Reader's Workshop We have officially started our nonfiction unit! The students took their pre-assessment on Monday then we got started learning on Wednesday. We talked about different text features that nonfiction books have and what is important to look for when we read nonfiction texts. Then, we continued by asking ourselves questions about what we are reading. Even though the texts are nonfiction, it is okay to be confused for a little while until you start getting more information. Writer's Workshop The students also took their writing pre-assessment for informational writing this week. We are going to be writing historical research reports on civil rights for this unit and we brainstormed different topics we could write about. After we did this and organized the topics, we started researching to prepare us to write our drafts on Monday. Math Everyone worked very hard in math this week taking a two-part chapter 2 test AND a chapter 3 pre-assessment. We have finished our chapter on dividing whole numbers and we are moving onto adding and subtracting decimals next week. Science Our science unit is quickly coming to a close with only one lesson left and our unit test next Wednesday. This week, we learned how gravity is different on different planets and moons. We got to calculate how high our own jump would be in different locations in space. Social Studies We have finished our first unit in social studies which was all about Native Americans. To review, we played charades and you can check out those videos on Seesaw! Extras In P.E., the students are learning a special Halloween dance (as per Mrs. Prouse's request). They will be performing it at the costume parade at school on Halloween. Music with Mrs. Mesch continued and we did some art in our own class this week. We made figures of ourselves out of foil and drew the shadow that they would cast on the ground. We also had a special assembly from Sergeant Jones and Raider this week. They came to speak about bullying and show us a few tricks! Next Step Recommendations
As we get ready for our next chapter in math, the students will practice adding and subtracting decimals. To help at home, you can have them practice adding up money (coins specifically) or adding up bills. We are also getting ready for our science test; something you could do to help them prepare would be to look outside in the sky, either during the day or at night, and have them tell you all they know about the sun, the moon, the stars, or planets.
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Math In my class, we continued with chapter two, which led up to completing the chapter review on Friday. Ms. Wu's class worked on a division project to wrap up chapter 2 in their class. The coming week will include the chapter 2 test and performance task for both classes. Science We continued with our space unit this week and learned 3 new concepts. First, we identified different constellations that appear at night and figured out how we can use them to tell us roughly what month it is. Then, we explored phases of the moon and how each cycle restarts every month. Finally, we ended the week by checking out other planets and their features and making a scale model of the distance between each one. Social Studies
This week, we finally started social studies! We are kicking off this subject by learning about the people that lived here long before anyone else: Native Americans. Four different groups were discussed along with different customs and traditions. We also talked a little about how their economies and power systems developed. Extras P.E. with Coach Mitchell continued like usual and we got to have music with Ms. Mesch again! We also had our first Run, Hide, Defend drill and the students did a great job of barricading themselves in and hiding. The sheriff gave us a great review from the drill. Next Step Recommendations Since we are learning about stars and moon phases, try looking outside every couple of nights to see if you can find things that change. The moon should change "shape" and its position in the sky during each cycle. Taking photos of it would be a cool way of documenting a real concept that we are learning about in science! Thank you all for a very successful conference week! I hope you enjoyed hearing about your child's progress both from me and the students themselves. I apologize for forgetting to type up an update for the week of September 30th; I got to busy planning for conferences that it slipped my mind! I appreciate all your continued support this year. Reader's Workshop In the last two weeks, we finished up our interpretation book clubs and compiled all of our ideas into a presentation. The students worked on those presentations last week and performed them on Thursday and Friday. The recordings are up on Seesaw if you haven't checked them out yet! Everyone did a great job throughout the unit by thinking analytically about their books and practicing reading strategies that they have never been exposed to before. In the next few weeks we will start up our next unit: complexity in nonfiction texts, which includes reading in other content areas. Writer's Workshop This week, we also finished up our personal narrative unit. The children worked hard editing and revising their writing and we celebrated by sharing our work with the TK's and kindergarteners. Similar to the reading unit, we will be starting our next writing unit soon: research reports and feature articles. Math
We continued our division chapter these past two weeks and everyone has been making a lot of progress. In my class, we learned a new way to model division, partial quotients, ways to estimate the answer to division problems, doing long division to divide by two digit numbers, and how to interpret remainders, all in the last two weeks! During some conferences, I heard there was some concern since there is no "homework". I just want to give a reminder that we do give them assignments they can do at home and it is up to them to complete them. We only assign work that we think will help them so even doing half of the problems at home would benefit them in their practice. Extras There was no P.E. with Coach Mitchell during conference week so I did it with them myself. We got to play a new game called BBK and they seemed to think it was fun. We also had art with Mrs. Fish the week before conferences started and they got to practice still-life pastel drawings. That same week, we went on a field trip to the Planetarium at DeAnza College and learned more about the solar system and how it works. Next Step Recommendations As we get ready for the next units, I will send out a reading list with different books at various reading levels. Included in the list will be nonfiction books that you can check out to get ready for our nonfiction units in reading and writing. For math, please ask your child if they are checking the daily challenges or bringing them home. It won't take them long and by doing them, it makes it easier for them to check what they know and what they still need to work on. Social studies is starting (finally) this week! We are giving the students a very short break after working on reading and writing for so long to focus a little more on science and social studies. Reading and writing of course will be integrated into these subjects but we won't start up the new units until next week. |
AuthorUpdates on the class will occur regularly and you can check back here to see what's happening at school. Archives
March 2020
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