Weekly Update- 11/20

 This week we completed chapter 3 in math.  Students did a great job going back and checking their work on their tests to see if they made any "silly" mistakes.  We have started chapter 4: Time, Data, and Graphs.  Telling time can be a difficult concept for some students and is an easy one to practice at home.  If you have an analog clock in the house, ask your child what time it is throughout the day.

In science we have been talking about Atmosphere and Water.  We have been focusing on evaporation.  

We talked about the different variables that can change the rate of evaporation.  These variables are heat, light, and surface area.  The students worked in groups to complete an experiment about surface area.  They concluded that the larger the surface area of a container, the more quickly water will evaporate.

In shared reading we read the book, George Washington Carver: The Peanut Wizard.  With this book we focused on using background knowledge.  Before reading, students looked at the front and back cover to see if there were any pictures or words that they have heard before or could relate to.  While reading students thought about knowledge they already had that helped them to understand different parts of the book.  In guided reading we worked on the skill of comparing and contrasting.

In writing we learned about Book Blurbs.  Book blurbs are the short paragraphs on the back of a book that give you information and try to get you hooked into reading that book.  The students looked at examples of different book blurbs and learned about creating lead sentences.  At the end of the week students made their own book blurbs about the story, The Lucky Charm.

In Fundations we have continued to work on identifying, marking, and correctly spelling vowel-consonant-e (v-e) words.  We will be finishing unit 4 next week.

Since next week is a short week we will be doing extension activites in reading and writing.  We will be using different books to practice concepts we have already learned in class.  In science we will be learning about the Water Cycle.  In math we will continue to learn about different types of graphs. 

HAVE A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND ENJOY THE 4 DAY WEEKEND!