October 19th Update...

Hi Parents,

See below to read about our amazing last two weeks!  Also, check out the bottom of the blog for an extra credit optional assignment.  I didn't have any takers on the last assignment, so hopefully this one will interest more students to show off that self-motivation and desire to learn.

Phonics/Grammar:  We learned about more contraction patterns.  We also learned about possessive nouns and the two necessary parts; the part that is owned and who owns it!  We also continued our practice of capitalization.  I should be consistently seeing capitalization of the first work in sentences, proper nouns, and any form of the pronoun "I".  Make sure to reinforce this when your child is doing any kind of writing, including homework.

Reading:  We are learning about informational text and the features that authors include in order to help us process the information. We are practicing the very important skill of reading a section of text and determining the main idea and important details (boxes and bullets, outlines).  We have read many informational passages and used these above techniques to answer the questions. We are also coming to the end of our class novel.  

Math:  This week, we are focusing on how to analyze a "constructed response" question.  These types of challenging word problems will be on the Milestones and we will be more than prepared when it comes time to show what we know.  We also learned a new game to practice our multiplication facts. We completed some math "sprints" in order to practice our fluency.

Optional Research Assignment:  The Early Explorers
*Choose one of the following regions that American Indian groups settled: Arctic, Northwest, Southwest, Plains, Northeast, and Southeast
*Research the following information related to your American Indians: environment (location on a map also), food, clothing, shelter, traditions
*Choose your own way to teach the class about that American Indian culture

Due Date:  November 2

Class News...

Congratulations to Taylor Gitonga for her Reflections entries!  She took 1st place for her literature entry and 2nd place for her 2-d art. We are so proud of her and will be excited to see how she places at the next level!

Please continue to send in any items from the STEM project email that I sent last week. We are still in need of many of the materials.  Items can be sent in until next Wednesday.