Week of: December 16th

Upcoming Dates:

Dec. 23 - Jan.3 - Winter Break - No School (school resumes on 1/6)
Jan. 20 - Martin Luther King Day - No School
Feb. 17 - President's Day - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading:  This week we will continue our reading unit called: "Characters and their Stories". This unit is all about characters and studying how they change and grow.  The students will be making lots of inferences and predictions in this unit! Next week the kids will learn to stop and jot their thinking while they are reading. They will also learn to jot about their predictions.

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 wrap up our nonfiction writing unit.  The kids will do one final editing session.  They will also make a cover for their books and add color to their illustrations.  We will have a little celebration to show off our great work in this unit!

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 continue our module: " Addition and Subtraction to 200". We will learn many new strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers in this unit! This week we will use math drawings to represent adding two and three digit numbers.  We will also use manipulatives to represent trading of 1 ten for 10 ones while subtracting (borrowing).

Science:  We are going to wrap up our first science unit: Solids and Liquids.  Last week we learned the different properties of liquids.  We also talked about surface area and did some experimenting with the surface area of liquids.

Week of: December 9th

Upcoming Dates:

Dec. 12 - Field Trip - Museum of Science and Industry - trip slip due by 12/2
Dec. 23 - Jan.3 - Winter Break - No School (school resumes on 1/6)

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading:  This week we will start a new reading unit called: "Characters and their Stories". This unit is all about characters and studying how they change and grow.  The students will be making lots of inferences and predictions in this unit! Next week we will learn about character traits and how to stop and jot to make predictions.

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 to write great endings for our nonfiction pieces.  We will also continue to learn and try some "craft moves" from our mentor texts. 

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 have started a new module: " Addition and Subtraction to 200". We will learn many new strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers in this unit! This week we will use manipulatives to represent the written vertical method for addition. We will also learn to use drawings to represent the written method of addition. 

Science:  We are going to continue our first science unit: Solids and Liquids.  Last week we switched from learning about solids to learning about liquids.  The kids experimented with 7 different "mystery liquids" that were in clear bottles.  They learned to describe how the liquids were the same and different.