Monday, August 26, 2013

The Jungle Journal for the Week of 8/26/13

Readers’ Workshop
This week, the students go wild over books!  We will be exploring our classroom library and students will be selecting texts for their personal reading bags.  Your child is welcome to bring one book from their reading bag home each night for part of their 20 minutes of required nightly reading.  We will stress the importance of selecting "just right" books.  A book is "just right" if there are no more than 3 unknown words, your child reads with ease and fluency, and your child understands and can discuss what they have read.  Please take a look at the books your child reads each night.  Ensure it is not too easy or too difficult.  If you have questions about this, feel free to email us!
We are introducing our year-long reading project, Reading Bingo this week. This project will be housed in your child's Reader's Notebook (a blue folder).  Students will be given a Reading Bingo board with the goal of reading six books a nine weeks.  This goal aligns with our Readers to Leaders, Million Word Campaign.  Students may choose to bounce around the bingo board to genres of choice, or may aim for five in a row (with one additional box) for a prize.  For each book read, students must complete a response.  Response options and deadlines can be found in your child's Reader's Notebook.

Writers’ Workshop
In connection with our "Walk on the Wild Side" theme, our first writing unit will ask students to recall a time when they got a little wild!  We will be writing personal narratives, focused on a time when students pushed themselves to try something new (a food, activity, etc.).  After brainstorming ideas, we will be creating an illustration of a key moment to help us note the importance of details.

Skills
Students will receive their spelling lists in the near future.  Spelling homework & tests will begin the week of September 9th.

Math
We will begin the new school year with a mathematics unit about addition and subtraction called Collections and Travel Stories.  In this unit, students practice and refine addition and subtraction strategies and focus on different types of subtraction problems.  They will develop an understanding of the place value of 3-digit numbers, and we will be doing many activities that illustrate the size of the number 1,000.
The students are currently working on a yellow Math packet that is to be kept in their ROAR folder.  Please being this to school daily. 
The first Math quiz will be coming soon.  Please check the planner each night for more information.

Science
In Chapter 1, we are learning how to think like a scientist and function in a laboratory setting.  We will investigate the types of questions scientists ask, how scientists make inquiries, how scientists form explanations, and how scientists safely utilize tools to make observations. We are also learning how to record data and the importance of staying organized.
Your child is using a Science workbook and Science Interactive Journal during class each day; these tools help us to stay organized and should be used to prepare for quizzes and tests throughout the year.  

Social Studies
Our lesson focuses on Chapter 1, Lesson 1:  What is a community?  We will fill out and discuss the blue Social Studies sheet each day in class and the quiz will be on Friday, August 30th.  Study the blue sheet nightly! 

We will begin our Social Studies lessons next week, focusing on communities.  Be sure to look in the ROAR folder for the blue sheet.  

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