September 21 Update...

Hi Parents,

I hope you have an excellent break next  week  and enjoy some quality family time! Check out below to see what we've been doing in class...

Phonics/Grammar:  We learned all about contractions. We made a cool foldable to help us learn how to correctly write these contractions and we took our assessment on Friday.

Reading:  We learned how to create an outline (Boxes  and Bullets) when reading an informational passage. This strategy will help readers retain information.   We also practiced writing extended responses  to an informational text (Milestone prep).  We read an article about lions and tigers multiple times to learn the power of closely reading a passage for understanding.  We also read several more chapters in The White Giraffe and looked at how the author used setting details to foreshadow events in Martine's life.  This is some amazingly DEEP comprehension work that we are doing in Room 315!

Writing:  I modeled using figurative language when writing a narrative and we practiced incorporating this into our stories.  We also looked more closely at how to expand on the internal story in a personal narrative. We created our covers and turned in our second piece of the year.

Math:  We practiced all strategies for multiplication and division (equal groups, arrays, skip counting, repeated subtraction) and we learned which strategy to use when solving word problems.  We also learned how to used multiplication to solve a division problem and began looking at solving for an unknown in multiplication and division (introduction to algebra). We sharpened our math fluency during our number talks where we worked on speed and accuracy.  We worked in  small groups to refine any skills that we are struggling with.

Social Studies:  We completed our unit on the Branches of Government. We learned about the rules and responsibilities of each branch, the meaning of "checks and balances", and who is the leader of each branch. We also talked about the levels of government (national, state, and local).

Class News...

The students LOVED our presentation  this week. Your performing arts donations supported this event.

October calendars are coming home today. Please take a minute to look at it. We have lots of important events in October that will affect our schedule.

Thank you, Mrs. Grayson and Mrs. Mize, for offering to be our first chaperones to Tellus.

Make sure to encourage reading over the Fall break.  We will be taking the Reading Inventory when we return and this will be an important score that is indicated on your child's report card.