Sunday, October 23, 2016

Week of October 24th

Phases of the Moon Project
A huge THANK YOU to all the parents who sent in supplies for our Oreo cookie phases of the moon activity on Friday. The students really enjoyed this and learned all about the phases.

Homework-Change of due date!
Please have your child return their reading log each day instead of on Fridays! Thank you!

This Tuesday!  Field Trip to the University of Michigan Museum of Art
We will eat lunch in the classroom before we go. Please keep all lunches peanut free on this day! I will post pictures this week!

Wednesday-Early Release Day
-dismissal is at 11:53am


Guided Reading-Our small guided reading groups are in full swing! Each group is focusing on nonfiction reading this week. Groups are working on vocabulary in context, comparing and contrasting, cause and effect. Background knowledge is very important when reading nonfiction!
Tips to Help Your Child At Home
-Create quiet reading spaces
-Schedule a consistent time daily to read
-Read with your child daily (every other paragraph)
-Support debates and arguments with logical reasons to defend opinions
-Keep a journal based on interest

Writer’s Workshop-In Writer’s Workshop, each student is writing a Feature Article. Students brainstormed a list of topics that they were experts on. Next, we narrowed down our topics to be more specific (this was not an easy task!). Next we will begin drafting our first draft of a Feature Article. The topics are amazing! They range from “How to Play the Ukelele” to “Everything you need to know about Croatia”! We will  invite you all in to meet the authors and read all the articles once they are finished!


Math-We are just starting Unit 2 Number Stories and Arrays! 

In this unit, students will make sense of and solve many number stories while exploring multiplication and division.
These are the specific skills we will work on:
-using basic facts to add and subtract larger numbers
-solve change, comparison, and parts-total number stories
-solve multistep number stories using 2 or more comparisons.

Be on the look out for the Unit 2 Family Letter which will be in your child’s folder tomorrow!

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Week of October 10th



WE HAVE A NEW SPECIALS SCHEDULE!!
This will start Monday, October 10th!
Monday-Music & PE
Tuesday-Art
Wednesday-Music & Art
Thursday-PE
Friday-Media

Recess and Lunch are now from 12:20 pm-1:10 pm starting this week!

Reader’s Workshop-This week our guiding question will be “How do readers use comprehension strategies?” The students will learn how to use strategies before, during, and after reading. Learning these strategies will help then when they encounter new information in their reading. It will increase their understanding of fiction.
Some questions you can ask your child when they are reading at home:
-What might happen next?
-Are there any words that confuse you?
-What do you like or don’t like about this story?
-Are there things in this book that remind you of something in your life?
-Is there a character who may remind you of another character?
-What do you wonder about this story?

Writer’s Workshop-This week we will be learning how to write an entertaining story beginning and a complete story ending.
To write an entertaining beginning, authors use a sound, dialogue, or a question to hook the reader. Good authors use a reflection or lesson to end their stories. We will use the narrative stories we have already written and try to change our beginnings and endings to make our stories more interesting to the reader! Keep an eye out on Seesaw for these stories.

Math-We are finishing up our first unit this week! I hope the Pumpkin Activity I sent home last week is helping the kids practice their 2’s and 5’s facts. The students have been doing a great job explaining their math on Seesaw. I ask them to write a few sentences about what their math task was and they are using great math vocabulary to explain this!
The specific skills we will learn this week in math are:
-learn about division as they solve division number stories.
-develop strategies for 2s, 5s, and 10s facts.
-compare masses and divide wholes and sets into equal shares.
-estimate and measure masses of objects.
Our unit test will be the following week.




SEESAW

Seesaw Digital Portfolios-WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS! The students all have digital portfolios on Seesaw. The purpose of this is to have a collection of all their work and give you access to see it! The students are working on commenting and explaining the activities that they are choosing to upload. Once you click the link I sent to you, you can see and comment on your child's work. They get so excited to see if a parent commented. If you have not been able to log on and get access to your child’s portfolio, please let me know! They are so motivated to upload work each day so you can see it.