November 10, 2017

Hi Parents,

Thanks for checking in today to stay informed about your child's week!  Check out below to find out what we've been doing in our room this week...

Phonics:  We learned all about contractions (will, not) and when to use them (informally or in conversation).

Writing:  We looked closely at informational books and studied the strategies the authors used to hook the reader with an introduction.  We talked about several good strategies; using imagery or a scene, beginning with a riddle, starting with intriguing facts, or writing a main idea and most important details to be discussed.  We tried out two different strategies, applying our topic.  We also spent time researching to add to our books and putting the finishing details on our "throw away" drafts.

Reading:  We focused on application of the nonfiction reading strategies we've been working on all quarter; always reading the title and headings, focusing on important content-related vocabulary, stopping and jotting ideas in our own words, reading questions without looking at the answers and always relying on the text for our answers.  We read a passage a day for morning work and answered comprehension questions. We also read from our read aloud, The One and Only Ivan. We worked on using background information to make predictions about the rest of the story, we identified cause/effect relationships in the book, and we did several "close readings" to decode challenging vocabulary words.  We talked about all the wonderful figurative language in the book as well.

Math:  We worked all week on solving one step multiplication and division problems.  We learned that the reason word problems can be so difficult for us is because we are having to use the right side of our brain to understand the problem and then the left side of our brain to correctly solve the problem.  We worked through some challenging problems together as a  whole, we split into small groups to work on specific challenges, and we worked independently to show what we know when working alone.  Please take special note of any math grades that come home this week.  I try my best to do an error analysis with students as soon as I grade papers, but it's not always possible to do every problem. This is when your help becomes important.  You can sit down and correct any wrong answers with your child and it will make a huge difference in future understanding of the concept.

Social Studies:  We began a project that will help us identify the important contributions of the European Explorers.  We worked on a map showing the routes of the six explorers we study.  We completed information cards on John Cabot and Christopher Columbus as well.

Dinner Conversation Starters...

*Ask your child to tell you about John Cabot.
*Ask your child what Stella meant when she said to Ivan, "A good zoo is how humans make amends". (Hint:  It's how humans say we are sorry for ripping animals from their homes in the wild)
*Ask your child which strategy he/she is using in the introduction of their informational book.
*Ask your child about the compliment activity we did in class on Friday (when they wrote the names of all their classmates down on a sheet of paper)

Class News...

Our class will be video recorded next Tuesday during math. I'm so proud that this class represents Kemp in such a way that people want to come and spend time with us!  I love these kids!

Thanksgiving Break seems like it is coming too fast! There will be no school the week of  Nov. 20th. Enjoy this holiday with your family!

Have I mentioned lately how important memorization of math facts is before fourth grade???  In case you missed my last fifty PLEAs....Remember to encourage your child to practice this EVERY night! We will begin posting kids names on numbers representing which facts they've mastered.