Sunday, October 15, 2017

Fall Fun!

I hope you all had a wonderful fall break!  It was so nice to have such beautiful weather after the quick snowstorm. 

I loved meeting with all of you for conferences before break and feel very lucky to work with such amazing families.  We will be starting some interesting new units this week and I wanted you to have our latest curriculum news!

Math
We wrapped up Unit 1 before Fall Break.  Students have developed some wonderful approaches and thinking strategies for solving multiplication and division problems.  While the unit is over, our work with computations continues all year.  Unit 2 focuses on volume of rectangular prisms, so we will be discovering how to calculate volume, how it is measured, and what the different dimensions represent.  While we will be focusing on calculating volume with "boxes" in class, you can support your student's understanding of volume by looking at any types of containers and estimating volume, comparing volume, and how we use volume in filling drawers, packing boxes, filling containers, and more.

Please continue to have students practicing math facts at home!  We have a lot of games and activities in class that students are welcome to bring home if you need more ways to practice.  I cannot emphasize how important fluency with number is for success in every aspect of math.

Reading
We will be focusing our strategy work this month on the strategy of questioning.  All proficient readers question before, during, and after reading.  We will be talking about the types of questions we use, which questions can be answered and which questions cannot be answered from the text, questions that deepen our thinking, and how to ask research questions well.  The goal is for readers to identify and focus on questions that are meaningful and help them as readers. 

You can support this work at home by discussing the questions you have while you are reading anything: a blog, the paper, magazines, books, emails, and more.  You can also ask your child what they are wondering before they read and afterwards to see if their questions were answered and if new questions arose.

Writing
Students turned in a published narrative story before break.  We will reflect on this work this week and how we could still improve as narrative writers.  If you haven't read your child's final story, please ask to see it on their Google Drive.

Following this work, we will enter "Paragraph Bootcamp"!  This is a review of how to write well-organized paragraphs.  This work is crucial as we will then move on to opinion writing which will be in essay format.  In order to write a great essay, we need to be able to write strong paragraphs.  One way you can help your child write in organized paragraphs is to ask them to speak in complete sentences!

Science
We finished our geography unit before break.  Make sure to ask your child where they decided to put a new NFL team!

We will now begin our first science unit around life science.  Our goals in this area are to analyze the structures of all living systems and the living systems interact with their environment.  We will begin this by looking at living and non-living things, life processes, and the cell as a building block of all living things.  We will then move on to human body systems and how all the body systems have separate functions, structures, and needs.  This unit culminates with our yearly field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to dissect a sheep's lung and see the exhibit, "Nature's Amazing Machines".  I will be sending more information about this field trip as we get closer to the date.

Upcoming Dates to Know
Oct. 31st - Halloween party and parade - more details to follow but it is always first thing in the morning.
Nov. 7th - No School for Students