September 25

Spelling
Some estimates are that 75% of the English language is derived from Greek and Latin roots. They truly are the building blocks of English and present an extremely powerful framework to nurture students' vocabulary development. All of our spelling words focus on Greek and Latin roots and affixes. On Mondays,  I teach the vocabulary to help familiarize the students with the words' meanings and spelling. Vocabulary is an important component of reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary. It's imperative to your child's vocabulary development and reading comprehension that you take the time each week to help your child learn the spelling and meaning of their weekly Greek and Latin affixes and root words. This week's words have the trans- prefix (meaning across).

Conferences
Because we have a low class size of 22 students, I was able to schedule 20 minute conferences (many classrooms only have time for 15 minute time slots). Please help me keep on schedule by entering the classroom at your scheduled start time. I could talk about your kids for longer than 20 minutes, but I want to honor your child's conference by not running over on time. If you have yet to sign up, here's the link again to the sign-up sheet.

Portfolios
When you get a moment this weekend, please have your child show you his/her portfolio, which now has the Animoto and Voice Thread projects that we completed this week.
Alisa
Amber
Ashlyn
Bailey
Caden
Chase
Chauncy
Cole
Colin
Haleigh
Isabella
Keaton
Lauren
Lucy
Maddy
Natalie
Nathan
Reese
Sam
Siena
Spencer
Trystan

Week at a Glance

• Literacy
• Read Aloud of The Hundred Dresses- focusing on applying the reading strategies that we've learned and responding to reading in writing using evidence from the text
• Planning and drafting animal reports in writing groups
• Writing a paragraph to a prompt independently
• Writing similes and metaphors
• Read Aloud of The Good Dog- discussing characterization, plot development, and inferences
• Shared reading of "Escape from Alcatraz"- using evidence from a nonfiction text 
• Science
• Food Webs and Adaptations
• Math
• Test on chapter two on Wednesday (estimating, factors, and multiples)
• Beginning chapter three on Thursday (multi-digit multiplication and long division)
• Specials: Art

Book Fair

*Be a MONSTER Reader and come to the Scholastic Book Fair!

October 5-October 8 in the PCE Library
Book Fair Hours:
Monday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Tuesday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Wednesday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm 
Thursday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Join us for the Monster Photo Booth, Monster Cookies, and Monster Fun!

Click here if you would like to Volunteer for this Fun event.

September 13

What are we up to this week?

• Create Meaning Strategically & Evaluate How Authors Create Meaning
• Students are learning how to determine importance in what they read. We'll specifically learn how to find the main idea, summarize, use what we've learned from a text to determine what's important, use evidence to support an opinion, and synthesize what we've learned. 
• We're continuing to work on improving our organization and details in our paragraph writing. This week, students will revise and edit a paragraph that they've written. They'll put this paragraph into Voice Thread (an internet based program) that will allow them to get feedback from their peers. Then they'll do another revision/editing of their paragraph before publishing it. They'll also practice writing similes/metaphors and meet with me in writing groups.
• Demonstrate the Inquiry Process & Create a Process to Solve a Problem
• Students will chose a health topic that they want to more about. They'll research the issue and create an Animoto (a web based slideshow program) to share what they've learned and propose a way to solve the health problem. 
• Analyze the Interaction Within and Between Two Systems & Classify Patterns Using Models
• We begin our next big science unit this week, which was kicked off by our Denver Zoo field trip. This week, students will focus on living/nonliving factors, biotic/abiotic factors, biomes, and ecosystems. 
• Math- Number Theory: Rounding, Estimating, Factors, Multiples, Prime & Composite Numbers
• This is one of the most challenging math units of the year. I encourage students to practice factors, multiples, and prime/composite numbers using links provided in class, links from our website, and Splash Math as part of their homework. 
• Your child's math placement is fluid with each unit and is based on MAPS scores, classroom performance, and learning style. Many kids will be in a new math class starting tomorrow so that we can make sure your child is in a classroom whose pace matching his/her math strengths. 

Homework

• Read Nightly- Your child should have two titles on the 20 Book Challenge Reading Log by now. 
• Spelling- Our spelling is also a way for us to teach vocabulary, so the words will be challenging from here on out. Students get some time to practice in class, but practicing at home is essential to learn the spelling and meaning of these words. Here is the link to this week's words. 
• Math- Options include: Ten Marks, Splash Math, Front Row, Moby Max, & links from Google Classroom or our class website

Snapshots of our Learning

Important Upcoming Dates

• Tuesday, 9/22: Lockdown Drill 
• Wednesday, 9/23: Picture Retakes
• Tuesday, 9/29: Fire Drill
• Monday, 10/5- Thursday, 10/8: Scholastic Book Fair in Library
• Tuesday, 10/6 and Thursday, 10/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences
• Friday, 10/9- Friday, 10/16: Fall Break