Weekly Newsletter
Week of December 15-19
Week of December 15-19
All students have completed their Reading Diagnostic tetsing and I'm so proud of their growth since the beginning of the year! l shared their growth report in your child's graded papers tlast week, and we will also have a Parent Night in January to discuss I Ready Growth as well.
GROWTH is the goal for everyone this year, and each day brings opportunities for students to strenghten their reading skills.
We are finishing Module 4, Heroic Feats this week.
Our focus skills in this module were drawing inferences based on facts and details from the text, determining main idea and supporting it with details from the text, and explaining events and ideas, in a historical text based on specific information in the text. We are taking our Module 3 and 4 test through Wednesday of this week. It combines the skills we've learned in these modules, and also has a writing component.
Resources are posted on Google Classroom and under Reading Resources for your reference.
We are continuing uppercase cursive letters, and it is so exciting to see your child progress! We will be doing more assignments in cursive to ensure students are proficient with this skill. Your child will now be able to write names of specific people and places, as well as full complete sentences. Cursive homework will now be in a workbook for students to bring home and will be due on Friday.
We will learn prefixes aud and vis and suffixes -en and -ic. We will also review synonyms and antonyms this week. We continuously use the skill of using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words.
We are finishing our study of Expository Writing. We are finishing our piece about, Smokejumpers this week. Students are using multiple sources to gather text evidence to support their points in this writing piece. This skill is being assessed on their module test before going home for Christmas break, so I want to be sure they are solid with this skill.
Unit 4: Fractions
This unit will take us eight weeks to complete. We will learn about fractions and connect them to decimals.
Equivalent Fractions
We will begin by learning about equivalent fractions using concrete models and number lines. We will work with fractions with like and unlike denominators. We will connect our understanding of equivalent fractions with multiplication and division to help us make an equivalent fraction by multiplying or dividing both the numerator and denominator by a fraction with the same numerator and demonominator. See the Equivalent Fractions Video for a demonstration.
Comparing Fractions
We will use our understanding of equivalent fractions to begin to compare fractions with unlike denominators. This will require that we get a common denominator for both fractions which will require using multiplication or division. This will mirror our equivalent fractions lessons except that we will determine which fraction has a greater or lesser value.
Unit 3: Forces and Simple Machines
We will work to understand the phenomenon of balanced and unbalanced forces & gravity. As we work through this unit, we will connect these concepts to simple machines. Simple machines include levers, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw.
Important Vocabulary: balanced forces, unbalanced forces, motion, gravity, push, pull, levers, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw.
Our study guide for our assessment will come home starting on Wednesday, December 10th. We will begin our assessment on Friday, December 12th.
We are continuing our study of Westward Expansion. This week we will discuss Thomas Jefferson's negotiation with France for The Louisiana Purchase, and the United Staes will double in size as a result. Merriwether Lewis, William Clark & Sacajawea will begin the journey to explore this unknown land and will chart their findings for Thomas Jefferson, which is always a fun unit of study. We will use a few helpful links in class and on Google Classroom, and I'm including them here for your reference:
Lewis & Clark on The Columbia River
Be sure to keep an eye on our Social Studies page for additional review resources.
We are still in need of a few items for our Christmas Sign Up-Thank you SO much to those that have donated already.
We are doing Christmas Around The World in Social Studies this week!
12/16-Bobcat Store
12/18-BRE Chorus Performs
12/19-Holiday Movie Day, Hot Cocoa & Cookies-Students will be dismissed at 12:10 for begin their Christmas Break
12/22-1/3-Christmas Break-Enjoy this beautiful time with your family!
1/5-Second Semester Begins
Wish List Items-Paper towels, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, candy for our treat jar (no peanuts, please)