Sept.15, 2015 Newsletter

Reading:

Students will be working on character traits and their motivations. We will be looking at characters in our read aloud, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and learning to describe their feelings and motivations in the story. We will be looking at events from the character’s point of view. How does a character’s actions move the story along or change events in the story? Also, students will be working on looking at root words as clues to understanding the meaning of unknown words.

Language/Writing:

The class is learning how to participate in collaborative discussions effectively by building on others’ ideas and expressing theirs clearly. Students are preparing ideas to share and following decided upon rules for discussions. Please practice at home by having discussions during dinner where they can practice listening to others and adding onto ideas expressed.

Students have been crafting their personal narratives. They are working on strong beginnings and will continue writing with detail zooming in on the main events and using interesting vocabulary. We will be practicing using a timeline to organize events in our narratives stressing the importance of sequential order that unfolds naturally.

Math: The students are reviewing rounding to the nearest 10 or 100 as a tool for estimation. We will begin geometry at the end of the week. The students will be studying shapes and their attributes. It is important that when they answer their journal prompt homework they use the correct vocabulary.  

Social Studies: We are finishing our unit on geography. Students will be doing research on a North Carolina Region. They will then collaborate within groups to make displays for each region.

Important Dates:

Sept. 15 - Open House 6:00

Sept. 23 - No School/Teacher Workday

Oct.6-8 - Cognitive Abilities Test 9:30 AM (CogAT)

Oct. 16 - Early Release 1:15

Oct. 23 - End of 1st Quarter

Oct. 26 - No School/Teacher Workday

Oct. 30 - Report cards go home