ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:
Tonight is the spring concert! The concert starts at 6 p.m. and will be at the Middle School! The students are so excited to show you all of their hard work!
Remember, homework packets are due on Monday! Please send them in the boomerang folders. More practice = more homework points! 50 points earns a prize from the prize box!
Next Monday is an early release day! Students will be dismissed at 1:00!
Classroom wish list: erasers, pencils, whiteboard markers, old (but clean) socks to be used as whiteboard erasers
This week in...
Phonics: We are working on r-controlled vowels with the spelling patterns: ar, are, and air. Together, we spelled, sorted and read the following words: star, shark, care, stare, rare, dare, hair, pair, chair, and fair. Throughout the week we will continue to blend and build words using these spelling patterns.
Vocabulary: This week's vocabulary words are: creating, memories, familiar, imagination, glamorous, and occasions. We will use our elbow buddies to define these words, use them in a sentence, and build connections to them so we are more likely to remember and use them. Together we will search for these words in the short story called Making Stories Happen.
Comprehension: This week we will continue to analyze story structure. This means we are looking at how a story is organized. Knowing these details will help us understand the story better. We are also going to work on drawing conclusions. This means that we are making decisions about a selection based on the text and the picture clues. We will also use our background knowledge to help use understand what we are reading. We will practice these skills while reading the story called Stirring Up Memories by Pam Munoz Ryan.
Grammar: We will be practicing using a and an. We will do a few examples together and then students will be practicing independently.
Writing: This week, we have introduced our new research project, ANIMALS! Today, students had the opportunity to pick an animal they would like to research. They will be looking for sources (library books and websites) to use for their research. Once they have found their sources, they will begin their research. Over the next few weeks, they will be organizing their research onto a graphic organizer. Then, they will use the information they gathered to create a rough draft. This rough draft will be checked by two peers and a grown up so that we can look at ways to make our writing better and also to make sure we have used correct grammar and spelling. After students have finished editing their rough draft, they will use that to write a book that will teach other students about the animal they researched. They will also have the chance to illustrate their book. All of this will be happening over the course of the next few weeks. Students will be mainly searching for information about what the animal looks like, their habitat, diet, and other fun facts. We are very excited about our new project!
Read aloud: To go along with our Biography Day, we began reading a book called Being Teddy Roosevelt. It's a story about a fourth grade class who also does a biography report. Instead of parading to other classrooms though, they have a biography tea where they get to impersonate the person they wrote their report about. It's been a lot of fun to compare and contrast our Biography Day to the book's!
Math: This week, math will be focusing on a lot of different topics.
First, we will be reviewing how to identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.
Second, we will be reviewing what a "face" and an "angle" are and how to identify them on a shape.
Third, we will be reviewing how to construct a retangular array of tiles given a certain amount of columns and rows and counting to see how many same-sized squares are in each.
Then, we will also be reviewing 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4. We'll be talking about what those fractions mean and also how to divide a rectangle and circle into halves, thirds, and fourths.
Later in the week, we'll be discussing how parts of a whole can be different shapes. For example, a rectangle can be divided in half by dividing it down the middle or diagonally.
We will also begin to unpack how to determine if a number is odd or even (up to 20). We'll also unpack how to write an equation to express an even number as a sum of two equal addends (for example, 7+7=14).
Science: A lot of our animal research project will have parts of science woven into it. For example, talking about what a habitat is. Together, we will be researching beluga whales as I model what it looks like to do the research, organize the information, and write the book.
At the end of the week, we will also be attempting to re-plant some of the seeds that we got from the pods of our other brassica plants. This will reinforce the complete life cycle of plants.
I hope you have a fabulous week!
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