Week of November 13

Dear Parents –

Our International Flag Parade was such an amazing event.  It was wonderful seeing the students dressed in their country’s traditional clothes or colors.  This is always such a special event for our community. 

Here’s a peek at our week ahead:

Monday (Day 6) – Music and P.E.

Tuesday (Day 1) – Art and World Language

Wednesday (Day 2) – Music and P.E.

Thursday (Day 3) – World Language

Friday (Day 4) – Art and P.E. (Swimming)

Reader’s Workshop

We will continue learning about how authors use literary language to help their readers picture things in their minds, describe characters and help give them a better understanding of what is happening.  Last week we looked at similes, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.  This week we’ll take a look at some playful idioms that will be sure to give kids a laugh.  We will also spend time looking for the big ideas and important lessons that authors are trying to teach their readers. 

Writer’s Workshop

Our unit on Science Lab Report Writing continues with students conducting a few more experiments this week.  We continue to focus on writing and drawing like scientists and are learning to pay attention to how we can elaborate in both words and pictures. 

Science

We are back in the lab this week with students conducting experiments to help them learn about the differences between physical and chemical changes.  Our lessons and class readings are designed to help students begin to understand what to look for when matter goes through a chemical change.

Math

Our focus in math shifts to solving subtraction story problems.  We will again look at the different structures of a story problem:  result unknown, change unknown, and start unknown.  We will also focus on different strategies to show our thinking when solving subtraction problems, such as counting on and counting back on a number line, and using base-10 models to help us model our thinking.  The week will end with students solving two-step story problems with the same operation. 

Dinner Questions

What was one thing you learned from the author presentation?

If you could be an author, what would you write about?

What was something you’ve done recently that was challenging?  How did you figure it out?