November 11, 2013

Happy Veteran's Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend.

This week...

Upcoming  Events
Thursday November 14th is the American Education Week visit for 3rd grade. I sent home this schedule last week:
9:30-10:30-Starlab/Science
10:30-10:45-Snack with your child
10:45-11:25-PE
11:25-12:00-Reading workshop: practice fluency using poetry with your child
12:25-12:50 Have lunch with your child

Feel free to join us for any of the activities above that would work for you. If a parent is unavailable, another family member (grandparent, aunt, uncle) is welcome to join us.

Reading Workshop
This week, we will continue the character unit. We are reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane for read aloud and examining how Edward is changing throughout the book. Students are also studying traits and change in characters in their independent reading books.

Writing Workshop
Students finished their first personal narrative! They worked very hard on these. We have been trying to write about small moments and they are getting better and better at this. This week, students will start another personal narrative on a new topic.

Math
We finished Unit 3, Addition and Subtraction of larger numbers. We started multiplication on Friday with a game called Circles and Stars. The first portion of multiplication involves gaining a real understanding of what multiplying is before memorizing facts. Students will use manipulatives and draw pictures to show multiplication this week. They loved the Circles and Stars game. All you need is a pair of dice and you can have your child teach you and play this at home!

Science/Social Studies
We will be back in Starlab this week to discuss winter constellations. Students will be very excited! We are also continuing to watch our plants grow. We will work on latitude and longitude in social studies this week.

Homework: 11/12-11/15
Reading-Read each night for 20-25 minutes and record on reading log; practice poem
Math-Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday-one sheet per night from Unit 4
Spelling-Look, say, name, cover, write, check each night; practice test Thursday night
Writing-Tuesday-one page entry in writer's notebook on a small moment