Weekly Update
Language Arts:
We have really been enjoying our unit on Courage. Using a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, we have been exploring what courage is, why it is an important trait to possess, and how it can be helpful and harmful. I am including a detailed unit plan I developed for you to get a clear picture of our goals for this unit.
Unit Plan
This week we are reading a story called Brave As a Mountain Lion. It is a story about a young boy trying to overcome his fear of being in a school spelling bee. The students are also reading different chapter books in class that they chose. Some students did not receive their first choice because of the number of students allowed in each reading group. The books are Little House on the Prairie, Pippi Longstocking, and Amber Brown is Feeling Blue. The students are reading these books during class time and may have two or three homework assignments as well. We have Literature Discussion groups to review these books and to share our thoughts. Mrs. Walz will come into the classroom to help facilitate these groups. The student's personal narratives on Courage are now in the hallway. Please find some time to drop by and read them. They are currently working on Frog and Toad stories. They are rewriting Dragons and Giants to make Frog and Toad brave. In these stories they are working on using dialogue. The unit test on Courage will take place the week of May 15th.
Other topics this month will include suffixes, plurals, possesives, parts of speech, and vocabulary work. We will also be doing some Reader's Theater where the students will be reading and performing different stories in class.
Spelling:
To go along with our Courage story this week, we will be having a Spelling Bee for our spelling assessment this week. A list of High Frequency words were sent home on Friday. These words will be used for the Spelling Bee on Friday. Please review some of these words each night with your child. For the weeks of May 15th and May 22nd we will have normal spelling lists and assessments. There will be no spelling assessments the weeks of May 29th and June 5th.
Math:
In Math this week we will be finishing up Unit 9 on Measurment. We will finish up the unit with some discussions and explorations on area, capacity, and weight. We will take a unit assessment at the end of the week depending on how the lessons go this week. We still have two more units left in our Everyday Math program. Unit 10 is on Decimals and Place Value and Unit 11 is on Whole Number Operations. We don't have enough time to do both units. We will begin Unit 10 next week and I will most likely try incorporate both units into these last few weeks of schools. Topics will include money, calculator use, estimating costs, making change, 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction, introduction to multiplication and division facts, and place value.
Social Studies/Science
Our Courage theme is being integrated throughout the curriculum and a unit plan link is included in the Language Arts section of this update. A small unit that is also taking place this month is on Force and Motion. The students will be doing most of the activities for this unit in science lab with some follow up activities in the classroom. The students will explore gravity, friction, speed, direction, and magnets.
Dates to Remember
Rags To Riches Performance: May 10th (1:30-2:30)
Spelling Bee: May 12th
Last Library Day: May 16th
Move Up Day: May 23rd
Assembly: May 26th (2:15)
No School: May 29th
End of Year Party: June 5th (10:00-2:00) Hollow Rock Pool!
Lower School Awards: June 7th (1:30)
Last Day of School: June 8th (1:00 Dismissal)