 Hi Families, What a week! There was never a dull moment from my perspective this week. Read-A-Thon and At-Home Reading Please keep logging your child’s reading minutes at home. I will log the minutes we read at school. Independent reading at this age is critical to building children’s vocabulary, strengthening their fluency, developing critical thinking skills, and growing their knowledge of the world. In order to get good at something, we must practice! Please stay on top of your child’s at-home reading and demand that they read 20 minutes per day. It makes a HUGE difference! Arrival Reminder from Mrs. Gallegos Students who arrive before the 8:15 AM bell must be supervised by the adult who brings them to school. If your child walks or rides their bike to school independently, we strongly encourage them to time their arrival closer to 8:15 AM. Our staff is not available for supervision until 8:15 AM, and we want to ensure that students have an adult present in case of an emergency and to help them make safe and responsible choices before the school day begins. Students are considered tardy if they are not in their classroom by 8:25. Here is what we’ve been up to this past week. Math Unit 5: Place Value Patterns and Decimal Operations This week we learned how to add and subtract decimals, paying particular attention to place value. Students learned how to make estimates, how to line up the place values, and how to check if answers make sense. Subtraction can be especially tricky for students, especially when the numbers have a different amount of place values. I reviewed how to stack numbers, decompose and regroup, and to adjust for “the void” (ask your child about this).
English Language Arts Unit 3: Adventure and Survival: Narrative and Literary Analysis We continue our novel study of Esperanza Rising. I provided students with some important background knowledge to the story this week, overviewing The Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, and Migrant Farming in California during the 1930s. These three events influence the events in Esperanza Rising, and having knowledge of them helps students think more deeply about the story. We also worked on a number of reading skills this week: inferring, visualizing, asking questions, and comparing and contrasting. Students began learning how to find and quote text evidence to support answers to comprehension questions. Students practiced writing complex sentences about Esperanza and other characters, including ones with conjunctions because, but, and so, and prepositions/prepositional phrases such as like, unlike, both, and on the other hand. Students also independently read from I Survived: True Stories, learning about the Titanic disaster this week. Students independently completed a comprehension check, which I modeled on MCAS-like questions. I’ve graded these comprehension checks and will send them home next week for your review. There were a wide range of grades, which I found curious. As I circulated the room while students were working on the comprehension check, I noticed the strong performers flipping back to the given page numbers and rereading, while the not-so-strong performers relied on their intuition and memory. I tried to explain to students that going back in the text to reread and find evidence takes work. Just like doing exercises and practice drills in sports builds great athletes, this type of literacy practice builds strong readers and thinkers.
Science Unit 4: Matter and Energy Cycles This week we welcomed Science From Scientists again, reviewing food webs and energy transfer. We also set up a lab to investigate whether or not plants actually need soil to grow. Student partners filled 2 cups, one with soil and one with cotton balls, and put a corn seed in each of them. We will keep them moist for a few weeks and see what happens! Community Building In our Second Step lesson this week, we learned about anxiety and discussed a 3-step strategy for managing our own anxiety independently: Stop, Calm Down, Change Course. Students shared situations that made them feel anxious and we practiced our strategy. We had a few challenges this week to address, including staying safe and in control during unstructured times and helping classmates through difficult times. Students pulled together to help a sad classmate feel better, and it was so heartwarming to witness so much genuine empathy and kindness. This week we also finished decorating our classroom door in honor of Women’s History Month. Students worked in groups or independently to research an impactful woman and create a poster to hang on our door. I’m so sorry I left on Friday without taking a picture of it! I will make sure to include it in next week’s update. Homework This week we had a daily math sheet, independent reading, and a grammar packet on quotations in dialogue for homework. Be on the lookout for a couple of paper survey forms coming home that your child needs to fill out for the yearbook. You may want to help them make good choices on how they answer the questions. Please review your child’s work before they return it to school and use this interaction as an opportunity to teach them the importance of work quality, personal responsibility, and independent practice. Thank you! You can stay on top of your child’s homework with my Homework Assignment Log. Upcoming Events
Pictures Below are a few pictures from this week. Have a wonderful weekend!
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