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Reading: We spent our reading blocks preparing for and enjoying biography presentations. The kids are doing an awesome job speaking with confidence and pulling out the most important information to share. Audience members are taking turns filling out feedback sheets for the speaking, working on their listening skills. Ask your kids about the presentations they've seen so far. Who did they learn about? What did they like that the speaker did?
Word Study: We started reviewing grammar concepts in a new little guidebook that the kids put in their writing notebooks. It covers punctuation and capitalization rules, typing rules, and commonly confused words. We will continue this study for the next four weeks. The kids also got their spelling lists and completed their first week of work. It was awesome to see the ways they analyzed patterns and words! Ask your kids about what their spelling rule was this week. Ask them to give you examples of words that they studied.
Writing: We worked on typing our essays this week. Next week they'll take their typed drafts and learn how to self-assess using a checklist. They'll make a revision plan, revise, and publish! Ask your kids what they'd like to write about next!
Math: This week we continued working on our fraction unit and did a little review of 4th grade standards too! Students are really enjoying this fraction unit. This week we looked at breaking fractions apart (decomposing) and finding equivalent fractions Many of us just know to multiply to find an equivalent fraction but we have drawn and decomposed fraction bars to help explain how this works. We have also reviewed our previous standards before taking the PARCC test in two weeks. We will continue this review in addition to the fraction unit. It's helpful to everyone to look back at standards we have covered. Ask your child if they can decompose a fraction bar and show you how 1/2=3/6 and 2/4 = 6/12.
Social Studies: Due to the shorter week (President's Day) we only had one social studies class. Students continued to read about the Southeast with their partner and took notes. We will share notes from the first two chapters next week and then will continue on with the Southeast book. Please send in any pictures of your kids (family) visiting the Southeast so we can add them to our regions photo board. Ask your child one interesting fact they learned about the Southeast.
Science: Our class meets with Mrs. Darley for science. They are learning about magnetism. Ask your student how their science class went this week and what they are learning about.
Miscellaneous:
- Laurie Conley, our teacher librarian, recommends books from this list, check it out.
- Whittier's Refugee Project (aka Whittier's Good Neighbor Project): Hopefully you saw information in the Tuesday Packet and received an email with information about changes to the Whittier Refugee Project. This year, we will be supporting 10 families through our Good Neighbor Project. These will be families who have already settled in the Chicago area, but would benefit from some additional items to help make their lives more manageable and comfortable. If you are interested in supporting this effort, the information letter containing the link to the sign up page is attached in the email with this newsletter. Thanks for your support!!
