December...what?

How is it December already? I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of food, family, friends, and fun! Here is a quick run-down of what we will be working on this week:

Spelling: Tomorrow, your child will be bringing home their spelling list for this week. The quiz will be on Thursday, since this week is just a review week of the past 4 spelling reviews. No sentences are necessary for this review test.

Language Arts: We spent the month of November looking at punctuation marks, specifically quotation marks, periods, and most recently commas. We have noticed that commas are EVERYWHERE and it is hard to figure out when to use one and when not to. This week, we'll be switching gears and looking at prefixes. We will come to understand what prefixes are, what they mean, and how they can change the meanings of words.

Reading: We have been working on understanding Non-fiction Text Features. We are understanding their importance and how they are deliberately chosen to help relay information about a particular topic. We will finish up learning about the many different features of non-fiction this week and then spend the next couple of weeks learning about Non-Fiction Text Structure.

Writing: Your child brought home his/her personal narrative before the break. We are now shifting gears to learn how to become effective non-fiction writers. Have your child search their home libraries for any sources of non-fiction they have and would like to bring in to share. We will spend a lot of time looking at various sources and learning how to effectively incorporate structures and features in a non-fiction piece.

Math: We are in full multiplication mode! This week, your child will bring home their first multiplication chapter test. This test covered multiplication concepts only. We have just begun looking at facts. So far we have covered 2s and 5s and have briefly begun looking at patterns for a factor of 9. I highly encourage multiplication math fact practice at home. There are many FREE apps available when you search multiplication fact practice. Any of them would be a great starting point.

Science: This week we will begin to look at and learn about various fall and winter constellations. In January, we will have the opportunity to go in STAR LAB, which is our district's portable planetarium. We will spend these few weeks in December understanding constellations, the reasons for seasons, and focus on the Big and Little Dippers. Then, in January, we will go in STAR LAB to view these constellations as we would see them in the night sky.

Here's to a fun, yet busy week ahead!

November News

 Last week was stellar! Our class worked incredibly hard and we accomplished so much. It was so nice to be in school for five full days. This week we will also work hard, but we are faced with an unusual week. Tuesday is a half day for the students (12:10 dismissal). Thursday is our Book Fair preview day. We will browse the Book Fair at 11:35. On Friday, we will have an opportunity to purchase books from 2:00 - 2:30. Also, on Friday afternoon I have a district meeting to attend on our writing curriculum. I will be out of the room from 12:00 until the end of the day.

Reading
     We will put the finishing touches on our character study early this week. Last week we began reading short texts (fiction and nonfiction) together and closely studying the author's purpose, word choice and main idea.
     This week we will begin our nonfiction unit. We will begin by examining the common text features found in nonfiction and how we can use them to help deepen our understanding of a nonfiction text or article. We will continue to read short stories and poems together this week.

Writing
     This week we will work on revising our narratives and adding more detail to the heart of the story. Today, we had put the word "said" to rest. We are developing an amazing list of words we could use in our writing instead of said! We will also continue to practice writing cohesive paragraphs.

Math
    It is that time!!!! MULTIPLICATION!!! The class is very excited and so am I. We took a short test on subtraction today and will begin our first multiplication unit on Tuesday. We begin by relating addition to multiplication, then looking at arrays and the properties of multiplication.

Science
    We pollinated our plants and have watched as our plants went through their final stages of life. Today we looked at the seed pods that were produced after pollination and we said "goodbye" to our plants. The children brought home their plant logs today. They really learned a lot of valuable observation skills during this unit!

Language Arts
     We have been reviewing what makes a complete sentence and the different types of sentences. We are looking at various types of punctuation and how punctuation can change the meanings of statements. We are preparing to learn the different types of sentences and will then look at complex sentences.

   We had a very nice Halloween party and we did so many fun activities on Friday we weren't able to write a Friday Letter.

Our Mystery Reader from October 24th! Freddie's mom!

 

Pictures of our painting our pumpkins! A special thanks to Drew's mom, Natalie's mom, and Freddie's mom for making our pumpkin painting possible!