Happy New Year!

Hi Families,
  Happy New Year! I hope you all had very happy holidays and that your children enjoyed their time off from school. Thank you so much for all of your cards and generous gifts. I enjoyed the nice long break –had a fun Christmas with my family, a relaxing little getaway with my husband to the Bahamas, and some time to clean and organize for the new year. I’m excited for all of the fun and invigorating learning we’ll be doing in 2025!

  Here is what we’ve been up to this short week and before the break.

Math 
Unit 4: Multiplication and Division of Multi-digit Numbers
  Before the break we finished unit 3 on Fraction Multiplication and Division. I graded students’ End-of-Unit Assessments and sent them home on Friday 1/3. Please review your child’s work. You’ll notice colored pencil checks and writing –that is your child correcting their work, which we did as a class. Most students did very well, but if your child did not, I will be revisiting these concepts again and will provide additional practice opportunities with homework.

  We started Unit 4. Please see the linked Family Letter above to learn more about what your child will be learning. We’ve been reviewing different ways to multiply multi-digit numbers, particularly the Partial Products method, also known fondly by students as The Box Method. This week we learned about the Standard Algorithm with a one-digit factor, its steps, why it works, and the potential challenges of keeping the steps in your working memory. We compared and contrasted the two methods (partial products and standard algorithm) to help students internalize the steps. Next week we will use the standard algorithm with two- and three- digit factors.

• Please help your child build automaticity with their basic multiplication facts. Ask them a few rapid-fire math fact questions, like “What’s 7 x 8?” at least once a day for practice. Automatic recall of these facts is becoming more critical for success with our future math content.

English Language Arts
Unit 2: Ecosystems: Matter, Energy, and Organisms.
  We are on our last research question for our Ecosystems project, which focuses on the environmental threats to our ecosystem and how humans can take steps to protect those ecosystems. We learned about text structures, such as compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem solution, and read texts about environmental threats and (just for practice) chickens featuring different text structures. Students then researched environmental threats, took notes, and turned those notes into a multi-paragraph outline. Next week we will review all of our previous writing for this project: revise, edit, print, compile, and present our work. Students will also have the opportunity to create a cover page, table of contents, and a glossary for their project.

Social Studies
  Before the break, we learned about the causes of the American Revolution, some major battles, and how the war ended. Students enjoyed watching the History Channel documentary episode I played for them about the revolution. We didn’t get to fully finish our study of the American Revolution and the founding documents as I had hoped, so I will need to find time to continue our study later this month. Next week we start Science again, and we will be learning about the water cycle.

Community Building
  Before the break we had a very festive All School Sing-a-long. Santa and Mrs. Claus even paid us a visit. Back in the classroom, we had a very thorough and passionate cleaning party. Everyone helped out! No dust bunny was safe. This week we finally changed table groups, so students get a new batch of classmates to sit with and a new day-of-the-week for their comfy chair privilege.

Homework
  Homework will start up again next week.

Classwork Going Home
Please remember to check your child’s Home/School Folder for any graded classwork coming home and review it with them. You may see me write, “Revised,” at the top of their paper. That means that your child received prompting to improve or correct their work. I put a reference chart below of my markings. There is a lot of work we do in school, especially for our Ecosystem project, that stays in school for now, so the work going home is not a complete reflection of your child's progress. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out!

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You may see these markings on your child's work going home. Here is what they mean in my mind.

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Weekly Reminder: Please don’t forget to check your child’s reading log in their planner each week, have them total their minutes of reading for the week, and sign your name next to the total by Monday morning. You can stay on top of your child’s homework with my Homework Assignment Log. Also,  Please consider visiting the Reading Public Library for an amazing selection of grade-appropriate chapter books by interest/topic.

Important Dates 

• Monday, January 20th: Martin Luther King Jr. Day -No School

Pictures
Enjoy some of the fun from before the break!