Unit 5 Week 2 Preview

This week we will be focusing on many different scientists how they develop questions to discover new things about the world around us. We will read about the many contributions of Benjamin Franklin and read again about Alexander Graham Bell. We will also read about the important contributions of George Washington Carver to the field of botany. We will again use the strategy of summary to develop our skill of making inferences, which is probably one of the more difficult comprehension skills to master. When making an inference about material we've read, we connect what we've read to what we already know to draw a conclusion which has not been explicitly stated by the author. Our oral vocabulary words will be: career, curious, fascinating, improve, and investigate. Our site words will be: grew, house, knew, and would. Our reading vocabulary words are: curious, and idea. For spelling and phonics we will focus on the r-controlled vowel 'a' (harm, yarn).

We are continuing with our coin counting in math and will be coming up on a test early next week.

In social studies we will be reviewing the concept of needs vs. wants and the use of money as the basis of our trade system.

For science we will be doing the "fountain experiment" to see how air pressure will interact with water.

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.

Unit 2 Week 5 Preview

For the next 5 instructional days we will ask what neighbors do together for fun. Our focus vocabulary words will be: audience, entertain, brilliant, enjoy, and perform. Our sight words will be: all, put, show, together, under, and want. In phonics we will be introduced to the digraphs 'sh,' and 'th'. We will again generate retells and summaries of our selections using visualization and Flow Maps

Forty-Third Day

Today we discussed absolute and relative location and read a nonfiction selection, On the Map, about locating places on a map. We discussed the main idea and details in order to help us summarize the selection. We also played the main idea/details game which 1st graders just love; go ahead and try it at home. We also read a nonfiction selection about animal camouflage.

On the Topic 7 math test 22 students out of 24 passed with a score of 17 or better; two students got a perfect score.

Thirty-Second Day

We are focusing on short-vowel 'o' in phonics and spelling. We read a nonfiction selection called Hello! Hello! to learn the difference between a summary (a comrehension strategy) and a retell while learning about the main idea and details (comprehension skill). We have changed focus from examining the self and have moved on to examine the importance of family and friends.

We took a trip to the book fair to find three titles each to put on our wish list, just for the fun of it.

For topic 6, we've been working on different strategies to use when adding in lieu of using fingers to count.

[U2/Wk1/D1]