Weekly Update 5.20.13

This week in literacy we will focus on the skill of synthesis.  With this comprehension strategy, students will monitor the overall meaning of text and recognize that thinking may change during the course of a story.  Readers also take opportunities to share, recommend, and discuss text with their peers, teachers and families.  Our text connection for the week will be The Great Kapok Tree.  In guided reading groups, I will be using part of the week to being administration of the end of year individual reading assessments.  These will also continue into next week.

In writing, we shift our focus to opinion writing.  Our topic for the week will keep with our outdoor fun theme in writing this month.  Students will be asked to write their opinion based on the following prompt: What is the best time of year? School or summer vacation?  Students will be expected to give three reasons to support their opinion.  Students will also begin to use evidence and examples to support each reason.  Students will complete a graphic organizer and then write their piece in paragraph form.  The homework assignment this week is similar to this in class writing experience.  We will also look at dictionary skills and guide words this week.

In math, we will complete Unit 11.  Our lessons this week will focus on multiplication and division fact families and basic multiplication facts.  We will have our math assessment next Monday.

In social studies we will conclude our unit on timelines.  Students will have a mini-assessment this week in which they will need to put events in chronological order and answer questions based on the timeline.  Their project will also contribute to their overall grade.

Please remember that the timeline project is due in class this Friday!

As we approach the end of the year, there are a few important events that are ready to go on our calendar! 
May 30: Sing and Swing Music Presentation @2:00
June 19: Fraher/Kinback Class Writing Celebration @9:15
June 20: Move Up Day and Last Day of School (early dismissal)

Weekly Update 5.6.13

This week in literacy we will be discussing theme or the author's message.  We will be using Leo the Late Bloomer as our text connections.  Students will be working on transferring their thoughts into a written reading response using a topic sentence, details with supporting text evidence and a closing sentence.  All guided reading groups will be starting new books this week and continuing their book group discussions.

In writing, we will continue working on our outdoor fun personal narratives.  This week we will be focusing on the main event of the piece.  We will also focus our revision on vivid verbs.  Our lessons will concentrate on using different words for "said".  We will also look at poetry and look at the technique of line repitition.  Our grammar focus this week will be on the use of articles a/an.

In math, we will assess Unit 10 on Tuesday and begin Unit 11 on Wednesday.  Unit 11 will focus on whole number operations.  Our lessons this week will concentrate on addition and subtraction number stories using dollars and cents.  As always, Fridays we will be used for small group review, preview and enrichment. 

We will begin our social studies unit on timelines this week.  We will use the text connection Diary of Worm to help kick off our unit.  Students will be working on putting events in chronological order (also our vocab word of the week)

We are in need of a few classroom supplies to get us through the rest of the year.  Any donations of paper towels, wipes and/or tissues would be greatly appreciated!