We are finally settled into our routines and I am so proud of the hard work your kids are doing each and every day. I am looking forward to meeting with each of you on Thursday. Please check last week's post for your conference time if you have forgotten.
Today you will notice that your child does not have a spelling pretest on the back of their homework sheet. Since this is a review week, the children took a spelling pretest on the 40 words that they have taken so far (not including their "blue" words). From their pretest, I wrote the words that they did not spell correctly on the back of their homework sheet. These will be their words for the week. Each child's words will be different. I will make a list of all the words on Spellingcity.com to practice and review. If you would like to make an individual list for your child's own words register under the parents tab and you can create your own lists for your child.
Your child also received their first research project today! As we conclude our study of North America, your child will be doing a North America Landmark Project. Please see your child’s binder as well as the tab (at top of blog) labeled Landmark Project for more information! This project is due Friday. Your child will only have math homework this week so that they can work on this project.
In math this week we will be working on the following skills:
- Fact Families
- Exploring weights, scales, and equal groups
- Name collections
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Please use the fact family triangles that came home tonight as flashcards that you can use with your child or they can use independently. Please also remember that there are numerous sites linked on the side of my blog that provide additional resources for math facts/skills practice.
Here are the skills we will be reviewing in language arts this week:
- Characters
- Main Idea and Details
- Sentences
- Statements and Questions
- Commands and Exclamations
- Parts of a Sentence
The kids are also working on Reader’s Theatre in class this week! Readers Theater is an integrated approach for involving students in reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities. It involves children in….
- sharing literature,
- reading aloud,
- performing with a purpose, and
- working collaboratively.
Readers Theater helps to….
- develop fluency through repeated exposure to text.
- increase comprehension.
- integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening in an authentic context.
- engage students.
- increase reading motivation.
- create confidence and improve the self-image of students.
- provide a real purpose for reading.
- provide opportunities for cooperative learning.
Last week in Science we did an experiment called: Where Did the Water Go? In the previous lesson, the students observed an ice cube as it changed from a solid to a liquid. In this lesson, the students observed and discussed how water evaporates into the air as it changes from a liquid to a gas. This lesson helped to reinforce that cycles are an integral part of science. These observations align with that of the water cycle. In short, the students had a small cup of room temperature water, and a small cup of warm water. They covered each small cup with a larger cup and watched as condensation formed on the cup covering the smaller cup containing the warm water. It was amazing to watch. The kids were glued to the cups waiting for the “change” to occur. As they started to visibly notice changes, they couldn’t contain their excitement. They discussed what they saw and also drew and wrote observations in their science journal. I did add some pictures to the Shutterfly site of this experiment. This week we will be talking about mixing and separating solids.
In Writing Workshop, we are continuing our study of Small Moment Personal Narratives. Here are some of the minilessons we will be learning this week: internalizing story shapes, storytelling with partners, writing some words in a snap (high frequency words), and focusing on the most important part of the story.
I made a boo boo on the September Calendar. I didn’t mark the 30th as Conference Day. I apologize. Nico and Kelly can do their current events on Friday. Please take notice of the October Current Events Calendar. The kids are doing an amazing job and are really working on
their public speaking skills.
Current Events this week:
Monday: Jett and Dorothy
Tuesday: Zachary and Rachael
Wednesday: Connor and Hannah
Friday: Nico, Kelly, and Luke
**Please check page tabs at top of blog.
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