Unit 3 Week 2 Preview

This week we ask the question: What do family members do with one another to have fun? Our comprehension skill focus will be to make and confirm predictions using the strategy of analyzing story structure. We will take a brief look at alliteration (consonance). We will continue our exploration with long vowel spellings in particular: long vowel-i spelled i_e (like, nice) or 'i at the end of a syllable' (pilot, riding). In grammar we will examine present-tense verbs. We will be using the skill of persuasion in our writing over the next 2 weeks.

Our oral vocabulary words are: typical, possessions, connections, relief, and support. Our high-frequency words are: call, funny, how, more, so, there.

As you read with your child at home, please continue to predict and confirm as you read (What do you think will happen? Do you think Goldilocks will get caught?). When finishing a fiction selection or chapter, ask your child to confirm predictions and summarize what happened. When reading a nonfiction selection, have your child state the main idea and details.

Please continue to have your child collect family jokes, anecdotes, and riddles for the next few weeks in order for us to complete our Unit Project.

In social studies we will continue to compare the past and the present. We will also work towards understanding our location in the world while learning the continents and the oceans (tested). We will compare globes and maps.

In science we will continue our exploration of the forms of matter, in particular small particle solids. We may even get a bit messy again. No worries, everything will wash out.

Thirty-Sixth Day

Today we compared the school experience from the past to today's school experience by looking at very old photographs. We read a nonfiction selection about baby animals and another about animal parents. We reviewed and recorded the main idea and details about the selections.

Math test tomorrow

Twenty-Ninth Day

Two more seminars completed.That's 6 for anyone keeping track other than me. We listened to a nonfiction selection Animal House about pets from the White House past. We took a dictation test on words with initial consonant blends. We read another nonfiction selection What Pets Need and compared it to our fantasy selection Flip. Inspired by Flip we drew and wrote descriptive sentences about a pet.

We completed more work with parts of 10. We will have a test on Topic 5 on Thursday.

[U1/Wk4/D4&5]

Twenty-Third Day

We listened to a nonfiction selection about the growth of tiger cub to adulthood. We analyzed the text for structure and augmented our growing robust vocabulary words for the week. We read another nonfiction selection reinforce sight word learning of: run, ride, and be. We used our Circle map about us to begin our personal narrative rough draft.

We continued with subtraction sentences to find the difference between two collections. We will likely have a test on Topic 4 on Wednesday.

Twenty-First Day

Today we read a nonfiction text about animal locomotion and compared them to kids' movement. We compared this text to Carle's From Head to Toe. We wrote a journal response by drawing a diagram of ourselves combined with an animal characteristic which would help us move.

In math we explored subtraction by continuing our idea of parts of a whole. Everyone should find their PearsonSuccess registration code attached to their math homework.

[U1/Wk2/D4&5]

Sixteenth Day

Today was a good and busy day in Room 11. We had a discussion of needs v. wants. The children were able to identify 4 basic needs: air, water, food, and shelter. We read a non-fiction selection called What People and Animals Need. We then took a dictation test on our '-an' and '-at' words and some sight words. Everyone is on target. We read a decodable non-fiction photo essay called Who Am I? We then read the main selection of the week, a fantasy, called Pam and Sam. We made a character analysis table in order to help retell the story in our own words. We were hesitant that this would work at first, but once we got going, we didn't want to stop. We are also learning to listen to each other's responses and to respond to those as well.

In math we used addition sentences and pictures to show the commutative property (we did not call it this). We are going to take our next math test on Monday, contrary to what was posted yesterday. The reason for this is that the last lesson of the Topic is quite involved and takes a while to get through. The children really should have time to go over the lesson at home before taking a test. However, this means a rare occasion for homework over the weekend. Homework in not usually collected on Monday, but an exception will need to be made. Those not having their homework on Monday will not be penalized, but those that do will be given credit.

We had our first formal science lesson today about matter. We discussed the 3 forms of matter (tested standard). We brainstormed a list of common examples of each form (tested skill).

I hope everyone has a good day off. Please remember that reading logs are due on Friday.