Weekly Update 11.5.12

This week in literacy, we will be working on the strategy of making predictions.  In addition to sharing our predictions orally, we will also be working on writing our predictions and identifying a picture, information from schema, or part of the text that helped formulate the prediction.  Our text connection for the week is the book Baghead.  In guided reading groups this week, all groups will be exploring non-fiction text related to nocturnal animals or animal adaptations. 

During our writing block, we will continue working on our expository texts.  This week, students will take their notes gathered from research and begin to transform them into sentences for their rough draft.  We will discuss the sue of sentence variety as well as the use of bold face words and glossaries.  By the end of this week, students will be finished with the rough drafts of their nocturnal animal expository books.

In math, we will conclude Unit 3 on Monday.  The Unit 3 assessment will be given Wednesday.  Thursday we will begin Unit 4.  Unit 4 will focus on addition and subtraction algorithms.  Our first lesson for Unit 4 will focus on "change to more" word problems. 

In science, we will conclude our small unit on bats.  We will further discuss the adaptations of the bat and how these adaptations help it survive.  Some of the adaptations discussed include echolocation, hearing, size and shape of eyes, camouflage.  We will use these lessons in order for students to understand how to identify adaptations in their own animals for the project.

Below is the timeline for the nocturnal animal project:

Nocturnal Animal Project Timeline

Week of October 29: Note Taking and Research

Week of November 5: Rough Draft of Research: Expository Writing

Week of November 12: Final Copies of Expository Writing

Week of November 19: Final Copies Cont.

HOME PROJECT DUE IN SCHOOL TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20!!!

We will share our projects with families after Thanksgiving on Thursday November 29 in the cafeteria from 9:15-10:00.

Reminder: There is no school on November 6 for Parent Conference Day.  If you need a reminder on your appointment time, please feel free to email me!