This has been a busy busy week as we are finishing up/finalizing our projects in language arts and in science. Over the course of the past 3 weeks, students have been using what we’ve learned through our Wonders reading and applying it to our novel studies. We finished reading our book group books and started to work on our mini me project. I bet you’re wondeirng what that is. Students were asked to pretend that they were the main characters in their story (Clementine, George “Suds”, Nolan (Shredderman), or Dave). They were asked to reflect on the book and think about what character trait words best describe that character and what lesson the main character learned. Using those ideas, students were asked to write as if they were the main characters and to produce an autobiography about that character. There were writings and rewritings and we are still editing some of the writing pieces. I can’t wait for them to share these with you.
We also read a folktale this week about Anansi and how he tricked turtle. Folktales are usually passed down from person to person and there is a lesson to be learned from it. Using this short story, students were asked several times to stop and to write down their prediction as to what would happen next. Some stories lend themselves really well to stopping and making predictions. Please practice doing this when possible. Students have a chance to develop their thinking, their writing skills, and it’s fun to see if their predictions were right. The next step is to help the students to see that their predictions aren’t really randomly made for no reason. They have a lot of background knowledge that they use in formulating their ideas, but most of them aren’t aware of that so I make it a point to ask the students why they make the predictions that they make. Hearing how thoughtful their responses are really wows me and it helps them to see that they really do have great and thoughtful reasons for why they predict the way that they do. Maybe you can ask your child what character traits they would use to describe Anansi (Some examples could be: sly, thoughtless=because he tricked turtle), bewildered= because he was tricked by turtle and fish) If students want to write down their answers and bring it to school for a special sticker, I would love to read their responses on the character traits they would use to describe Anasi and the reasons why they used those traits.
In math, we have been working so hard on telling time, being able to give the elapsed time, and working backwards to figure out what time something began if they were given the end time. In the upcoming week, we will work a little more on telling time and will also work on problem solving and using our words to describe our thinking. Just a reminder to please continue to help build up your child's fact fluency at home. It is very important to learn these addition and subtraction facts so that they are rapid with recall. Later on in the year, we will be moving to multiplication and division. Thank you so much!!
Our science unit on animals is continuing to build. This week we started to talk about animal classifications. Can your child tell you what the difference is between vertebrates and invertebrates? We also have been learning how to pull facts out of our reading and taking notes after our reading. We call that fact fragment. Students used 3 sources to gather information on crayfish. We are working hard in building up to our final research paper, which will include a 5 paragraph essay. It will be presented in the shape of a crayfish wheel. The first paragraph is the introduction and the last paragraph is the conclusion paragraph. The middle 3 paragraphs are centered around 3 out of 4 that your child chooses to write about: habitat, structural adaptations, behavioral adaptations, and other interesting facts about a crayfish. Most of them are finishing up their introduction and conclusions paragraphs and are about ready to edit/publish.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Reminders:
1. Picture retake, Chorus, orchestra, student council pictures will all be taken Tuesday, 10/28. If
your child is getting picture retakes, please send back the picture envelop from their first picture day.
2. Home Learning Log 10/30
3. Spelling Test 10/30
4. Halloween parade/party 10/31—more information will be sent via email later in the week
We also read a folktale this week about Anansi and how he tricked turtle. Folktales are usually passed down from person to person and there is a lesson to be learned from it. Using this short story, students were asked several times to stop and to write down their prediction as to what would happen next. Some stories lend themselves really well to stopping and making predictions. Please practice doing this when possible. Students have a chance to develop their thinking, their writing skills, and it’s fun to see if their predictions were right. The next step is to help the students to see that their predictions aren’t really randomly made for no reason. They have a lot of background knowledge that they use in formulating their ideas, but most of them aren’t aware of that so I make it a point to ask the students why they make the predictions that they make. Hearing how thoughtful their responses are really wows me and it helps them to see that they really do have great and thoughtful reasons for why they predict the way that they do. Maybe you can ask your child what character traits they would use to describe Anansi (Some examples could be: sly, thoughtless=because he tricked turtle), bewildered= because he was tricked by turtle and fish) If students want to write down their answers and bring it to school for a special sticker, I would love to read their responses on the character traits they would use to describe Anasi and the reasons why they used those traits.
In math, we have been working so hard on telling time, being able to give the elapsed time, and working backwards to figure out what time something began if they were given the end time. In the upcoming week, we will work a little more on telling time and will also work on problem solving and using our words to describe our thinking. Just a reminder to please continue to help build up your child's fact fluency at home. It is very important to learn these addition and subtraction facts so that they are rapid with recall. Later on in the year, we will be moving to multiplication and division. Thank you so much!!
Our science unit on animals is continuing to build. This week we started to talk about animal classifications. Can your child tell you what the difference is between vertebrates and invertebrates? We also have been learning how to pull facts out of our reading and taking notes after our reading. We call that fact fragment. Students used 3 sources to gather information on crayfish. We are working hard in building up to our final research paper, which will include a 5 paragraph essay. It will be presented in the shape of a crayfish wheel. The first paragraph is the introduction and the last paragraph is the conclusion paragraph. The middle 3 paragraphs are centered around 3 out of 4 that your child chooses to write about: habitat, structural adaptations, behavioral adaptations, and other interesting facts about a crayfish. Most of them are finishing up their introduction and conclusions paragraphs and are about ready to edit/publish.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Reminders:
1. Picture retake, Chorus, orchestra, student council pictures will all be taken Tuesday, 10/28. If
your child is getting picture retakes, please send back the picture envelop from their first picture day.
2. Home Learning Log 10/30
3. Spelling Test 10/30
4. Halloween parade/party 10/31—more information will be sent via email later in the week