Weekly Update for March 6th -10th

Hi Families,
We had a busy week! The Book Fair was a lot of fun. Thank you so much to the PTO organizers and volunteers who made it such a magical experience for students. Reading Under the Stars was also a blast. I hope everyone enjoyed my “Interrupting Chicken” voice. Keep logging time spent reading for the Read-a-thon! Our top readers this week are Emma, Brett, Lienn, Violet, and Amelia. We also are raising money through the Read-a-thon for our school, and we thank the families of JoJo, Willow, Brett, Evan, Charlie, and more for their generous donations! Keep up the reading!

​Important Upcoming Dates:

• Wednesday, March 15: a morning All School Assembly.
• Friday, March 17: no school for students. Teacher in-service day.
• Monday, March 20: Second term Report Cards will be emailed home to you.​

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​Below, students drawing scenes from the fairytale, Beauty and the Beast and then sharing.

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Community Building
Our classroom community is still going strong. I have heard of some undercurrents of relationship drama, particularly with girls. I’m hoping that students feel confident and equipped to solve their problems independently, but encourage your child to “use your words to say how you feel” and “listen first without interrupting” when dealing with friendship problems. I will be reinforcing that in the classroom next week.

Literacy 
We continued learning about Fairy Tales this week and deepened our understanding of parts of speech. Our highlights:

• Read aloud of Beauty and the Beast;
• Orally answered literal, inferential, and evaluative questions about the story;
• Drew pictures of scenes from the story and wrote a description, then sequenced the scenes using "first," and "next;"
• Learned new vocabulary, such as fearsome, astonished, fortune, despite, and sorrowful;
• Determined the lesson to be learned from Beauty and the Beast. Example: what’s on the inside is more important than what’s on the outside.
• Identified words that were nouns, verbs, or adjectives.

Writing
We wrote to build our comprehension of fairy tales and practice using words spelled with “ar,” “or,” and “ore.”. Highlights:

• Generated adjectives about Beauty and the Beast to help us write a sentence or two about the lesson of the story.
• Wrote a short story involving a porch, shark, army, storm, and/or party.

Phonics
We wrapped up the short Unit 8 this week. Highlights:

• We learned a new syllable type: the “r-controlled” syllable;
• Spelled words with “ar, “or,” and “ore;”
• Learned new trick words: different, answer, and world;
• Took our Unit 8 Phonics Test.

For at-home Phonics information and practice:

• Next: Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 9
• Review:  Fundations Home Support Packet for Unit 8

Math
We wrapped up Unit 4 on Addition and Subtraction on a Number Line. 

• Modeled addition and subtraction within 100 on a number line;
• Used a number line and diagram to solve story problems with addition or subtraction;
• Took the End-of-Unit Math Assessment for Unit 4.

Next week we start Unit 5 on Numbers to 1,000.

For at-home Math information and practice:

• Next:  Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 5
• Review: Illustrative Math Family Support Materials for Unit 4

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

• Learned about density –the weight of something relative to its size;
• Molded clay in a shape that would allow it to float despite its density;
• Conducted an experiment to see if the weight of an object changed when you broke it into smaller pieces, or if the weight of a collection of pieces changed if you combined them into one structure (the answer is no!)

​​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!

Below, students measuring the weights of objects and their pieces using a balance and gram cubes during Science.