Weekly Update-9/30

This week in math we learned how to use different strategies.  One of the strategies that we focused on was mental math. We practiced different methods such as the break-apart method and the making a ten method. You can help at home by using flashcards to review basic facts.  Students can also use the following website to help them practice their facts.

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/cathymath.html

Another concept we focused on this week was rounding.  The students practiced rounding to the nearest ten and the nearest hundred.  They used the rhyme, "5 and above, give it a shove.  4 and below, keep it low" to help them remember the rules of rounding.  On Thursday, the students worked in centers and completed worksheets, rounding games, and practiced using the Pearson website to take a quiz on what they had learned.  We will be having the Topic 2 test on Friday, 10/7.  A study guide will be going home on Monday.

In science we started our unit on States of Matter.  The students learned that matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.  We created a K-W-L chart and the students filled in what they already knew about matter and what they want to know about matter. We watched a video about solids, liquids, and gases, and completed experiments as well.  The students have been taking notes, writing reflections, and organizing their worksheets in their science notebooks.

In reading we read a few poems including; Fireflies, The Family of the Sun, Earth's Most Delicate Things, and Hot Enough to See.  We discussed how to appreciate others' opinions about stories, books, and poems.  We also discussed strategies to use when you get confused or your mind wanders while reading.  The students finished reading the book, The Chalk Box Kid.  We discussed the story and then each student createded a comic strip and made their own chalk drawing.

In writing we started writing descriptive paragraphs.  In addition, the students learned about the trait of ideas.  We looked at samples of descriptive paragraphs and the students scored them on a rubric.  As a topic for their descriptive paragraphs, the students are writing about their favorite place.  They brainstormed some places, picked one, and created a detail web in which they put the details that they will write about.  We are focusing on "showing, not telling" when they write.  The students began drafting their paragraphs and we will continue to work on them next week.


In Fundations we are practicing adding suffixes to words.  We also learned a few more "sound alike" words (some, sum, son, sun). 


In grammar we learned about simple and complete predicates and practiced when to use capital letters.  We will be starting Spanish next week!


For those of you who ordered from Scholastic, our order has shipped and will be in sometime next week.  I will send the books out as soon as I get them!  Just a reminder that picture day is next Friday, 10/7.  Please remember to send picture money in with your child.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday to  Lola today and to Emily tomorrow!!