Unit 3 Week 3 Preview

Our focus this week related to the theme is having fun while creating. Some students will work on creating a riddle/joke book for an additional Unit Project. We will encode and decode with the digraphs ch, tch, wh, ph. Our sight words this week are every, from, into, people, soon, your. Oral vocabulary words are original, talented, astonishing, complicated, continue. We will summarize for a comprehension strategy using main ideas and details for a comprehension skill.

In Social Science we continue to compare the past and the present.

We will begin our mid-year reading evaluation this week.

Unit 3 Week 2 Preview

This week we ask the question: What do family members do with one another to have fun? Our comprehension skill focus will be to make and confirm predictions using the strategy of analyzing story structure. We will take a brief look at alliteration (consonance). We will continue our exploration with long vowel spellings in particular: long vowel-u spelled 'u_e' (cube, fuse) and 'open syllable with u' (future, amusing). In grammar we will examine present-tense verbs.

Our oral vocabulary words are typical, possessions, connections, relief, and support. Our high-frequency words are call, funny, how, more, so, there.

As you read with your child at home, please continue to predict and confirm as you read (What do you think will happen? Do you think Goldilocks will get caught?). When finishing a fiction selection or chapter, ask your child to confirm predictions and summarize what happened. When reading a nonfiction selection, have your child state the main idea and details.

As some students continue to complete last unit's projects, some students are beginning this unit's projects. Some students will be working together to create a game and write directions on how to play. Additionally, some students may choose to author a joke book and get filmed telling their favorite funny story.

We will learn another of the five stanzas of our vowel poem this week.

In Social Science we will continue to compare the past and the present. We will also work towards understanding our location in the world while learning the continents and the oceans (tested). We will compare globes and maps.

In Visual Art, we will begin our exploration of the basic elements of art beginning with line.

We are continuing to introduce ourselves to the basics of drag-and-drop Java programming.

In Drama, we are combining all the skills we have learned so far to tell a story using dialogue.

For one of our PE lessons we will explore rhythm and movement.

Fifty-Seventh Day of School

Some students who have completed their Informational Writing Unit Project have begun to learn Java Script computer coding using "drag and drop" technology.

Five students have completed their Unit Project. The projects are posted in the classroom.

Unit 2 Week 1 Preview

Our weekly themes in this second unit will center around our families and our neighbors having already examined ourselves, our abilities, and our growth. Our last idea about teams was that families are the most important kind of team. This week, we will explore the idea of families taking care of each other. For a Unit Project students will focus on a worker of their choice and write an expository piece about them. Our oral vocabulary words are guide, protect, provide, separate, wild. Our sight words are her, our, they, two. Our comprehension strategy this week will be to focus on summarizing a selection. We learn to summarize by developing the skill of distinguishing main ideas from details. Summarizing a selection is a different skill than a retell. Where a retell would be to tell a story in our own words with as much interesting detail as possible, a summary isolates only the most important ideas answering the basic questions of who? what? where? when? why? and perhaps how? This story is about a girl walking in the forest who seeks food and rest in the home of 3 bears. In phonics and spelling, will take a more detailed look at some long vowel spellings this week beginning with 'a_e'  (cane) and 'i_e' (ride) along with inflectional ending '-ed'. In grammar we will discuss sentence subjects and nouns.

For Social Science we will continue comparing and contrasting the past with the present (HSS 1.1.4) (tested). We will examine photos of schools long ago.

In Science we will explore a liquid which seems to possess some properties of a solid.

In PE we will combine several skills practiced so far to play a fast-paced, high-energy game of sockball.

Unit 1 Week 5 Preview

We close out the unit discussing what we like to do with our friends and what we can accomplish with teamwork. Our oral vocabulary words are challenging, charity, admire, focus, offer. We will read, discuss, and generate question for a non-fiction selection about baseball and humanitarian great, Roberto Clemente. We will use our generated questions to conduct expert interviews about Roberto Clemente. Our sight words are help, now, use, very. We will develop our skill of identifying the author's purpose to develop the comprehension strategy of analyzing text structure. We will analyze texts where authors use description to give information. We will focus on final consonant blends (eg. -nk, -nt, -sk, -st, etc.) for decoding, and spelling.

For Social Science we will discuss the significance of Independence Day (HSS 1.3.2) and some national iconic symbols (HSS 1.3.3) (tested).

In P.E. we will be using teamwork to accomplish various goals as well as chasing and learning base running.

In Science we continue our exploration of matter with our second investigation of liquids.

For our upcoming unit it will be necessary for students to focus on a particular occupation of their choosing. Parents should be aware of their child's choice and possibly help their child research information about that occupation. Your child will need to know and be able to articulate where a person in the selected profession works, what they they wear, what tools they use, and what task they perform for an informational writing unit project.