Math News
We just finished Topic 6 on area and multiplication and the children did well with the concepts. We tested on this topic last week, please remember to ask your child about how well they did. The following topic is Fractions, Yeah!! We will be recognizing fractions found all around us and we will learn that fractions are equal parts of a whole, of a set, or of a length. They will also learn to name fractions and to locate fractions on a number line. Seeing fractions on a number line will help your child enhance his or her number sense. This work with fractions on a number line will also serve as a basis for future work with fractions in measuring length. In the next unit, we will be continuing to learn about fractions. We will be learning to find equivalent fractions, which are fractions that name the same part of a whole. We will also be learning to compare and order fractions by using models, number lines, and number sense. We will continue to do multiplication and division review so please keep doing that math log each night. Please also continue to concentrate on multiplication and division to increase your child's speed and accuracy. It really does slow them down if they don't know their facts well. They can also keep practicing double digit multiplication because the more they practice, the better they will remember the steps to do it. Lastly, when they have some free time, please have your children work on multiple digit addition and subtraction, as these concepts will come after fractions. |
Language Arts We will be starting our language arts unit, “Determination”. soon We should enjoy reading all about what it takes to achieve the goals you have and to never give up. The stories we will be reading are Cook A Doodle Doo by Janet Stevens, Seven Spools of Thread, a Fable by Angela Medearis, Washington Weed Whackers, a nonfiction article from the A Time For Kids magazine. The fourth story is Here’s My Dollar by Gary Soto. Our last story we will be reading is My Very Own Room by Amada Irma Perez.
We have many different comprehension skills to work on including comparing and contrasting characters, drawing conclusions, and making predictions. You can reinforce these skills at home by asking questions about the stories you are reading with your child. Try to ask questions that really make the children think about the characters as they read. An example of a question may be: “Why do you think the character did ?” or “How do you think the character is feeling now?” This will really help the children to see that not all questions and answers are easy to “look up”. Vocabulary strategies we will work on include dictionary skills, multiple-meaning words, context clues, contractions and how to add er and est. The grammar skills will be related to verbs including past, present, and future tense verbs and lastly, helping verbs. February will be a very skills packed month and I look forward to all the growth the children will have in their learning! We are also reading novels in small groups to work on our reading skills. The children have been enjoying these novels. |
Social Studies/Science We our finishing our Science Unit on Forces and Motion. It focused on the concepts of force, pushes and pulls, motion, friction, gravity, and Simple Machines. We also discussed the Three Laws of Motion that Sir Issac Newton formed when he was a young man. We did some fun experiments with these concepts so hopefully the children came home pretty excited from our days in class.
Next week, we are going to switch gears and start another Social Studies unit on Immigration and cultures in our communities. We will discuss how people arrived here from different countries to start communities in different areas and how this impacted our country's heritage. We will also discuss how all the different cultures are celebrated in communities through Literature, Art and Music. I thank you for taking the time to read the Science and Social Studies pages with your child when the books are sent home; it really helps to reinforce the concepts we are working on. |
Creative Writing We are switching gears to work on writing an opinion piece. We are working on being able to write using our own opinion about a topic. We are starting to learn the basics of what makes something an opinion piece and how we can find opinion pieces in many different areas of our life. We are learning the basics of how to write an opinion piece while also including some factual information if needed.
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