Week of: March 16th

Upcoming Dates:

March 17 - Institute Day - No school for students
March 23-27 - Spring Break - No School - School resumes on Monday, March 30th.
April 10 - Non Attendance Day - No School
April 20-23 - Book Fair Week
April 22 - Academic Fair and Egg Drop

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading:  We will continue our 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 work in our reading clubs and set reading goals together.  We will also learn to support each other and to give helpful feedback. 

Writing: We will continue our 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 week students will learn that there is a relationship between structure and meaning in poetry. We will also learn that poets sometimes write from a point of view that is not their own. Finally, we will work on revision and word choice. 

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 Module 7: "Problem Solving with Length, Money, and Data".  This unit will focus on measuring with inches, counting coins, and using graphs to read and display data. This week we will learn to measure various objects using an inch ruler and a yardstick.  We will also learn to compare measurements and find the difference in lengths using inches, feet, and yards.

Science:  This week we will continue our science unit: "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt". Last week the students learned how to sort river rocks by size using screens as tools.  We also talked about erosion and how a tiny piece of sand could have started as a giant boulder.

Week of: February 24

Upcoming Dates:

Feb. 25 - Opera for the Young - school assembly
Feb. 25 - Field Trip - North Shore Center for the Performing Arts - Golden Dragons Show
Feb. 28 - Amazing Africa School Assembly
March 11 - Spring Sing Concert - This will be in the evening - more information to come.
March 13 - Second trimester report cards will go home with students today.
March 17 - Institute Day - No school for students
March 23-27 - Spring Break - No School - School resumes on Monday, March 30th.

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading:  We will continue our 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 the children will learn that readers notice when an author uses language in creative ways by playing around with words. They will work to understand what the author is really saying.  They will also learn to transfer this type f writing to their own writing during writer's workshop.

Writing: We will continue our 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 week we will learn that poets consider the mood they want to convey in their poems, making sure the mood matches their poem's meaning. They will also learn to use comparisons to clarify feelings and ideas. 

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 Module 7: "Problem Solving with Length, Money, and Data".  This unit will focus on measuring with inches, counting coins, and using graphs to read and display data. This week we will learn to solve word problems using data presented in a bar graph.  We will also begin to learn about coins.  This week we will focus on recognizing the value of each coin and counting up to find their total values.

Science:  This week we will continue our science unit: "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt". This week students will wash their rocks to see how they change when they are wet.  They will also learn to sort rocks by their properties.

Week of: February 18th

Upcoming Dates:

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

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading:  We will continue our 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 the children will work on reading at a pace that is not too fast and not too slow - one that allows them to really understand what they are reading. We will also learn to pay attention to literary language (comparisons, invented words, figurative language).   They will ask themselves: "What might the author want me to see, to understand?"
Writing: We will continue our 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 week we will start by focusing on how to edit our poetry.  We will also work on word choice.  Finally, we will learn about repetition and how that can give our poems rhythm, sound, and emphasize meaning.

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 start a new unit: "Problem Solving with Length, Money, and Data".  This unit will focus on measuring with inches, counting coins, and using graphs to read and display data. This week we will learn to sort and record data and to use that data to solve word problems. We will learn to use a bar graph to represent and given data set.

Science:  This week we will start a new science unit: "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt". In our first week we will be learning about three different kinds of rocks.  We will learn what happens when rocks rub together (an introduction to weathering). The students will observe and compare these different kinds of rocks. 

Week of: February 10th

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 continue our 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 the children will learn that readers match their voices to the meaning of the text. We will also work on reading at a pace that is not too fast and not too slow - one that allows them to really understand what they are reading. 
Writing: We will continue our 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 week the kids will learn that poets are always on the lookout for poems, mining their notebooks and their lives for ideas that have strong feelings and concrete details.

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 work on more subtraction.  This time we will learn about regrouping ("borrowing") from both the ones and tens places in the same math problem.  We will also talk about what to do when there is a zero in the spot where we need to borrow.  Finally, we will take an end-of-unit assessment on Friday.  This will mark the end of this unit on addition and subtraction; with and without regrouping.