Mrs. Ford's LA and SS Class 2/24-2/28

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
We WILL have spelling this week.  Please make sure to help your child learn his or her spelling words and their sort.  Homework is due Thursday.  Test day is Friday.  

Reading
Synthesizing and Summarizing are still on our list of things to do well in Reading over the next few weeks.  

This week we will work with FICTIONAL texts.  We will use a few different graphic organizers to help us notice text elements and record our thinking as we read. Their notes will cover the sequence of events that happen in the story.  Their thinking may include connections, predictions, questions and inferences.

We will also begin to notice how thinking may change as you read a text.  We will use a graphic organizer called I'm thinking...now I'm thinking... and now. We will read picture books together that do a great job of demonstrating how our thoughts about the plot or characters may change as we read a text, therefore, requiring us to synthesize all the information to make new meaning.

Writing
Mrs. Jenny Holter is now helping us work with procedural texts.  A few weeks ago she shared a great book, How to Babysit a Grandpa.  The kids were able to see how procedural texts can hit lots of different topics, not just food assembly!  She will visit all classes again this week to help us notice and name important parts of a procedural text.

SOCIAL STUDIES
STORY OF AMERICA

We will be learning about America's Artists this week: Bill Martin Jr., Laura Ingalls Wilder, Phillis Wheatley and Carmen Lomas Garza.
A review for our second assessment will come home this week. Students at HCE learn 10 states every year so that they will know the location of each state by the time they leave HCE. We will send home the 30 states your child is responsible for knowing/learning this year. You will get a blank map and a completed map to help with test preparation.