Weekly Update, February 27-March 3

​Hi Families,
Amazing that it's already March and we're about two-thirds of the way through the school year! I’m so glad to have students back after a restful February break. We had a bit of a rocky start early in the week getting back into the routines and the demands of school, but by the end of the week we were back on track.

There is a lot going on next week to be aware of! We kicked off the Read-a-thon for the month of March, the Book Fair is next week, and Reading Under the Stars is happening Wednesday evening. I will be a guest reader! 

Here is more information for each event:

• Book Fair, March 7-9. Our class attends Wednesday, March 8th. Set up an online wallet so your child can shop cash-free through this link: eWallet
• Read-a-thon, our school code is 3138660
• Reading Under the Stars, Wednesday, March 8, 6:00-7:00.

​Important Upcoming Dates:

• March 7th-9th: Book Fair. 
• Wednesday, March 8th: Our class attends the Book Fair, Reading Under the Stars.
• Wednesday, March 15th: a morning All School Assembly.
• Friday, March 17th: no school for students. Teacher in-service day.
• Monday, March 20th: Second term Report Cards will be emailed home to you.

​
Below, students working in partnerships to solve number line riddles, measuring the weight of solids using a balance, and testing whether those solids would float or sink.

---

Community Building
We had some fun sharing silly stories that students wrote using multisyllabic phrases from a Phonics worksheet. We all get a good chuckle from some of the clever and ridiculous stories students come up with using the given, often unrelated phrases.

Literacy 
We are learning about Fairy Tales. Our highlights:

• Read alouds of The Fisherman and His Wife, and The Emperor’s New Clothes;
• Orally answered literal, inferential, and evaluative questions about each story;
• Learned new vocabulary, such as charming, enchanted, hesitated, intelligent, ignorant, and inspect;
• Analyzed the structure of a fairy tale (Fisherman and His Wife);
• Determine the lesson to be learned from each fairy tale.

Writing
We wrote to build our comprehension of fairy tales. Highlights:

• Used our structural analysis of The Fisherman and His Wife to retell the story with different characters and details (but keeping the structure the same);
• Generated adjectives, verb phrases, and nouns related to The Emperor’s New Clothes to help us write a sentence or two about the moral of the story.

Phonics
We wrapped up Unit 7 this week. Highlights:

• Learned new trick words: something, night, and carry;
• Identified orally words that have a suffix verses words that don’t;
• Reviewed open syllables, suffixes -y, -ty, and -ly, and reading and spelling multisyllabic words;
• Took our Unit 7 Phonics Test.

For at-home Phonics information and practice:

• Next: Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 8
• Review:  Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 7

Math
We continue in Unit 4 on Addition and Subtraction on a Number Line. We learned how to:

• Represent subtraction on a number line by decomposing numbers strategically and making multiple jumps;
• Add and subtract within 100 and represent computation methods on a number line;
• Find the number that makes addition and subtraction equations true within 100 in equations with unknowns in all positions (challenging stuff!).

For at-home Math information and practice:

• Current: Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 4
• Review: Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 3

Science
In Science, we continue our exploration of the properties of matter. Highlights:

• Explored weight and density;
• Learned how to use a balance and measured various solids using gram cubes;
• Conducted an experiment to determine if objects would sink or float.

​​Thank you for taking the time to read the entire update! Please reach out with any questions, or to connect to discuss your child’s progress. Have a great weekend!