Weekly Update- 10/21

We started off our week with the Bear Run!  The students had a lot of fun running the race and cheering for their classmates!

In Spanish, the students learned how to say, "My name is...".  They practiced greeting each other using the phrase, "Mi nombre es". 

In shared reading we read the book, Lighthouses: Beacons of the Past.  The students practiced the strategy of asking questions when they read.  This week they asked questions about the title, unfamiliar words, the author's purpose, and about connections.

In guided reading we worked on the skill of inferencing.  An inference is when you take text clues and your own background knowledge to come to a conclusion.  This is a higher level skill that we will continue to practice with next week. 

In Fundations we began unit 3.  This is a one week unit that will focus on the vowel-consonant-e  (v-e) syllable.  The trick words that the students should know by this point were sent home yesterday.  Please review any of the misspelled words with your children.  They will be held accountable for the correct spelling of these words in future Fundations lessons and in their writing.

In grammar the students learned about fragments and run-ons.  We will be focusing on this skill during reading responses, journaling, and when they edit and revise their writing pieces. 

In math, we are continuing to work on Topic 3.  We will be having a topic test next Friday (10/28).  A study guide will be going home on Monday.  In addition, as I did last chapter,  I will be assigning the Topic 3 practice assessment on the Pearson website.  Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts at home.  We have been practicing at school with the netbooks, flashcards, and iPad.

We completed our unit on Matter and we are now working on more map skills in Social Studies.  This week we talked about the differences between maps and globes.  We also learned about continents and oceans.  The students learned a song to help them remember the 7 continents.