During Quarter 1, we will focus on writing personal narratives. Our focus is to write for our reader.
This week: Our focus will shift to the conventions of standard English, specifically spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
We will read Punctuation Takes A Vacation to find out if one class can survive without punctuation. We will then look for errors in the class' letters before editing our own personal narratives.
We will focus on three spelling strategies to edit our personal narratives:
1. Circle a word if you are unsure how to spell it and you think you're spelling it incorrectly.
2. Write the word 3 different ways on a Post-it or on the side of your paper. Choose the one you think is the closest.
3. When typing, notice the cues under misspelled words (red line) and use spell check to assist.
Our personal narratives should be finished by Tuesday October 30.
A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/concord/teacherlinks/sixtraits/sixtraits.htm
Life Science:
We will continue to learn how plants and animals are interdependent. Our focus will also shift to understanding what the Chesapeake Bay Watershed is, what states are included, and how communities within the watershed affect the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
Our field trip to the Agricultural Farm will take place on October 26. We will spend the day learning the effects of agriculture, pollution, and fishing have on the Bay.
Thank you to the many parents who volunteered to accompany us on the trip. All parents are welcome to join us on the trip. Due to the limited number of seats on a bus, it may be necessary for some of our volunteers to drive their own cars/carpool. If you signed up to join us, please let your child's teacher know if you are able to meet us there or if you need transportation on the school bus. More information will follow in your child's take home folder later this week.
This week we will read about how using salt and fertilizer affects the health of the Bay.
Math 5:
Students will investigate the concepts of positive and negative numbers (integers) through the use of number lines, thermometers and diagrams and we will review next week all concepts that have been taught in preparation for the Unit 1 test on October 22nd.
Math 4:
*Recognize and apply place value patterns in numbers through millions.
• Organize, display, and analyze data using line plots and line graphs.
• Determine and distinguish among mean, median, mode, and range, using concrete materials.
• Classify angles as acute, obtuse, or right.
• Identify and describe the sides, angles, edges, vertices's, and faces of solid figures.
• Draw circles, triangles, and quadrilaterals given their dimensions. *Identify and describe points, lines, line segments, and rays.
This week we will focus on using line and bar graphs to find measures of central tendency.
Mode: the number that appears most often in a set of data
Range: the difference between the maximum and minimum numbers in a set of data
Median: the number that divides the data in half when all numbers are arranged in sequence
*Students will have a math quiz each Friday on skills covered in the unit to that point.
*Looking Ahead: Unit Test November 1 & 2. A review packet was sent home Monday.
A great website that allows students to work at their own pace on word problems/real world application of multiplication & division:
http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
We continue to use the Khan academy website to help practice our math at home. This is a great site where students (if a log in is created) can track their progress and have example problems to work on. It has been featured in CNN as an up and coming way for teachers to assess individual students learning.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Reading:
Our focus for the week will be using the visualization strategy to monitor our understanding when reading. This strategy involves making a mental movie as you are reading/listening to text. We will share many stories this week and have students sketch pictures of what the images are in their heads based on the author's details. This will lead us into our small group work in our novels to point out where authors are creating visualizations for the reader.
Students will practice these retelling strategies with text in their guided reading groups.
Spelling:
*Our spelling program involves the use of developmental word study rather than traditional spelling books. This“Words Their Way” approach allows students to practice target spelling patterns that best address their individual needs as a speller.
*Our spelling test will be on Thursday, October 18.
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