Reading

This month, students continued to explore fiction texts.  They know that these texts are created from the authors' imaginations and are not true. Students learned about the fiction genre and were introduced to the three types of fiction texts: traditional literature, fantasy, and realistic fiction. Then, they used different comprehension strategies to further support their understanding of a fiction text, such as asking questions before, during and after reading and making predictions.  During reading workshop, students used evidence from their reading to discuss, retell, and write about fiction texts.

Writing

Writers finished multiple small moment stories and chose their final piece to publish.  Students published their piece by recopying their draft with all of their edits and revisions.  Next, they illustrated their beginning, middle and end.  To complete their piece, we discussed creating a title and a cover image to best represent their story.  Students reflected on what they feel they did well and what they would like to improve on in their next piece.  To conclude the unit, students celebrated their writing by having classmates read their stories and leave compliments.   We are just starting our next unit, informational writing.  Students are choosing a topic they are “experts” in and they are going to create a brochure! 

Math

We are just about to finish our Subtraction to 1,000 chapter!  We subtracted 3-digit numbers without and with regrouping.  Regrouping in subtraction is when there is not enough in a place value spot to subtract from.  For example, if there were 4 ones and you needed to subtract 9 from it, you would “regroup” a ten from the tens place value to make 14 ones, then you would have enough to subtract 9.  Students are seeing the importance of practicing their teen subtraction facts for homework!  Just like in addition, students learned how to show their thinking by drawing base-ten blocks in a place value chart, and once they were comfortable, students moved to solving in just an algorithm.  We also practiced real-world word problems.  Next week students will learn how to subtract across zeros.  This would be a problem like 600-134=?  Our subtraction assessment will be next week.  

Science

We finished up our unit on Materials and Their Uses!  

Students read about how people reuse materials to make different objects. After reading, students applied their understanding of how to reuse materials by making extreme structures! They recreated a structure using given materials (clay, popsicle sticks, straws, pipe cleaners). Then they reuse the materials to make a unique structure that is extreme, such as extremely long, tall, or thin. 

Next, students read about mixing two or more materials together to form a mixture. After reading, students mixed different materials and then tried to separate them. Students mixed different materials and observed how the properties change. They recorded and shared with the class what they found out.  Lastly, students went to the “Chef’s Kitchen” to look at materials before and after they are heated or cooled. They talked about whether or not the change can be reversed.

Students also had a garden lesson! 
They learned about bulbs and planted some too!