Weekly Newsletter

Week of March 2-6

Reading-Mrs. Bryan

Week 9 begins today! This is the LAST WEEK for your child to strengthen their grades before report card grades are finalized. Please help us in encouraging them to be intentional with their time during whole and small group time.

We will begin our first practice session for Georgia Milestones testing on Friday, March 6th, and will continue this practice each Friday in March. It's vital that students have time in class to familiarize themselves with the testing tools, format of the questions, and also practice with the skills neccessary to be successful on this important assessment. I'm attaching the presentation from last week's GMAS Parent Night for your reference.

We are finishing Module 6 , Marvels of Nature this week with a short poetry unit called Nature's Wonders and our final story, Grand Canyon, A Trail Through Time. We will review the skills of using poetry elements (stanza, rhyme scheme, repetition, sensory language, figurative language) to understand the mood and theme of a poem. We will also review determining text structure (compare/contrast, chronological order, cause & effect, problem & solution) and using text features to understand specific sections of informational text.

Our vocabulary words are: diverse, core, wrath, eternal, collision, idle, fathom & organic. Our vocabulary quiz will be on Tuesday of this week, and will combine words from both stories. An open-book test for Nature's Wonders will be on Thursday. Our culminating Module Test will be next week, and will be the first grade for the 4th nine weeks.

Vocabulary Slides are posted for review below.

Resources are posted on Google Classroom and under Reading Resources for your reference.

Language Arts-Mrs. Bryan

We are almost finished with our uppercase cursive letters, which means your child should be writing more assignents in cursive. They should also be able to write their first and last name in cursive. I'm also giving them assignments written in cursive to ensure they are mastering and applying his standard. Cursive homework is in a workbook for students to bring home and will be due on Friday.

I will be presenting 3 students in each class with the John Hancock Award for demonstrating proficiency with their cursive handwriting at the end of March, so please encourage your child to show off their skills.

We are reviewing Greek Roots auto, bio, photo, graph. We are also discussing reference sources and reviewing comparative and superlative adjectives & adverbs. We continuously use the skill of using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words.

We are continuing our unit on Opinion writing, which is always so much fun! Students are currently finishing their research about The Amazon Rainforest using 3 sources. They will write an opinion piece this week, What Makes The Amazon Rainforest Unique.

Math-Ms. Yost

Ms. Yost's Website

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.

Adding and Subtracting Fractions and Mixed Numbers

We will learn how to add and subtract fractions with like denominators and UNLIKE denominators. Additionally we will examine how to add and subtract mixed numbers.

Adding and Subtracting Mixed Numbers and Analysis of Line Plots

We will continue to use our skills of adding and subtracting mixed numbers with line plots. Please see the attached video for more information.

Line Plots- Adding and Subtracting Mixed Numbers

Decimals

We will work to understand how the place value of decimals and how they connect to fractions. We will chart them and put them on a numberline to help students understand how the place value works.

Comparing Decimals

Our knowledge of Decimal place value to compare and order decimals on a numberline. We will use signs such as greater than, less than and equal to to describe two decimals comparison.

Science-Ms. Yost

Ms. Yost's Website

Unit 4: Space

We will begin an exciting unit this week which will lead us into space.

We will begin with space exploration and how technology has improved over time. Our studies will take us through launches of space propes, rovers, and telescopes.

We have continued our exploration of space into the planets. We will continue to discuss their sizes, their orbits, and specific details of each planet.

Our studies continue with understanding the connection of revolution and rotation to understand day and night patterns as well as seasons. We will begin to understand the phases of the moon. We will continue to track the moon's phases as we move through the month.

Social Studies-Mrs. Bryan

We are continuing our final unit on The Civil War. Students are learning about the Causes of The Civil War-Disagreements over states' rights, Harriet Beecher Stowe's writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin, John Brown's Rain on Harpers Ferry, and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 leading to secession of states from the Union.

We will get pretty in depth with our discussion of these causes and the sharp divide that was happening in the United States prior to The Civil War, and I encourage you to do the same at home to keep your child engaged. Here are the slides we are using in class, Causes of The Civil War.

Be sure to keep an eye on our Social Studies page for additional review resources. All of the above mentioned resources are posted for you.

Classroom Reminders/Upcoming Events

The students did a fabulous job in their Earth, Wind & Fire Performance last week!

3/6-GMAS Practice Test (Testing Tools)

3/10-Spring Pictures

3/10-End of 3rd Nine Weeks

3/13-GMAS Practice Test (ELA & Peer Revision)

3/20-GMAS Practice Test (Math)

3/27-GMAS Practice Test (Reading)

Wish List Items-Paper towels, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, candy for our treat jar (no peanuts, please)

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