April 7-11

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

This Wednesday is an early release day!  Please plan accordingly!

Homework packets are due on THURSDAY!  Please remind your child to put it in their backpack on Wednesday evening.   Also, please remind your child to check off the ways that they are practicing at home on the cover page of their homework.  I like to see how Team Blowey is practicing!

Spring Pictures are on Thursday!

Literacy Night is coming up!  Remember to send in the registration paper with your child if you plan on attending.  All students must register prior to the event.  A little birdie told me Team Blowey might see someone they recognize.  Could it be Miss Blowey or could it be Miss Frizzle?  Come to Literacy Night and find out!   It will be on Wednesday, April 16 from 5:30-7:00.

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are studying the dipthong sound with the spelling patterns /ou/ and /ow/.  Here are our focus words:  clown, growl, howl, brown, crown, round, loud, cloud, house, and sound.

Vocabulary:  Here are our new words:  lengthy, burrow, ranger, warning, distant, and beyond.  We will define these words and build connections with them.  Then, we will search for them in the short story called The Coatis of the Sonora Desert by Nya Taylor.

Comprehension:  This week, we will begin looking at author’s purpose!  That means we are studying why the author might have written the story that we are reading.  We’ll be using the acronym P.I.E. to help us with this.  Did the author write to PERSUADE us to think what they think, want what they want, or feel how they feel?  Did the author write to INFORM us or teach us about something?  Did the author write to ENTERTAIN us?
We’ll do this when we read the story Dig, Wait, Listen:  A Desert Toad’s Tale by April Pulley Sayre.

Grammar:  We will talk about personal pronouns.  These are words that take place of a noun or multiple nouns.  It must agree in number with the noun that it replaces.  For example, we might replace “Bobby” with “he”.  Or we might replace “Sam and Sandy” with “they”.

Writing:  We will introduce three new poems this week!  First, we’ll be writing an acrostic poem.  An acrostic poem has a topic idea running down the left side of the poem.  The words that go across the poem describes the topic.  Next, we’ll write a cinquain poem.  A cinquain poem is a five line poem that follows a specific pattern.  Here is the pattern:  

Line 1:  subject
Line 2:  two adjectives to describe the subject
Line 3:  three verbs to describe the subject
Line 4:  Four words or a complete sentence describing a feeling about the subject
Line 5:  Synonym to rename the subject

Last, we’ll write sensory poems.  A sensory poem is a poem that describes an emotion or feeling by using similes to describe each of your five senses.  

Math:  We will continue to switch for adding and subtracting within 100 with a focus on word problems.  We will also continue to work on our year long standards:  time, money, and math facts.  

Read Aloud:  We are finishing up Being Teddy Roosevelt and then we will begin reading some poetry from Shel Silverstein!

Early Release Day Project:  Now that we have begun our weather unit, we will head over to the Land of Chewandswallow!  We’ll be reading the beloved tale of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Then, we will use that wacky story to inspire our very own “Cloudy with a Chance of...” stories.  We’ll also create a meteorologist craft to hold our creative stories.  These will be on display in the hallway once they are finished.