Week of: February 3rd

Upcoming Dates:

Feb. 17 - President's Day - No School
Feb. 22 - Irving Fun Fair!!
Feb. 25 - Opera for the Young - school assembly
Feb. 25 - Field Trip - North Shore Center for the Performing Arts - Golden Dragons Show - more information to come!

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading:  We will start a new reading unit called: "Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power".  This unit is all about literary language and meeting the challenges of reading longer books.  This week we will focus on noticing punctuation so that our reading makes sense and sounds right.  We will also work on noticing character dialogue as well as matching our voices to the meaning of the text.

Writing: We will start a new writing unit called: "Poetry: Big Thoughts in Small Packages". This is such a fun unit where the kids will get to be creative and express themselves through poetry. This first week we will focus on seeing ordinary things in a whole new way, through our "poet's eyes". We will also learn to listen for line breaks.  The kids will learn that poets choose topics that mean a lot to them.

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 learn strategies for adding more than two numbers together (for example: 23+85+17).  We will also move towards subtraction once again.  The students will learn to subtraction larger numbers with more than one place to regroup ("borrow"). 

Social Studies:  We will wrap up our unit on the history of technology.  This week we will continue to share our technology interviews with the class. We will also learn about the invention of the first telephone.

Week of: January 21st

Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 20 - Martin Luther King Day - No School
Jan. 27-31 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week: 11:00 dismissal on Thursday and Friday
Feb. 17 - President's Day - No School
Feb. 22 - Irving Fun Fair!!
Feb. 25 - Opera for the Young - school assembly
Feb. 25 - Field Trip - North Shore Center for the Performing Arts - Golden Dragons Show - more information to come!

*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! This week we will continue to learn about character feelings and how they change throughout the story. We will also continue to discuss character traits as well as finding text evidence.

Writing: We will continue our fiction-writing unit called: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This will be a smaller unit and will likely last about a month.  This week we will continue to discuss story elements and explore mentor texts.  We will spend time sharing our writing and giving each other feedback as well.  

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 take a mid-module assessment. We will then switch back to addition.  This time we will work on regrouping in both the ones and tens places. 

Social Studies:  We will continue our unit on the history of technology.  This week we will continue to share our technology interviews with the class. We will compare technology from the present with technology from the past.   

Week of: January 13th

Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 13 - Map Testing - Reading
Jan. 16 - Map Testing - Math
Jan. 20 - Martin Luther King Day - No School
Jan. 27-31 - Parent/Teacher Conference Week: 11:00 dismissal on Thursday and Friday
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! This week we will learn to notice a character's feelings.  We will also notice when a character has more than one feeling, or when their feelings change. Finally, we will learn to recognize or character's personality traits. 

Writing: We have started a new unit called: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This will be a smaller unit and will likely last about a month.  This week we will brainstorm possible problems for our story plots.  We will also come up with solutions for these problems.  The kids will learn all of the elements that make up a good fictional story. 

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 continue to work on subtraction with and without regrouping (borrowing).  We will begin using 3-digit numbers as well.  Finally, we will be working on solving one- and two-step word problems involving adding and subtracting within 100. 

Social Studies:  We have started a new unit about the history of technology.  This week we will begin to share our technology interviews with the class. We will compare technology from the present with technology from the past.