Week 15

 Dear Parents, 

          This Week in Math we finished up our unit on measurement in inches, feet, yards, centimeters and meters. We learned time to the minute and reviewed how to find area in square units. We took our assessment on Friday.

           In writing we finished up our special holiday gift for you, worked on writing projects in process and wrote a winter acrostic. This one they wrote totally on their own with no brainstorming. My writers are growing and improving every day!

           In social studies/reading we had a Scholastic News article and several Thanksgiving stories entitled “Are You Thankful for Pumpkin Pie?”, Thanksgiving at the Tappletons, Turkey Trouble, A Turkey for Thanksgiving and Arthur’s Thanksgiving. We had a comp check over one of the stories as well as the scholastic News Article.

           In Science we began our weather unit by Brainstorming kinds of weather and looking at weather tools meteorologists use to tell us about the weather. We had a hands on experience for reading a thermometer that was placed in three different cups of water. We used hot tap water, ice water and room temperature water. We experienced a talk/read/talk/write activity as well. We  rained into a rain gauge and practiced reading how much precipitation had fallen.

Week 14

 Dear Parents,

                 This week in math we have been estimating and measuring objects in our room with centimeters and meters. We talk about which unit of measurement would be best to use as well as which unit would have more or fewer units of measurement. They have been excited as they estimate and match the true measurement.

                  In writing this week we have finished up acrostic poems. One acrostic was to celebrate and honor veterans. The children did a wonderful job with their writing and at the Veterans Day Program. I made copies of their poems to send home with veterans. We also worked on a special Thanksgiving gift for you- SHHHHH, it’s a secret!

                  In Reading/Social Studies We read the story Going Places and took a comprehension test. We combined this with writing and learned how to analyze a prompt and wrote to a prompt about this story. We read a Scholastic News Article called Fly High For Veterans Day and took a reading checkpoint over it. We learned the differences between folktales and fairytales. We listened to a few of these types of stories.

                    In science we did a talk/read/talk/write activity and highlighted the important information. We discussed activities we have done that are pushes, pulls or both.We created an accordion book with the information we learned. We took our assessment on Friday.

Week 13

 Dear Parents,

              This week in math we learned about area using square units. We made area robots and added the different We then used ordinary units of measurement like a paperclip to estimate and measure objects. We then went on to customary units of measurement like inches, feet and yards. We are having so much fun measuring around our classroom.

                In writing this week we continued in the writing process for both our narrative stories and our imaginary stories. We learned about Veteran’s Day and wrote a VETERAN acrostic poem. They were very well written. I made copies to hand out to our visiting veterans on Veteran’s Day.

                 In Reading /Social Studies we read the nonfiction story Who Are Government Leaders. We created a flip book where we learned about our local, state and federal governments. We now know who the leaders are in our city, state and country.

                  In science we had a push and pull field day as we experienced push and pull activities out on our playground. We did a talk, read, talk write activity about these forces.

Week 12

 Dear Parents,

            This week in Math we finished up the unit on two-digit subtraction with/ and without regrouping. We took our assessment on Tuesday! Thank you for partnering with me at home to help support your children. All did well on their assessments. We began our next unit on area and measurement. We are counting square units to find the area of a shape. We had a fun activity with area on Friday as we used Cheeze-Its to build shapes with certain areas, then record them on graph paper.

              In writing, we are still working on our last two writing assignments, our individual narratives and our imaginary stories. We are learning to have a beginning /middle/end as well as how  to add details and a closing sentence.

              In reading we listened to the story It’s Not Easy Being a Ghost  and created a craft to dress up our ghost as something else for Halloween. We read  Pepita and the Bully and talked about the central idea of the story. We read a Scholastic News article called Season for Sneezin and took a comprehension check.

                In science we began our unit about forces by doing an engage activity with pushes and pulls  as we set up out unit in our notebook and recorded our observations in our science notebooks.

                Our conferences are officially over! Thank you for all meeting with me to discuss your children and their beginning of year testing. Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is something you wish to discuss!

Week 11

 Dear Parents,

              This week in Math we continued working on two digit subtraction with and without regrouping. Most of us are doing well. Check your child’s paper for corrections to see how well he/she is doing. Lots of sparkly stars were earned towards treasure box! Our test will be next Tuesday. They all know the steps, but at times make an error. We are learning that 1 small error causes the problem to be wrong.

               In writing we continue to finish up individual narratives and are planning out an imaginative story with a beginning, middle and end. We are having so much fun using our imaginations!

                In reading we read two books, decided on their topics and then their themes. The stories were Two Hens and a Peacock and Serious Farm. We also read a writing about Sea Stars. We read the questions first, thought about the story as we read, analyzed the questions and chose the best answer. We did this summative assessment together as we will do a gradual release throughout the year, taking more of these assessments. We read a Scholastic News article and took a comprehension check. On Friday we listened to the story Stellaluna and completed a Venn Diagram comparing birds and bats.

                In science we finished up our unit on sound and took our unit test. We are working as engineering groups to solve the problem of getting sound to a friend who is far away.

 

 I am looking forward to all my fall conferences. If you have not signed up, Here is the link ( If the times don’t work for you please e-mail me. I’d like to meet with every parent to discuss our beginning of year testing).

Link to Sign up Genius:

 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-59201611-fall

Week 10

 Dear Parents,

       This week in math we started two- digit subtraction. We spent two days just subtracting with no regrouping. We began regrouping using base ten blocks so the students understand what we are actually doing when we regroup. On Thursday we began working the problems. It was a rough day yesterday as they were frustrated trying to learn this new concept, but they pushed through the hard task. Today I let them work some problems independently to see their understanding of this concept. I will be sending homework pages next week. Please sit with your child as they work on these math problems as if they practice it incorrectly, it confuses them further. I promise, with your support, they will get this concept sooner! 

             In writing some students finished their narratives, revised and edited them. Others continue to work on them. We will now begin learning about how to write an imaginative story as we pick a character, setting and problem.

            In reading this week we read a realistic fiction story called The Big Red Lollipop. We took a comprehension check over this story. We listened to the story Mango, Abuela, and Meand focused on the point of view in which the story was told. We noticed the words I, me and my and figured out it was told in the first person point of view. We read a Scholastic News article called Pumpkin Party and took a comprehension check.

              In science this week we continued our investigations of sound as energy, or vibrations. We discussed pitch and volume as we explored sound. On Friday we did pumpkin science, as we discussed the life cycle of a pumpkin. We carved and cleaned out a real pumpkin!

              I am looking forward to all my fall conferences. If you have not signed up, Here is the link.

Link to Sign up Genius:

 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0B4CAFA82AA02-59201611-fall

Week 9

 Dear Parents,

                This week in math we finished up our unit on two digit addition with and without regrouping. All did well on the assessment this week. We began looking at word problems and being able to write our own.

                 In writing we began our own individual narrative. First we planned it out in our beginning, middle, and end boxes. Then we began writing our beginnings and middles of our stories. We are being mindful od adding details about the people and the setting.

                 In reading/social studies  we read a Scholastic News article called The Power of Yet . We then took a comprehension check. We learned about Author’s purpose and read and discussed the story Spoon. We completed a story map. We also learned what it means to summarize. We read Being a Good Citizen and discussed the purpose of the author writing this story. We completed a graphic organizer that showed how the important fact in each section led to our main idea of the story.

                 In science we finished up our unit on combining matter and took our unit assessment. We set up our new unit on sound and discussed the vocabulary. We then had a few demonstrations of sounds and vibrations. We played a guess the sound video to see if we could recognize sounds.

• Look for the pumpkin project in your child’s Coyote Folder. When these are all turned in we will create a pumpkin patch in the hallway with your beautiful pumpkin art. You may decorate the pumpkin with your child any way you choose. Please cut the pumpkin out as it will need to be attached to a vine!