Week 25

 Dear Parents,

          This week in math we finished up 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping. I believe they all have this skill an d did very well o0n the test this Thursday. On Friday we practiced out facts and reviewed the unit. 

           In writing we began our class research project. I had modeled reading about Ben Franklin, deciding which were important facts and taking notes in a timeline order. We then began researching Helen Keller. We will read several sources and cite them. We will make the same decisions about what is important and write the information on sticky notes. Next week, we will turn those notes into sentences. We will make sure not to copy exact wording and make sentences of our own. They are already amazed at the hurdles she overcame. They also enjoyed decoding words I wrote in Braille.

            In reading/ social studies we learned about timelines and filled in the timelines of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for a grade. They did very well on this skill. Please be working on your timelines as they are due March 3^rd for a grade. They will also be up for open house. We each chose an African American Athlete to research for Black History Month. We did a rough draft and a final copy. The final copy will be on display at open house. On Friday they wrote their middle of year writing on a raindrop. They were comparing a tornado and a hurricane. They were allowed to use their spelling dictionaries, but could not ask fer new words. This had to be completed in one period of writing. This is a true gauge of what your child can do independently without editing and revising with me. I was impressed!

           In science we are studying the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. We are learning how the light of the sun reflects both off the Earth’s and Moon’s surfaces. That the moon appears to glow, but it is reflecting the light it gets from the sun. We learned w2e can observe the moon with our naked eye, a set of binoculars or a telescope. We experienced through videos what we would see using each tool. They were very interested in learning what the light and dark spots on the moon actually are as we magnified what we saw with our eyes with first binoculars and then a telescope.