Happy Friday Families!
It's so hard to believe that October is almost in the rear view mirror and that November is just around the corner! Now that we're deep into the first grading period, I am excited to see how much more our students will grow throughout the year. There is so much to teach and so much to learn, but so little time!
Literacy
Our students finished our first novel this school year, The Night of the Spadefoot Toads. Our students truly enjoyed sharing a longer text that extended over multiple weeks. Using this shared text, we worked on literacy skills such as identifying the narrator's point of view.
This week, we started reading a nonfiction text titled Explorers: Triumphs and Troubles. This text highlights the details and impact of various explorers' expeditions throughout history. As we read the text, we are working on identifying the author's main point(s) while determining reasons and evidence as support. To practice determining the author's main point/s, we ask ourselves, "What does the author MOST want us to know or believe about what was written?" We will continue our work on this learning target using various texts.
Writing
Our students are deep into planning and writing their first analytical prompt. Students chose an ecosystem and researched the threats that there are to that ecosystem, as well as ways to protect that ecosystem. We are now working on planning body paragraphs that are well supported with not only text evidence, but our own words in an explanation.
Math
This week, we wrapped up our second unit in math, which focused on adding and subtracting fractions. This past Thursday, we started unit 3, which focuses on adding and subtracting decimals. Over the course of the next few weeks, our students will turn their focus on rounding numbers, including decimals up to the thousandths place.
Social Studies
We are really enjoying our first Social Studies unit! Our discussions have focused around the perceptions of Indigenous American Cultures and learning how to formulate questions to help guide our students' learning on how to better honor the cultural heritage of this land. Our students were especially fascinated about the Native Americans' perceptions of the first Thanksgiving Dinner.
Upcoming Dates
Thursday, October 31st - Halloween Parties
Tuesday, November 4th - No School (Election Day)
Friendly Reminders
**Please remind your student to charge his/her iPad and Logitech Crayon every night.
**If your child participates in orchestra or band, please remind him/her to bring their instrument on their lesson day.
**Please remember to send your student with a healthy snack - nothing feeds the brain like a healthy snack!
**Please continue to have your student practice their multiplication facts up to 12.
