Reminders
Our Awards Ceremony is this Friday at 9:15 AM, in the Dining
Room. Please be sure to sit at our
class’ assigned tables.
We are in need of thick
glue sticks for the hot glue gun and thick
Sharpie markers for chart writing. Any
donations would be greatly appreciated!
Readers’ Workshop
This week we will work to identify the main idea of nonfiction
texts. Often, when asked to recall what
they have just read, readers will recall one specific or interesting fact,
while missing the overall message. We
will be working to look closely at the details to determine the main idea. We have learned that the title or heading of
a section is a great clue for the main idea.
In class, we will be looking at nonfiction texts where the headings have
been removed, and working to determine a sentence that appropriately summarizes
the main idea.
In order to hold students accountable for their in-class and
nightly reading, we are now logging our reading on a reading log. This log, which will be a portion of
students’ Reading Habits grade, should be completed by the student and signed
by a parent each night.
Our first Reading BINGO Response is due Wednesday, January 29th.
Writers’ Workshop
This week we will begin our
focus on persuasive petitions and letters.
We will use what we have already learned about opinion writing as we
move toward this new project. Students
will use graphic organizers to plan their writing, before working to draft a
persuasive opinion or letter.
Skills
Students should
study and complete one of the homework options for spelling list 12. Our quiz will be Friday. The quiz will also
cover our skills sheet. This week’s
focus is addresses and book titles. Our
daily skills sheet (in their ROAR folder) will serve as their study guide.
Social Studies
Our study of Economics: Using Money (Chapter 9, Lesson 1) continues. The quiz will be Friday. We have discussed how money has taken many different forms over
time and the differences between goods and services. This week, we will learn about the importance of earning an income
and saving, how to make a budget, and what it means to earn interest when you
choose to put your money in the bank. We will review why money is often easier than the bartering
system.
Math
There will be no concept quiz this week, but there will be a
fluency quiz on 2s, 10s, and 12s.
In class, we will begin our new unit Finding Fair Shares, which
covers fractions. Our normal quiz schedule will change
during this unit; we may have quizzes on days besides Wednesdays, due to the
pacing of this unit. We will notify parents & students
of changes to this schedule in the newsletter. For example, our first quiz will be Tuesday, February 4th.
First, we will be working to find equal (fair shares) parts of a
whole, before naming them as fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4). We will practice dividing paper brownies into equal parts. Later, we will build fraction sets that your child can
bring home to review (Ziplocs with blue and yellow paper). These will be used to illustrate how fractions can be
combined to reach a sum of 1 whole. For example, we will learn about fractions with numerators greater
than 1 when we build equations like 1/4 + 3/4 = 1 whole.
Science
Our new unit, Earth in Space
and Time/The Universe (Chapter 2 in student workbook) begins this week. We will begin the unit with a discussion about perception and how
it can mislead us when forming ideas about stars. We think of them as tiny twinkling lights in the sky, when in
reality, they are giant balls of hot, glowing gases that release energy. Ask your child about how their thinking has changed as a result of
the "How Big, How Small" Lab. Later in the week, we will begin studying the size, color, and
brightness of stars. There will be no quiz this week.
