November 3-7

ELAR (Ms. Dagger)

This week, we will continue diving into what it took to settle the West by reading The Celestials' Railroad. Through reading, writing, and vocabulary study, students are exploring the essential question: What  character traits were needed in people who settled the West?

While reading, students are learning how to monitor and clarify their understanding, identify a text's central idea, and structure. Along with our text vocabulary, we will learn strategies for understanding homophones, homographs, and word parts such as the prefix "trans-", and suffixes "-ous" and "-ious."

In writing, we are creating informational letters, writing summaries, and applying knowledge of subject and object pronouns.

Remember to set a time to read each night at home. Reading at home increases comprehension skills, as well as vocabulary.  

As students read, have your child identify verbs and determine their tense (past, present, future). Discuss how the tense changes the meaning of the sentence. Talk about daily activities and ask your child to describe them using different verb tenses. (For example, "What did you do yesterday?" (past), "What are you doing now?" (present), "What will you do tomorrow?" (future).

Math (Ms. Lee)

The students are working on Unit 5 which is primarily the study of fraction operations. They will learn how to add/subtract fractions with unlike denominators, add/subtract mixed numbers with unlike denominators, multiply and divide fractions in the upcoming weeks. The students learned how to identify prime and composite numbers along with reviewing adding/subtracting decimals.   The students have also been introduced to how to add/subtract fractions and mixed numbers with unlike denominators.  

Homework

The students will need to complete 30 minutes in i-Ready and 3 fluency checks. Please note that for each fact fluency session, the students can only do one per day.  

  If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at anne.hurstlee@gcisd.net

Questions to Ask Your Child:

1. How do you multiply a decimal by a whole number?

2. How do you multiply a three digit number times a two digit number?

3. How do you divide by a two digit divisor?

4. How do you divide with a decimal in a dividend?

5. What are key words to look for in word problems for a multiplication problem?

6. What are key words to look for in word problems for a division problem?

7. How do you identify a prime and composite number?

8. How do add or subtract a fraction with an unlike denominator?

Science/SS (Ms. Whelan)

In science this week, we will be finishing up our unit on ecosystems on food webs. This week will be focusing on how human activities can have an effect on our environment - both benefical and harmful.

In social studies we will be beginning our next unit. Now that the colonies have achieved independence, we will be studying how they went about setting up their new government. We will be focusing on the important people involved, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the duties of the different branches of government  during this unit.