Happy Sunny Friday!

We had a busy 5-day week! In math, we took our test on perimeter of shapes, which included area from a previous unit. Math tests went home today. They all did a FANTASTIC job on such a tricky test!! 🙂 We started our unit on two-step problem solving. The homework may be causing a bit of frustration, and this is typically a difficult unit. Trying to determine which operations to use can be challenging at this age. We are working on asking: “What do we know from the problem?” and “What are we trying to find?”.  Drawing bar diagrams has been a helpful tool for many students. We will continue to practice solving different problems at the start of next week, and then take our test. We continue to work on mastering our multiplication facts. Please encourage your child to practice the Timed Test app in the evenings. It is set for the same time they have in class, and they know how to set it up for their current fact challenge.

In reading, we started book clubs this week. I am reading Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. As we study the main character, Opal, students practice our daily strategy in their own books. They are jotting their thoughts and meeting with their groups to discuss their group book. Listening to others and commenting on each other’s jots are additional skills we are improving. 🙂

February is Black History Month. For our social studies, we are currently learning about slavery and the Underground Railroad. We are keeping an ongoing timeline of events and learning about many important people. We will also be focusing on the Civil Rights Movement.

Next week we begin our science unit on Force and Motion and our writing unit on fairytales.

Thank you to all who contributed to our Valentine/Michigan celebration!!

Dates:

• 2/15 – Parent-teacher conference sign up link sent out
• 2/26 – Honors choir concert
• 2/28 – Parent-teacher conferences
• 3/1 – Parent-teacher conferences

Have a wonderful weekend!

If you have next Monday and Tuesday off with your child, I hope you enjoy a long weekend together! Please look for an email from me soon about our live broadcasting while we present our opinion speeches next Thursday and Friday. You can tune in and watch by clicking on the YouTube link that I will be sending out. If you are unable to tune in for the live version, the link will be available to watch the presentations as a recording. I’ll also send out a list of students in the order of their presentations. We are very excited!!

This week has been busy with polishing up our opinion speeches and writing our final versions. We have worked hard on writing with a structure, examples, transition words, talking to our audience and paragraphing.

In math, we have been tackling some touch concepts. We are finding perimeter of quadrilaterals, but also comparing the perimeters to areas. When students are creating shapes with a given perimeter, then calculating and comparing areas, it gets tricky. Today, students seemed to leave with a much stronger understanding of this process. We are also continuing to master our multiplication facts. Most students are up to the X5 and X6 facts. If your child is not there yet, practice practice!! In class we talk about knowing our facts without stopping to do our count bys. Memorization is now the expectation.

We celebrated Michigan’s 181st birthday this week by learning about how Michigan became a state after being part of the Northwest Territory and a scuffle called the Toledo War. Ask your child how Michigan came to be known as the “Wolverines”. We continue to add activities to our Michigan Books, which I will have to show you at conference time.

In reading, we started a new unit. This is our Character Unit and revolves around the characters in our fiction stories. The mentor text that I am reading from to model strategies is Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. This week we focused on noticing what our characters SAY and what they DO. This helps us determine a character trait, which can help us develop a big idea or theory about our characters. Later in this unit, students will have an opportunity to discuss and debate characters in book clubs.

Some important upcoming dates:

• 2/5 & 2/6 – No school, mid-winter break
• 2/15 – Parent-teacher conference sign up link sent out
• 2/26 – Honors choir concert
• 2/28 – Parent-teacher conferences
• 3/1 – Parent-teacher conferences

Have a wonderful weekend!