we will begin chapter 4 which focuses on time, data, and graphs.  While this chapter does not directly deal with addition and subtraction facts, it is still important to keep practicing those at home.  We will be starting multiplication in chapter 5 and the stronger the knowledge of addition and subtraction facts, the easier muliplication will be.

We have just finished our unit on continents, oceans, and other map skills in Social Studies.  Today we started our next unit in Science which is all about Atmosphere and Water.  We made a K-W-L chart (What we Know, what we Want to know, and what we Learned) and then watched a video about water.  We will be doing experiments and activities in class that relate to this topic.

In shared reading, we read a story called Isla.  In this story, a young girl sits with her grandmother and they go on an imaginary journey to the island where the grandmother grew up.  Through descriptive language, the granddaugther feels as if she is actually at the island with her grandmother.  The skill that we practiced with this story was making connections.  We discussed making text-to-self connections, text-to-world connections, and text-to-text connections.  Students shared some of their connections which included trips they have taken to islands (text-to-world), other books such as Magic Tree House books that also deal with characters using their imagination to go other places (text-to-text), and experiences they have had with their grandparents and storytelling (text-to-self).  By thinking about their own lives and experiences students can make stronger connections with the book they are reading.  This is a skill that you can emphasize when reading at home with your child.  In reading groups we have been working on skills such as identifying the main idea and details and making inferences.

In writing we have been learning how to write summaries of fiction.  We talked about the information that should be included in the summary and looked at examples of summaries of fiction.  Throughout the week we did activities that included working in groups to write summaries of popular fairy tales, modeling examples, and finally each student wrote their own summary of fiction for the folk tale, The Silly Armadillo.

In Fundations we have been learning about vowel-consonant-e (v-e) syllables.  We have practiced identifying these words, marking them, and learning how to add suffixes to them.  We will continue working with this concept next week.

We have started our Spanish classes with the new spanish teacher, Senora Sullivan!  Last week the students chose spanish names and made name tags.  This week we practiced learning how to ask someone their name and how to answer properly.



During the early dismissal days students will not have a lunch period.  Please send your child to school with a larger snack or lunch.  We will be eating in the classroom.  I am looking forward to seeing and talking with you all at conferences!