Week of November 27

Dear Parents –

Last week was a busy one for us, with Mini Academies, our science lab, and making Christmas Ornaments.  Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help with those activities. 

Please be sure to visit our Photos page to see some of the recent happenings in our class. 

Here’s a peek at our week ahead:

Monday (Day 4) Art and PE (Swimming)

Tuesday (Day 5) Library and World Language

Wednesday (Day 6) Music and PE

Thursday (Day 1) Art and World Language

Friday – No School

Language Arts

This week we’ll continue reading and discussing books with partners.  In addition to asking questions about the book, students will also begin thinking about the author’s message.  We’ll review comprehension strategies (Making Predictions, Asking Questions, Retelling, Rereading, Visualizing, Making Connections), and practice finding evidence in the story to support our thinking. 

Writer’s Workshop & Science

Our science and Writer’s Workshop are integrated this week with students preparing and conducting their own science experiments.  Last week students generated their own question to investigate.  This week, students will have an opportunity to go through the scientific process as they conduct their experiment.  They will form a hypothesis, conduct the experiment, make observations, record the results, and form a conclusion based on the outcome of their experiment.  Each step of the process will be written up in their final lab report, which is the assessment for our writing unit.  Teachers will be on hand to help students with their experiments, but the writing of the lab reports will be done independently without teacher support.  The writing of the lab reports will be done over several days.  Monday and Tuesday will be spent writing the question, hypothesis, materials, and procedures.  Wednesday will be spent conducting the experiment, and writing the results and conclusions. 

Math

Our focus this week is on subtracting two 2-digit numbers within 100.  We’ll practice using different place value strategies, such as building base-10 models, decomposing numbers, and using an Open Number Line to help us show our thinking.  We will also continue to work on solving story problems and focus on problems with a start or change unknown as these are the most challenging. 

Dinner Questions

How do you use an Open Number Line?

What is your science experiment this week?  What do you expect to happen?  Were you surprised at the results?

What have you learned about writing science lab reports?

Do you prefer writing personal narratives or science lab reports?  Why?