Fourth Week

We had another fun & full week of learning!

This week in reading, we focused on fluency; reading smoothly, with expression (like when we're talking).

We have begun an author study in Second with Mo Willems and his Piggie and Gerald series. We know that good readers pay attention to punctuation, characters' actions and expressions, and the authors' use of fonts to help us read

Third and Fourth Grade have begun a journey into narrative poetry with Sharon Creech's Love That Dog and Hate That Cat. We are delving into character analysis (ask them what they know about Jack), setting, inference, and narrative poem structure. With the same text, we are able to also practice our phrasing and fluency!

In writing, we've been working on topic selection - choosing things we are passionate about, and truly allow a story to come to life. We've also been working on digging deeper...finding the seed ideas, not choosing a watermelon sized idea. :)

Spelling is still a process...we are learning the routines and expectations of centers so we can get started on our groups within the next week. Their spelling words will be written in their agendas each week, and although spelling homework is not assigned (we work with the words daily in class), if you would like your child to practice with you (or on Spelling City -- see link on blog), they have been told that that is something they should eagerly comply with (they should not tell you I don't require it, in other words).

This week in math our focus was numbers and operations.

Fourth grade worked on rounding numbers and completed The World's Tallest building project. This had 21st century skills embedded in the assignment.

Third graders rounded numbers, compared and ordered numbers, and played a few games.

Second graders modeled 3 digit numbers, wrote numbers in word form, and participated in a few activities.

In social studies, we learned about the meaning and origin of the Star-Spangled Banner. Our national anthem just celebrated it's 200th birthday! Now that we know what the song is about, it should take on a whole new meaning the next time we have an opportunity to sing it!

We also introduced several important aspects of the Constitution (the preamble, when and where it was created, who helped create it, and more importantly, WHY it was created). We will delve further into this over the coming week.

We conducted our first investigation in science, which allowed us to use our science tools and apply what we learned about the scientific method. Our focus question: What will happen to a gummy bear when it is placed in water overnight? Ask your little scientist to share their findings...and the reason they believe those results occurred.