Weekly Update 9/23

In math we finished Topic 1 and took our first test.  We started working on Topic 2: Number Sense- Addition and Subtraction.  The students worked with counters to practice with fact families and they also learned the 3 properties of addition; Commutative, Associative, and Identity.


In reading we read the book, New Language, New Friends.  While reading this book we discussed the author's purpose in writing the book.  The students decided that the author had several purposes.  One was to persuade people to learn new languages, another was to give people information about other languages, and lastly, the author helped students to learn new information about different languages.  The class also started reading the book, The Chalk Box Kid.  They will continue reading this book and answering comprehension questions next week.

In writing we began our descriptive writing unit.  We looked at examples of descriptive free verse poems, wrote a descriptive poem as a class, and then the students created their own poems. 

This was our class's descriptive poem:
Green looks like a tiny tree frog hopping under the rainforest's canopy.
Green sounds like grasshoppers chirping in the high, blowing grass at night.
Green feels like a slimy snake slithering slowly.
Green smells like freshly picked basil out of the garden,
And tastes like a sour granny smith apple with a dab of lime.

Next week, we will continue with this unit and the students will begin writing descriptive paragraphs.

In Fundations, we completed unit 1.  In unit 2, they will be learning about adding suffixes to words.

In social studies, the students worked in groups to create community posters.  They also created their own community maps and we reviewed for their quiz. Today, we finished our social studies unit on communities and map skills. 

On Monday, we will be starting our first science unit on Matter.  We will spend a few weeks doing experiments, research, and completing activities related to this topic.  The students will be keeping all of the information that they gather in their science notebooks.  Their notebook will be graded at the end of the unit.