Upcoming Dates:
Nov. 27-29 - Thanksgiving Break - No School
Dec. 6 - Report Cards Go Home
Dec. 12 - Field Trip - Museum of Science and Industry - more info to come...
*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: This week we continue our second reading unit: "Becoming Experts - Reading Nonfiction". This week we will learn that when you read about a topic, you try to also learn about all of the related subtopics. We will also lean to compare and contrast two books on the same topic. Finally, students will learn to put information together from several books to retell an entire topic, rather than just retelling one book.
Writing: We will continue our unit this week: "Nonfiction Writing". The students will learn to write informational books about topics they know well! This week we will learn about creating interesting leads. We will also learn that writers give themselves reminders to keep their writing interesting. Finally, we will reread our writing to clarify information.
Spelling: This year we will be using a program called: "Words Their Way". We will also use another program called: "Phonics Units of Study". We will continue to have individualized word lists. Students will bring their word sorts home on Monday and will be tested on 10 randomly selected words from their sort on Friday. Please spend time working on the spelling PATTERNS from their sorts at home. The goal is not to memorize the words, but to learn the letter patterns.
Math: We will continue our module called: "Place Value, Counting, and Comparison of Numbers to 1,000". This unit focuses heavily on place value with ones, tens, and hundreds. This week we will compare two three-digit numbers using <, >, and = (including situations with more than 9 ones or more than 9 tens). We will also model and use language to tell about 1 more and 1 less, 10 more and 10 less, and 100 more and 100 less.
Science: We are going to continue our first science unit: Solids and Liquids. Last week the kids learned the difference between properties and the material of solids. Properties are words that describe a solid and the material is what it is made from.