Weekly Newsletter

Reading: This week in reading, we will read Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box.  This story’s genre is historical fiction.  A historical fiction text is a made-up story that could have happened in the past.  It usually includes setting, or real place and time in which the story occurs; setting may influence the plot.  Characters, or the people the story is about; fictional characters may interact with real people from history.  Plot, or the series of things that happen; made-up events may occur at real places.  Theme, or message is also included in historical fiction texts.  Focus skills: comprehension questions, respond and analyze, analyze characters, making connections, ask and answer questions, use text evidence, and reflecting.  Focus vocabulary words for this story are abandon, appeared, enormous, interfaced, and stationary.

Writing: This week the students will be starting their biography research.  They will be selecting a person they are interested in researching.  They will research the following questions: When was this person born?  Where did he/she grow up?  Who are their family members?  Where did he or she go to school?  Describe what challenges they overcame and faced.  How did they impact the world?  Write 5 interesting facts about your person.  What did you learn from this person?  They will complete a poster with all the information they learned.

If we have time, we will continue to work on our historical fiction paper.

Word Study:  This week's skill focuses on words with the suffix en.  A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word that changes the word’s meaning, part of speech, or both.  The students will do a variety of activities to practice using the skill.  They have a choice board to practice their words at home. They need to complete 2 assignments from the choice board and bring these assignments back to school by Friday, May 3.  On Thursday, they will be quizzed on the words.  Spelling words: awaken, given, widen, soften, sharpen, lengthen, gladden, brighten, loosen, lighten Challenge Words: Strengthen, misshapen, refasten.

Social Studies: This week we will start focusing on the history of the United States.  The students will learn about how people became part of the U.S.  They will analyze why and how people immigrated to the United States. 

Science: This week we will start our last unit which focuses on life science.  This week we will look at the life cycle of animals, plants, and insects.

SEL:  The third unit focuses on emotion management.  This week the students will learn about managing disappointment.  Lesson concepts: Negative self-talk can make strong feelings even stronger.  You can calm down by using positive self-talk.  Setting a new goal and making a plan to achieve it are positive ways to handle disappointment.

Math: This week we will continue module 5 which focuses on fractions.  This week the students will work on recognizing and showing equivalent fractions have the same size but not necessarily the same shape.