Week of: March 7th

 Upcoming Dates:

March 15: Teacher Institute Day - No School for Students
March 18: Report cards go out today.
March 28-April 1: Spring Break!
April 15: No School Today!

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We will be continuing with our reading unit: "Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power".  This unit will focus on building reading fluency, understanding literary language, tackling longer books, and goal-setting. This week we will be setting up our routines for "Same-Book Partnerships".  We will also be working on holding onto stories even when our books are long by jotting down notes on post-its. Finally, we will learn some strategies to use when our books get tricky: slow down, reread, and ask questions!

Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Writing About Reading".  This is actually a unit on opinion writing and using evidence to support our opinions.  Next week we will learn to write our opinions about more than one part of a book in order to make our writing longer and stronger. We will also learn to pay attention to small details in our books and use those details to generate new ideas. Finally, we will work on using text evidence to support our opinions. 

Math:  This week we will continue our work with module 7: "Problem Solving with Length, Money, and Data".  This week we will focus on using different strategies to make $1 or to make change from $1. We will also work on word problems involving different ways to make change from $1. We will end the week with two-step word problems involving money and our mid-module assessment. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We will be continuing our earth science unit: "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt". This week we will be exploring what happens when rocks get wet as well as weathering and erosion. 
at

Week of: February 14th

 Upcoming Dates:

Feb. 21: President's Day - No School
March 15: Teacher Institute Day - No School for Students
March 28-April 1: Spring Break!
April 15: No School Today

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We will be starting a new reading unit this week: "Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power". This unit will focus on building reading fluency, understanding literary language, tackling longer books, and goal-setting. This week we will learn that reading aloud can help the in-our-head reading voice as well.  We will also practice scooping up words in phrases and noticing punctuation marks.  Finally, we will learn that "dialogue tags" can help us to read with more expression.

Writing: We will be starting a new writing unit: "Writing About Reading".  This is actually a unit on opinion writing and using evidence to support our opinions.  Next week the kids will take a pre-writing assessment.  Then we will learn that writers are often inspired by their reading and we will reach out to others with opinions and ideas about characters.

Math:  This week we will start a new math module, Module 7: "Problem Solving with Length, Money, and Data".  This week we will focus on data and graphing. The kids will draw and label picture and bar graphs as well as answer questions based on the given data.  Finally, the kids will be solving word problems using data presented in a bar graph. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We will be starting our earth science unit: "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt". This week we will be exploring and discovering the properties of rocks. 
at

Week of: February 7th

 Upcoming Dates:

Feb. 21: President's Day - No School
March 15: Teacher Institute Day - No School for Students
March 28-April 1: Spring Break!
April 15: No School Today

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We are continuing our reading unit: "Studying 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 are going to be spending several days on comparing and contrasting two fictional stories.  We will be using what we have learned about "central message" as a tool to compare and contrast. 

Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This unit is all about character and plot development.  The kids have so much fun making up their own characters and stories! This week we will be wrapping up this fun writing unit.  The kids will be adding some final touches to their stories and they will have time to share them with their classmates!

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. We will also be wrapping up this math unit.  We will learn to add up to four 2-digit numbers together using place value strategies.  We will also be working on solving math problems with missing numbers in various places. Finally, we will take the unit assessment on Thursday of this week. We will start our new unit on data/measurement/coins next week!

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We will be wrapping up our social studies unit: "The History of Technology".  This week the kids will finish to sharing the interviews that hey did over Winter Break.  We will focus on television and other miscellaneous technology from the past! We will also add these two states to our growing knowledge of the 50 states: New York (NY) and New Jersey (NJ).
at

Week of: January 31st

 Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School
March 15: Teacher Institute Day - No School for Students
March 28-April 1: Spring Break!
April 15: No School Today

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We are continuing our reading unit: "Studying 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 about how to hold onto our comprehension of a story once we are finished reading the entire story. We will also learn to figure out a story's central message and how that can be applied to our own lives. 

Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This unit is all about character and plot development.  The kids have so much fun making up their own characters and stories! This week we will work on writing a great closing for our stories as well as starting to think about publishing our best work!

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. This week we will start working on subtracting using the "vertical way".  Many of us remember this strategy as "borrowing".  It will be familiar to the kids because we have already laid the groundwork for this strategy using the place value chart. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our social studies unit: "The History of Technology".  This week the kids will continue to share the interviews that hey did over Winter Break.  This week we will focus on computers and encyclopedias! 
at

Week of: January 24th

 Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School
March 15: Teacher Institute Day - No School for Students
March 28-April 1: Spring Break!
April 15: No School Today

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We are continuing our reading unit: "Studying 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 about character traits. The kids will learn to think about the personalities of the characters in our stories as well as what makes them that way. We will also learn to find "text evidence" to support our ideas about characters.  Finally, we will talk about how to hold onto our comprehension of a story once we are finished reading the entire story. 

Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This unit is all about character and plot development.  The kids have so much fun making up their own characters and stories! This week we will spend some time editing our work for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. We will also learn to add transition words when writing. 

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. This week we will finish our work on subtracting while using the place value chart.  We will then move into adding the "vertical way".  That is the traditional way to add larger numbers and involved "carrying the one".  

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are starting our new social studies unit: "The History of Technology".  This week the kids will begin sharing the interviews that hey did over Winter Break.  They will learn how technology has changed over time! We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added two more states: Utah (UT) and Colorado (CO).  
at

Week of: January 18th

 Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 18-21: MAP Testing this week on Tuesday(reading) and Thursday(math)
Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We are continuing our reading unit: "Studying 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 about character traits. The kids will learn to think about the personalities of the characters in our stories as well as what makes them that way.

Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This unit is all about character and plot development.  The kids have so much fun making up their own characters and stories! The kids have really been enjoying this unit!  They have done a great job with their planning and now they are working hard to write their first drafts.  This week we will learn to add dialogue into our stories to make our characters come to life and talk with each other. 

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. This week we will work on subtracting while using the place value chart.  The kids will learn to "regroup" and take from the tens place to make more ones.  They will also learn to take from the hundred's place to make more tens.  We remember this skills are "borrowing" when we were younger. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our science unit: The States of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Last week we learned about what happens to liquids inside containers.  We learned that liquids take the shape of their containers and spread out on the bottom of the container.  We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added one more state: Wyoming (WY).  Ask your child about "ManTan's body" and how he is saying "WHY do I need to do the dishes!?!". 
at

Week of: January 10th

 Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 10-14: MAP Testing this week on Tuesday(reading) and Thursday(math)
Jan. 17: Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday - No School
Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We are continuing our reading unit: "Studying 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 plan ahead and find spots in our books where we will stop and jot down our thoughts and predictions. We will also spend some time reviewing what we have already learned in this unit up until this point. 

Writing: We will be continuing our writing unit: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This unit is all about character and plot development.  The kids have so much fun making up their own characters and stories! We have been spending some time planning out our first stories.  This week will get actually start to write our first drafts!  We will work on writing good leads and using descriptive language in our writing!

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. This week we will continue working on adding using the place value chart as a tool.  At the end of the week, I will introduce subtraction using the place value chart as well!

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our science unit: The States of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Last week we learned about the different behavior of molecules in solids, liquids, and gases.  We also learned that temperature can cause the state of matter to change (For example: ice melts into water and then boils and becomes a gas).   We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added three more states: Nebraska (NE), North Dakota (ND), and South Dakota (SD).  Ask your child about the "New Basket" of vegetables that the chef plans on adding to his soup and also where he hangs up his cooking coats!
at

Week of: January 4th

  Upcoming Dates:

Dec. 19-Jan. 3:  Winter Break (school resumes Tuesday, 1/4/22)
Jan. 10-14: MAP Testing this week on Tuesday(reading) and Thursday(math)
Jan. 17: Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday - No School
Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We are starting a new reading unit this week: "Studying 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! First, we will learn about character traits and how to "stop and jot" to make predictions.

Writing: We will be starting a new writing unit: "Writing Gripping Fictional Stories". This unit is all about character and plot development.  The kids have so much fun making up their own characters and stories! This week we will learn the difference between realistic and unrealistic fiction.  We will also learn to create interesting characters for our stories. 

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. Next week we will learn how to add larger numbers using the place value chart as a strategy.  Students will learn how to "bundle" ones to make another ten and how to "bundle" tens to make another hundred.  This is called "regrouping" and will eventually lead us into what we all remember as "carrying the one". 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our science unit: The States of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Last week we learned how to describe liquids by using their properties.  We learned more about "viscous" and "fluid" liquids as well as "transparent, translucent, and opaque".   We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added one more state: Nebraska (NE).  Ask your child about the "New Basket" of vegetables that the chef plans on adding to his soup!
at

Week of: December 13th

 Upcoming Dates:

Dec. 19-Jan. 3:  Winter Break (school resumes 1/4)
Jan. 17: Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday - No School
Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: We have completed our nonfiction reading unit about using reading skills to become experts.  Each student made a flipgrid video to share a few of the keywords and facts that they learned about their topic.  Ask them to open their "Flipgrid" app and show you our class videos!  Next week we will do some themed reading days that correspond with winter and the season.  We will officially begin our next reading unit when we return from Winter Break!

Writing: We will complete our writing unit this week: "The How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing". The kids will learn to write informational books to teach their readers about something they know well.  We will be working on editing and putting the final touches on the books that we want to "publish".  Then we will take some time to share and celebrate all of the hard that we did while writing our nonfiction books!

Math:  This week we will continue our math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. Next week we will work on learning about the "Arrow Way" for subtraction.  We will also begin learning about another addition strategy: Partial Sums. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our science unit: The States of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Last week we started to learn about liquids.  We studied 7 different "mystery liquids" and focused on how liquids can be different from each other.  The kids LOVED trying to guess the identity of each liquid!  They also learned a new word to describe "slow moving" liquids: viscous.  We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added two more states: Oklahoma (OK) and Kansas (KS).  Ask your child about Chef MIMAL's hot pot and the can of vegetables that he has added to the pot. 
at

Week of: December 6th

 Upcoming Dates:

Dec. 10: Report cards go home today.
Dec. 19-Jan. 3:  Winter Break (school resumes 1/4)
Jan. 17: Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday - No School
Jan. 31-Feb. 4: Parent/Teacher Conference Week - Thursday/Friday will have early dismissal at 11:00
Feb. 21: President's Day - No School

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: This week we will continue our reading unit: "Becoming Experts-Reading Nonfiction. In this unit the kids will be learning how learn from, and enjoy, a nonfiction text.  This week each student will complete a final project showing what they have learned about their nonfiction reading topic.  We will also do an end-of-unit assessment. 

Writing: We will continue our writing unit this week: "The How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing". The kids will learn to write informational books to teach their readers about something they know well.  We will work on editing and revising our nonfiction writing.  The kids will also be doing some goal-setting for their writing as well as adding special text features!

Math:  This week we will be starting a new math module, Module 4: "Addition and Subtraction Within 200 with Word Problems to 100".  This is a huge module that covers several different strategies for adding and subtracting larger numbers. We will start off the unit by learning about the "Arrow Way" for addition.  We will then move into the "Arrow Way" for subtraction. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our science unit: The States of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Last week we were able to apply our knowledge about the properties and materials of solid objects. The kids were challenged to build a tower out of a variety of solids objects.  The tower needed to be 45cm tall and be able to withstand the "wind" (fan blowing). It was definitely a challenge, but the kids had lots of fun and it was a great learning experience.  We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added two more states: Oregon (OR) and Nevada (NV).  Ask your child about the "New Vat" of soup and the ore that is used to stir it! 
at

Week of: November 22 and 29

 Upcoming Dates:

Nov. 24-26: Thanksgiving Break - No School
Dec. 10: Report cards go home today.
Dec. 19-Jan. 3:  Winter Break (school resumes 1/4)

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: This week we will continue our reading unit: "Becoming Experts-Reading Nonfiction. In this unit the kids will be learning how learn from, and enjoy, a nonfiction text.  This week we will learn how to compare two, or more, books on the same topic.  We will also work on retelling what we have about an entire topic, not just one book. We will wrap up our nonfiction unit with an assessment and celebration in the coming weeks!

Writing: We will continue our writing unit this week: "The How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing". The kids will learn to write informational books to teach their readers about something they know well.  We will work on our introductions for our nonfiction writing pieces. The kids will also be rereading what they have written and they will look for ways to make their writing more clear and easier to read.  

Math:  This week we will continue our work with Module 3: "Place Value, Counting, and Comparison of Numbers to 1,000". In this unit the kids will learn all about place value as well and composing and decomposing numbers.  It will set the foundation for adding and subtracting larger numbers later on in the school year. This week we will learn how to order numbers in different forms.  We will also learn how to find 1 more, 1 less, 100 more, and 100 less than a given number.  Finally we will work on patterns and be able to continue complex number patterns. At the end of next week, we will have a final assessment to close out this math module. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  We are continuing with our science unit: The States of Matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  Last week we focused on the materials that solids are made from and how the properties of those materials useful.  We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added two more states: Idaho (ID) and Montana (MT).  Ask your child about who does the dishes in Chef MIMAL's kitchen.  It's "Ida" and "ManTAn"! (Idaho and Montana)
at

Week of: November 15th

 Upcoming Dates:

Nov. 17: Picture Retake Day 
Nov. 18: Virtual Family Reading Night
Nov. 24-26: Thanksgiving Break - No School
Dec. 10: Report cards go home today.
Dec. 19-Jan. 3:  Winter Break (school resumes 1/4)

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: This week we will continue our reading unit: "Becoming Experts-Reading Nonfiction. In this unit the kids will be learning how learn from, and enjoy, a nonfiction text.  This week we will start to work on learning about a topic across several books that on that topic. We will work on learning about subtopics within our main topic and how to compare them across multiple books and resources.

Writing: We will continue our writing unit this week: "The How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing". The kids will learn to write informational books to teach their readers about something they know well.  We will learn how to write in a way that helps our readers to picture the information that we are sharing.  We will also work on our introductions for our nonfiction writing pieces. 

Math:  This week we will continue our work with Module 3: "Place Value, Counting, and Comparison of Numbers to 1,000". In this unit the kids will learn all about place value as well and composing and decomposing numbers.  It will set the foundation for adding and subtracting larger numbers later on in the school year. This week we will learn to model numbers with more than 9 ones or 9 tens; writing them in expanded, unit, standard, and word forms.  We will also start to use the > < and = symbols to compare numbers and order them in different forms.

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  However, this week we will be learning about the three different types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. We We started a new science unit last week on the states of matter: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  We focused on how to describe solid objects by their properties.  We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added one more state: Washington (WA).  Ask your child about Chef MIMAL's "Washing Machine". 
at

Week of: November 1st

 Upcoming Dates:

Nov. 2:  Institute Day - No School for Students
Nov. 24-26: Thanksgiving Break - No School
Dec. 10: Report cards go home today.
Dec. 19-Jan. 3 - Winter Break (school resumes 1/4)

*Italics are repeated from last week's blog.
Reading: This week we will continue our reading unit: "Becoming Experts-Reading Nonfiction. In this unit the kids will be learning how learn from, and enjoy, a nonfiction text.  This week we will learn that using vocabulary is an important part of growing knowledge from a nonfiction book.  We will also learn to use text features and keywords. 

Writing: We will continue our writing unit this week: "The How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing". The kids will learn to write informational books to teach their readers about something they know well.  We will learn that nonfiction writers add more by asking themselves: "What else could I say?". We will also talk about goal-setting and planning. 

Math:  This week we will continue our work with Module 3: "Place Value, Counting, and Comparison of Numbers to 1,000". In this unit the kids will learn all about place value as well and composing and decomposing numbers.  It will set the foundation for adding and subtracting larger numbers later on in the school year. This week we will learn to count the total value of $1, $10, $100 bills up to $1,000. We will also learn to use a hundred's chart and an empty number line to skip count using different units. 

Social Studies:  We will continue our learning about having a growth mindset all year long.  However, this week we will be learning about the three different types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. We focused on "urban" and "suburban" communities last week and this week we will learn about "rural" communities. We have also continued to learn the locations of the 50 states.  This past week we added three more states: TX, ME, and FL (the "three corners" of Chef MIMAL's kitchen).
at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)