Weeks of 9/23/13 and 9/30/13

*Remember: No school on Friday, September 27th.

Week of September 23:

This week we are finishing up the first units in English and Math.  Students will test over the four types of sentences, subjects and predicates, and fixing run-ons in English.  In Math, students will test over place value up to the hundred thousands, rounding numbers to the nearest ten and hundred, ordinal numbers, expanded form, word form, and counting money. Both tests will take place on Wednesday, September 25th.  It is important to be sure your child is studying for these tests.

In Reading, we will begin reading Charlotte's Web.  Students will be given a copy of the book.  The book will travel back and forth between home and school.  We will read all of the book together in class, but it can be used as a reference for homework assignments at home.  Students will keep a journal for the book.  After almost every chapter, students will need to summarize the important events of the story.  Students are required to write at least 4 complete sentences for each entry.  They are not to copy sentences from the book.  This does not show that they have learned anything from the story.  They must describe in their own words what happened in each chapter.  They are required to use correct capitalization and punctuation for each chapter.  The journals will not be collected and graded until the end of the book, so it is the students' responsibility to stay on top of their work.

In Writer's Workshop, students will continue to work on their fairy tales.

In Science, students have begun learning about living things and their needs.  We will study plants, their structures, and the importance of each. 

In Social Studies, students will learn how to use a map scale.  They will also learn about the natural resources found around us and the importance of them.  

 Week of September 30:

In Science students will learn about animals, their parts, and what they need to survive.  Students will learn how scientists classify animals according to their similarities. 

In Social Studies this week, students will begin their research for our class Hispanic Heritage project.  Our class is studying Mexico.  Students will be placed in to groups to study different aspects of the Mexican culture such as food, music, famous people, sports, etc.  More information to come.

Students will begin the unit in Math on addition.  This unit will start out as review.

In English, students will begin learning about different kinds of nouns: singular/plural, common/proper, etc.

In Reading, students will continue to read Charlotte's Web. We will focus on character development, setting description, and comparing and contrasting.