Weekly Update 2.25.13

This week in literacy we will begin a new unit on non-fiction text.  To start off the unit, we will connect the strategy of asking questions to our non-fiction pieces. Our text connection this week will be Recess at 20 Below.  This book also ties in nicely with our science unit on weather.  In addition to applying the strategy of questioning to our non-fiction unit, we will also be looking at features of non-fiction text such as index, glossary, bold face words, and headings.

In writing, we will talk about an author's purpose of writing.  Authors write for one of three reasons, to entertain, to inform or to persuade.  We will take a look at examples of these different types of writing.  We will work on both persuasive writing and personal narrative writing, or writing to entertain, this week.  In persuasive writing, we will focus on writing with a topic sentence, two or three reasons or pieces of evidence that support the topic sentence, and a closing sentence.  We will also address persuasive writing throughout the year in our reading response journals.  Students will also be learning about abbreviations.

In math, we will start a new unit focusing on fractions.  This week, students will be learning the vocabulary numerator and denominator.  Students will be learning about equal parts of a whole, collections of things and how fractions relate to groups and equivalent fractions.  We continue to practice the secure skills of word problems and subtraction with regrouping as well.

In social studies we will address our Trimester Two mapping standards.  This week will begin to learn the different oceans of the world and their place on the world map.  We will also continue to work on our leadership project based learning experience.  Students have conducted their interviews in person or via email.  Those who conducted a face to face interview used the iPad to record their interview to make sure the information was remembered accurately!  This week we will take our notes or recordings of the interviews and summarize them into a one page written piece.

Weekly Update 2.11.13

This week we will continue to look at the strategy of determining importance in text.  We will discuss the difference between important vs interesting pieces of information.  Our text connection for the week will be Ibis.  Guided reading groups will be finishing up their books before we head into the vacation week and will be working on some short non-fiction passages in their sessions this week.

Part of our writing block this week will be used to work on our social studies project.  Last week we launched the project based learning experience on leadership.  Students chose one member of the school or the community they felt was a leader and are set to interview them.  Some students will be working in teams of two, while others elected to work alone.  This week, students will be developing a introduction email to send to their leader and will be arranging either a sit down interview or an email interview.  We will use this week to generate the questions for the interview as well as to schedule and conduct the interviews.  So far, this project based learning experience seems to be generating a lot of interest and enthusiasm from the students!  Please ask your child about it at home!

We will also be reviewing plurals and looking at irregular plurals during writer's workshop.

We will conclude unit 7 this week and will be able to fit our assessment in before the vacation.  Right now, we plan on having the assessment on Wednesday.  The rest of our unit 7 lessons this week will focus on measurement, data collection, graphing and finding the median number.

In science, we will be looking at different types of storms, specifically hurricanes and tornadoes.  Students will be engaging in some hands on activities to simulate these storms as well as some different reading activities.

We will hold our Valentine's Party on Thursday afternoon at 1230.  Students are invited to bring valentine cards for each student in the class that will be distributed during the party.  If you need another copy of the class list, please let me know and I can send one electronically.  As always, please send your child with a snack for the party, as food will not be provided.

We will have All School Meeting on Friday.  Our book of the month for February is Odd Velvet, a story about acceptance of others.

Valentine's Day

We will be having a Valentine's Day party on February 14 at 12:30.  A class list has been sent home in the Monday Folders for those who would like to participate in a valentine exchange.  Bringing a valentine is optional, but if your child would like to participate, please ensure that a valentine is provided for every member of the class!  Also, please supply your child with a snack for the party as food will not be provided here at school!

Weekly Update 2.4.13

This week we will shift gears to a new comprehension strategy known as determining importance.  This strategy asks the reader to identify important vs. non-important parts of text and use their knowledge of the important parts to synthesize the text for themselves and for others.  Our text connection for the week will be Me First.  We will be using this strategy in whole grou lessons, guided reading and in our reading response journals independently.  During Daily Five this week, students will be asked to write about an important character from their Read to Self book and identify reasons and text evidence that makes them important to the story. 

We will focus on our main event in Writer's Workshop this week.   The focus strategy will be "Show Don't Tell".  The use of this strategy allows the writer to show emotion in his or her writing through description, similes and elaborative detail.  We will also look at plurals ending in y and the change y to i and add -es rule.

In math, we continue on with Unit 7.  Our lessons this week will focus on addition of three or more numbers, patterns in doubles and halves, weight, and data collection.  We will continue to practice addition and subtraction with and without regrouping as well as word problems and the explanation of strategies used to solve.

We will extend our unit on weather with information about clouds this week.  The three different types of clouds we will study are cirrus, cumulus and stratus.  We will also being our new unit in social studies on citizenship and leadership.  We will start this week by identifying leaders within our school, community and world as well as identifying qualities of good leaders.  We will launch a project based learning experience on this topic next week.

We have a school wide presentation on Abraham Lincoln on Thursday morning. 

Friday morning is our field trip to Mechanics Hall.  Please ensure that your child is at school promptly by 9:00.  We will be back in time for lunch and our regular afternoon routine.