This week we tried listening to the dictado using prerecorded audio. The file is available for practice below.
Hello, Families!
Quick Updates:
Book Group Assignments: Book groups continue to meet and students are still working on making sure their answers connect back to the text specifically. Math: This week, we finished up Muffles Truffles by designing our own truffle and truffle box. We will be completely finished after Monday when we have our very own Muffles coming in to talk with third grade. We will be sending home pictures after our Monday activity with Muffles! Also thanks to the Pum family for sending in some truffles for the students to enjoy as they worked on their math! :) Next week we will start another investigation talking about our very own community. We will be solving problems about the constantly expanding Verona District. Students will solve fictional problems about class sizes, school supplies, and classroom materials for the new Verona school. We will continue focusing on multiplication while also introducing division. Students will then be taking their division pretest on Friday so we can sign up for math seminars the following week. When we get back from winter break, we will start up with seminars. Social Studies: Students have been researching in class an animal discovered in the polar regions. We are now busying turning our information into paragraphs. We will hold a class lesson based on how to write a paragraph following the same format as the structured paragraph. The students will write their rough draft of their paragraphs on colored strips of paper to help remind them of the structure. The paragraph is as follows: Green - Topic Sentence Yellow - 1st detail based on topic sentence Blue - Supporting evidence from previous yellow strip Yellow - 2nd detail based on topic sentence Blue - Supporting evidence from previous yellow strip Yellow - 3rd detail based on topic sentence Blue - Supporting evidence from previous yellow strip Red - Concluding sentence Students will be required to write at least 5 paragraphs with one paragraph on their animal's physical description, what their animal eats, where their animal lives, their animal's behavior, and their animal's lifecycle. We will be continuing to work on this when we get back from winter break. Dictado: This week we used shaving cream on our tables in order to practice our dictado words. It was a lot of fun and a big hit as seen by the huge smiles in the picture attached! Science: The mother crayfish's eggs are about to hatch! We took time out of our morning Friday to go take observations on the mother crayfish, since we think her eggs will be hatching this weekend. We have attached pictures and a video below. The students are very excited! We continuing to take data on where the crayfish prefer to be in our crayfish pond. We will be finishing collecting this data next week, and then discuss our findings. We will be saying goodbye to our crayfish pond before winter break. **Momma Crayfish has had some of her babies. She and the babies will be staying longer so that we can observe the full lifecycle. Please let me know if you have any questions! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, Amy Quick News
Reading: Continuing Book Groups Writing: New In Class Assignment Math: Muffles Truffles Unit Science: Crayfish Man Made Habitats Social Studies: Africa done, Antarctica Animals Homework: Free Write Journal (2 pages skipping lines) Due Friday Read 20-30 minutes nightly Dictado Words In more detail: Writing The snow has inspired us to begin working on our next writing project. Unfortunately, it is a bit of surprise for families so all we can tell you is that the learners have been working hard and we look forward to sharing more with you soon. Math Beginning this week and stretching into next, we have been working on a new math unit that requires learners to solve problems regarding a baker named Muffles and all of his truffles! The district wide math team has asked us to begin implementing some curriculum tools that will be used district wide. The unit plan, which was written by Catherine Fosnot and Antonia Cameron, asks learners to use many concepts from our multiplication study (as well as other background knowledge) to answer real world problems. Muffle and his Truffles have captured many kids attention and will continue through next week. There is a video on the blog to help with discussion. Ask your student about what they have helped Muffle do for his chocolate shop. Science We still have 6 crayfish and a momma still alive and providing us with a ton of data. Students are charting crayfish preferences in our man made environments and will hopefully do so until Christmas break. The momma's eggs are beginning to get translucent, so hopefully we will be able to see the full lifecycle. Attached to this email is a flyer for a wonderful STEM Science Fair opportunity put on by VAHS. If you have time it would be a great event to take your child to. Social Studies Having finished with our Africa projects, we are already moving on to our next continent! For the next few weeks, our kids will be learning about Antarctica and the polar regions. We are asking that each learner focuses on one animal from this area. Then using the facts they gather, we will begin teaching more directed lessons about paragraph writing in the coming weeks. Homework Please notice that there is NO structured paragraph for this week. We are starting some lessons in class in the next couple of weeks that will focus on paragraph writing, so we are taking that off of the homework agenda for this week. Homework for the week is listed below. * Journal Entry - two pages skipping lines free write (NO structured paragraph this week!) Due Friday 12/11 * Read 20-30 minutes nightly and record on December reading log * Dictado words to study: in, our, most, unit, we, have, been, and, how, can, be, used, real, world, setting, the, coming, weeks, will, those, ideas, as, well *Challenge words: recent, math, exploring, discussing, explaining, multiplication, strategies Reading: Reading groups are still working on the same books. We are really focusing on deeper connections and relating our connections back to the book. Book group discussion dates are listed below: Trins: pp. 50-70 for Wed 12/9 Marty Digs Worms: ch 10-13 for 12/11 Humphrey: pp. 110-124 for 12/7 Flora and Ulysses: pp37-52 for Tues 12/8 Mercy Watson: ch. 10-12 for 12/10 The coming week: The food drive will continue next week. Tues is PE/music. Wed is Art. Friday is a community Gathering featuring 2nd grade. Attached is also a flyer for an upcoming STEM night through the High School. It looks like an exciting night of science and engineering if you have time as a family. |
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November 2017
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