Week 24: February 19th-23rd

Week 24:  February 19th-23rd

Reminders:
19th:  Monday is a student holiday in honor of President's Day.  We'll see you tomorrow!

23rd: GO TEXAN DAY! Wear your best Cowboy/Cowgirl/Cowperson clothes!

26th: 3rd Math Practice STAAR 

27th: 3rd Reading Practice STAAR

28th: Field Trip Museum Natural Science. Please have your child bring a sack lunch to eat while on the field trip.

Reading:  We will continue to work through narrative nonfiction texts and comprehension strategies during our Reader's Workshop mini lessons.  Your readers will use text evidence to make inferences about the subject(s) of the true stories we read.  We will also spend some time this week reviewing strategies your readers can use while answering a multiple choice question.  

Writing:  Students will continue to write expository pieces. We've worked with graphic organizers to brainstorm supporting details that support our main ideas.  This week, we will focus on the structure of an expository essay.  We will model how to transfer important information from a graphic organizer into paragraphs within their essay.  

Social Studies:  We're looking forward to this week's activity in social studies!  We will be using a paper-based grid map to play Battleship.  Students will play one another to practice navigating grid maps.  We will then journal about our experience and strategy of using a grid map to play the game. 

Math: We will continue to dive deeper into Division word problems while introducing them to the various strategies that will build their confidence in solving those problems. We will discuss what Division means, review new vocabulary words (multiples, dividend, divisor, and quotient), and discuss when they divide in their life. Knowing their fact families can them solve problems! Please have your students study their multiplication facts. We like to have students skip count for fun (multiples of 6: 6, 12, 18)! 

Homework: The Problem of the Week will be sent home on Monday. Please have your child bring it to school on Friday. Homework #1-3 will be sent home Monday-Wednesday. Please have your child be on DreamBox for at least 20 minutes a day at home. 

Science: We will begin our Solar Sytem unit this week! This includes exploring main characteristics of the sun as a source of energy and physical characteristics of the Sun. Later in the week, we will explore the main characteristics of the moon and how it compares to Earth. We are so excited about this unit and your scientist will too!

Week 21: January 29th-February 2nd

Week 21:  January 29th-February 2nd

Reminders: 
2/2: Spring Group Pictures are this Friday.  These pictures are taken as homerooms.   Time slots are as follows. 10:25 Rozzell/Morphey, 10:35  Badrak/Saint Val, and 10:45 Duncan/Ford.  
2/6 and 2/7:  HCE Book Fair located in library. 
2/8 and 2/9: Noon Dismissal

Reading:  Determining the main idea of a text can be tricky business!  We're going to continue searching for text clues (text evidence) to infer the main idea of an entire or portion of text.  Your readers will see this week that identifying the main idea from several sections of an article will lead to a strong nonfiction summary.  We will conclude the week by introducing cause and effect relationships.  Cause and effect is something we experience in our daily lives.  We will learn tools to identify this relationship within a nonfiction text. 

Writing:  We will celebrate your poet's hard work this week!  Our publishing celebrations are always a wonderful way to unite as a community of writers and "high five" one another on a job well done.  Your children are excited to share their finished anthologies with their peers.  Later in the week we will practice note taking strategies as we read through a nonfiction text and organize our thoughts/reactions and important ideas.  
Social Studies:  We're rounding out our study of maps this week.  Students will apply what they have learned throughout the month to create their own maps.  We're challenging them to include a title, compass rose, legend, map scale, and grid system.  

Math: We will continue to learn many strategies to multiply such as skip counting, number line, area model, and an array model. We will build from easier digits such as 5 and continue to increase the digit to 6 through 9. As it is important to know multiplication facts, we are helping our mathematicians understand and internalize what it truly means to multiply, where they can see it in the real world, and how to apply it in their daily lives. 

Homework: In addition to our Monday-Wednesday regular homework pages, we will begin "Problem of the Week." This assignment will be sent home every Monday and will need to be returned on Friday. This assignment is meant to be a team effort as we would like your student to solve the problem alongside you.  On Friday, we will discuss the many ways your student solved the problem with the support from you all! 
Science: The students will learn and understand how soil is formed and the role of decomposition. Later in the week, the students will explore plate tectonics and its relation to earthquakes and volcanoes. Soil is different in different places because of different rocks in the area and different plants and animals that live there and die and decay. Important concepts to remember:

• Constructive forces build up the Earth
• Destructive forces tear down the Earth
• Earthquake:  A sudden release of energy under the Earth’s surface that makes the ground shake or crack.
• Earthquakes build up the land (constructive) by pushing upward forming mountains and tear down the Earth (destructive) by opening crevices and causing land to fall or slide.
• Weathering: The process that breaks down rocks into tiny pieces over time.
• Erosion:  The carrying away of weathered rock 

 

• 

  Different types of Soil: Sand, Clay, Humus, Loam

4/18 - 4/22

We hope that you enjoy the LONG weekend! 
REMINDERS:Scholastic book orders may be made online or you may send back the paper order with a check.  Please have April book orders turned in by Friday, April 22. PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE IN ASSESSMENT DATES.


LANGUAGE ARTS
READING- April is poetry month.  We will review poetry vocabulary and types of poems this week.  I'll be pulling small groups based on the two selection practice your child did in class last week.  Look for those to come home in the Tuesday Newsday folder.  This can serve for a great spring board for conversation at home about books and news. We will not send home a reading selection for homework this week due to the short school week.

WRITING- We will finish our criteria chart this week for what makes an INCREDIBLE story from my life.  The last few weeks of school we will spend walking ourselves through the writing process and producing and sharing stories from our lives.  Helping your child reflect on experiences or even say, "Hey, you should write that as one of your stories in school." could serve as great help when writer's are trying to get started during the process.

SPELLING- Words went home last week.  Spelling Test, Thursday 4/21.  Application grade 4/22-4/27.


SOCIAL STUDIES- Economic review sheets went home last Thursday. Our test will be Friday, April 22.  Remember to have your child use his or her log in on studiesweekly.com to review and preview concepts.  Our economics unit covers weeks 19-23. 


Math: In math this week, we will be discussing coins, bills, personal financial literacy, and patterns that can be found on a number line. As we review time and we begin reviewing money, I encourage you to talk with your children at home about these topics. It is important for your children to practice saying the time and reading a clock. Even with our short week, we will have three nights of homework. The homework this week will be a review on graphing, time, and money. Please encourage your child to do their homework and not use a homework pass. As we get into STAAR mode, we are sending work to help review and it is important for your child to continue to practice. We will have a problem of the week this week and a fast facts quiz on Friday. Please study the multiplication facts nightly. Your child needs to complete all of their multiplication facts before they leave third grade. Please check their progress on their multiplication checklist located in their green binder.

Science: In science this week, we will begin discussing the planets in our solar system. We will learn the order off the planets. We will use the mnemonic device - My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos- to help us remember the planets in order. Your child will also have an opportunity to create their own mnemonic device.

***UPDATE - The Solar System test will be on Tuesday, April 26th***

Reading Prompts to use at home

Week of 9/28-10/2

NEWS: Check out the new page on the side of the BLOG called COUGAR PAW PRIDE. We will use this space to keep you updated on the AMAZING ways the students in our classes are making a difference in our classrooms and around campus!

Open House will be on Tuesday, September 29.  Classrooms are open for visiting from 5:30-6:30p.m.  At 6:40 the first PTA meeting for the school year will be held in the cafeteria.  Coach Thompson and Teaching Aides will be available in the gym to watch children as parents attend the meeting.  

Thank you to our HCE PTA for funding WITS for third grade for the second year. (Now grades 3-5 will have the opportunity to participate in this program.)  Writers In the Schools is a program that sends professional writer's to schools to work with both teachers and students in creative writing.  Our writer this school year is Carolyn Bolton.  I am very excited, as she was teamed with third grade last school year and not only did the kids learn much from her writing experience, but I did as well.  She will be with us most weeks on Wednesdays. For this week, Mrs. Bolton will join us on Tuesday.

Please be on the look out for more information about WITS and Mrs. Bolton in the TUESDAY NEWSDAY folders. There will be a permission slip in the folder that we will need you to sign and return so that we may share your children's writing and images with the world around us!

READING & WRITING: We will combine our work in Reading and Writing Workshop this week.  First students will reflect and review expectations for BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER reading.  These will help students direct their focus as we move out of reading assessments and move into small group work.  While students read independently this week, I will pull small groups of students to work on a variety of reading strategies and skills in small group.

GENRE STUDY:  Last week, we started digging into our work on genre studies.  We started by talking about and reading examples from the genre of fantasy.  This week, we will hone in on what makes a story a folktale.  Folk tales are a traditional form of literature that feature ordinary people (folk).These stories are narrative in structure and are often passed down over many years in both an oral and written tradition.  Folktales often have a more obvious theme (lesson or message) for readers.  We will discuss what it is that we believe the author is trying to teach or tell us with this story.  While this is an easy thing for most experienced readers to do, most third graders are just becoming fluent enough readers to think about the BIG picture (theme) while reading.

As students work with folktales this week, they will continue to track their thinking using symbols and sticky notes. These tracks in our text allow us to notice how an author is engaging his or her audience.  We will eventually apply these findings to our own craft of writing.

WORD WORK: Students will continue to learn a variety of word work strategies, practices and games with our practice words as we get ready to LAUNCH our word work.  Wednesday, October 7 will be the first time your student is pulled in his or her differentiated spelling group.  Please let me know if you would like me to send home a word study menu and an extra copy of words for you to practice with your child at home.  Remember, spelling homework is not a requirement this year, as we will incorporate 15-20 minutes of word work into our language arts block each day this year.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We are continuing our 9 weeks focus on Communities, Citizenship and Government.  Last week, we went through the voting process and now we have elected 2 Leadership Council Representatives!  Congratulations to Ben in Mrs. Duncan’s class and Michael in Mrs. Ford's class!  This week, we will focus on government leaders.  Students need to understand who the leaders are at each level of government: local/mayor, state/governor and nation or federal/president.

Synthesizing, Economics and Research Writing

Fun Things to Share for you to use at home:
During our STAAR party, I introduced Mad Libs.  The kids had a GREAT time working with partners and creating funny stories.  Here are some links to sites where you can print more mad libs to enjoy as a family at home.

• CLASSROOM JR.COM
• MAD LIBS WEBSITE AND APP INFO
• FILL THESE OUT AND READ ONLINE (warning- there are ads on this site.)
• ONLINE MAD LIBS CALL WEB TALES

I also introduced them to a childhood favorite, READING RAINBOW.  

• YOU TUBE CHANNEL with videos
• INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO GET THE APP OR ORDER THE VIDEOS

READING AND WRITING
We will get back into a more normal classroom routine this week.  We will focus in reading on synthesizing.  I love this time of year and reading strategy.  This is when the kids get a chance to apply all their thinking to a text.  We begin to notice how a text can change our thinking as we read-- so powerful!  This week we will focus on synthesizing nonfiction.  We will start by using The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown as our reading and writing model for synthesizing facts.  
This leads us nicely into finishing up reading many nonfiction sources as students work on their Planet Research.  After a few days to finish up research and note taking we will begin writing our informational expository texts on the planet your child is researching.  This is a new genre of writing for us, so we will look carefully to some mentor texts to see how veteran authors organize and structure their informational writing.  

SPELLING
New spelling words will go home on Wednesday.  The spelling homework menu is due on the following Tuesday (4/5) and the test will be on that Wednesday (4/6).  If you need support with spelling, please email me.  If you child looses his or her spelling words, please look at the spelling spiral as we write them down as part of our lesson on Wednesdays.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week's work in Social Studies will have us focus on the economic concepts of: scarcity, opportunity cost, consumption, production and interdependence.  We are moving out of our work in personal economics and focusing more on business economics as we finish up our lessons.  We will be using these oldies, but goodies (ECON AND ME) to review concepts and promote discussion in class. 

HOMEWORK
Thank you for supporting good study and reading habits at home.  Students will have 20 minutes of nightly reading this week.  They should record the title and genre in their planner or a piece of paper at home to share with me the next day. 

LA and SS March 23-27

READING
This week we will review main idea.  Students will read from nonfiction texts and determine the main idea of sections of text.  We will work to have fun while reviewing using this rap to keep us on track!  

Mrs. Henley has worked with us the last two weeks to help us see how our reading strategies apply to the genre of standardized tests.  She will be with us for a final lesson this Friday.

A reading passage will come home on Monday.  Please encourage your child to practice the suggested reading strategies as he or she works through that reading.  The passage is due on Friday.  Children have 20 minutes of nightly reading everyday this week.


WRITING
This week we will begin a new genre of writing.  We will work to consume examples of fun and practical procedural texts.  After spending an hour and a half over spring break helping Isabella put together Leo Friends, there's a new reality for me on the importance of well written and illustrated procedural texts!
Mrs. Bolton, our WITS instructor, will be with us on Tuesday as we continue to add to our writer's tool box.  We all love the energy and new ideas she brings to our instruction and learning.  

SPELLING
New spelling words will go home on Wednesday.  The spelling homework menu is due on the following Tuesday (3/31) and the test will be on that Wednesday (4/1).  If you need support with spelling, please email me.  If you child looses his or her spelling words, please look at the spelling spiral as we write them down as part of our lesson on Wednesdays.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will move into a new unit of study for the 4th 9 weeks.  We will focus on Economics.  Yes, you read it correctly.  This week we will focus on some big ideas in economics: needs, wants, spending and saving.  This time of year it always becomes very clear which families discuss money with their children.  Please use the next few weeks to talk to your children about how you decide when to spend and when to save your money.  Discuss with them reasons you have a savings account.  Help reshape their cries for what they "need" and discuss what are our REAL needs and wants.

HOMEWORK
Thank you for supporting good study and reading habits at home. 

Nov. 17-Nov. 25 in Language Arts and Social Studies

LANGUAGE ARTS

READING

Reading

Last week we worked on talking about what strategies good readers use when comprehension breaks down.  Students agreed that when I ask what strategies they try when stuck their first response is usually, sound it out.  While that is one strategy that may help readers who are stuck, it isn't the most effective strategy.  Some other strategies we decided good readers use are:
asking ourselves- does it make sense?
if not, looking at the pictures
reading on
going back and rereading
trying out a synonym and seeing if it makes sense
looking for parts of a word we know
our list will continue to grow as students start noticing what is helpful when they come to a problem while reading.

We also started and will work until Thanksgiving on context clues.  Students know that context means that there are clues in the text that can help a reader discover a words meaning.  Students will participate in class discussions on Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters as we discover the story and uncover all the new vocabulary it has to offer.  They will also work in small groups to share strategies for comprehension.  

SPELLING
We will not have spelling work again until December.  Instead, students will bring home review homework on capitalization and punctuation.

WRITING and SOCIAL STUDIES
Students have been working hard in writing.  We will be working on a number of pieces over the next 7 days.  Students will learn some organization strategies to guide their publication of a personal narrative.

We will then combine our work in Social Studies and Writing.  Students will learn about personification by consuming the mentor text I am the Ocean.  They will apply what they know from our work with landforms and create a landform poem with personification.  These are always some of our most amazing writing pieces.  Your child will share his or hers with you at Publisher's Picnic in May.

Finally, we will also be working on postcards to tell friends and families about vacations we have taken to different regions.  Students will be expected to apply learning and share with the recipient the climate, weather, activities and landforms they encounter while on their imaginary vacation.

Update from Mrs. Ford

It's December!

This is a busy week, so I hope everyone had a very restful holiday.  Our family counted you and your family in our blessings over the Thanksgiving break!  We are so fortunate to be part of such an amazing school.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
The HCE Spelling Week is on Thursday, December 5.  Information went home in the Tuesday Newsday folders about 3 weeks ago to allow student the opportunity to practice and sign up for early morning workshops.  Students are required to participate in the classroom bee.  I will, as always, stress that this is a learning opportunity.  Not all of us are SUPPER spellers (do you see what I did there)-- but everyone will be allowed the opportunity to see what a spelling bee looks and feels like.
Since we will be focusing on the spelling bee, there will NOT be any individualized spelling lists this week.

Reading
We have been working on reading and producing plays.  Students have learned new vocabulary like: narrator, actor, characters, setting, stage directions and dialogue.  
We will continue to discuss drama or plays but will be focusing on poetry as well.  Please NOTE that your child will be bringing home a poetry worksheet to complete every night this week.  I encourage you to talk to your child about each of the poems.  We will add more vocabulary to our ever expanding repertoire.  
Be ready to discuss the following terms:

• rhythm -  the beat or cadence of poetry Example:  But soft! What light through your window breaks?
• stanza-part of a poem that is made up of lines that are put together in a particular pattern
• imagery- words used to create a picture in the reader's mind
• narrative poem- a poem that tells a story.  some narrative poems are myths.  narrative poems may rhyme, but do not have to.
• line- a row of words in a poem
• rhyme -   two or more words which match in the same last sound  Example: cat/bat  or  flew/grew
• repetition – using a key word several times through a poem  
• free verse – a flowing poem that does NOT have a particular pattern
• alliteration- words in a poem that are placed near each other and start with the same sound

Your child will need to complete the poem practice and 

read for 20 minutes each night this week. 

We will NOT have spelling homework, 

so the time dedicated to homework should balance out.

Writing
We are working hard to finish up our narratives.  
Students have also explored using figurative language to write landform poetry.  
After we consume more poetry, students will be given opportunity to write a variety of poems.
Students will also start working in small groups to research a cultural holiday.  They will work with their groups to take notes, and organize a presentation to teach the class about their learning the week before Winter Break.  Please let me and your student know if you will be leaving early that week.  We want to make sure that he or she gets the chance to contribute to the group project.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Map Skills
Last week we used our knowledge about landforms to jump into our work in map skills.  We looked over a variety of landform maps.  This week we will review map skill vocabulary on Monday.  On Tuesday and Wednesday we will learn how to read and use a grid map.  On Friday, students will start on their grid map project.  They will get to design a city of their very own and put some of our new found map skills to use!

Update from Mrs. Ford

Language Arts

Reading

This week in reading, we will start to talk about using context clues when we read to help us determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.  Students will learn a variety of "clues" that good writers often include to help readers make meaning of what's in the story.  We will be using non-fiction this week as begin.

In small groups, students will be reading non-fiction and poetry with me.  In these groups we will be working on a variety of reading topics depending on what your child and their group needs.  I have looked over our benchmark data and will be targeting children's needs.  

Writing

We will focus on developing strong leads this week in our work with personal narratives.  

Last week, students completed postcards to friends and family describing an imaginary vacation.  This writing was integrated with our social studies curriculum.  Students included new learning about how landforms, location and climate can change the activities we choose and the way we dress when we are on vacation.

Spelling

Spelling groups will continue this week.  Please look for new words to come home on Monday nights.  Students have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to complete 8 points on their spelling menus.  The DESK fairy showed up after school on Friday and awarded spelling homework coupons to student's with a clean and organized desk.  If your student has earned a coupon, he or she may staple it into the spelling spiral in place of 4 points of homework.

Social Studies

Geography

Click on the link below to check out this cool new rap and song we've been singing to help us remember the different types of landforms.

http://youtu.be/7v7R2bALbgI

We will continue to learn about landforms.  This week we will start thinking of various ways to describe landforms and bodies of water.  We will read the book, I AM THE OCEAN. It will serve as our mentor test as we begin to create LANDFORM POETRY using personification!

10/28-11/1 Language Arts and Social Studies

LANGUAGE ARTS

Reading

We are still reading non-fiction.  This week we will focus on the facts located in non-fiction texts.  Students will learn to distinguish fact from opinion.  They will also work this week to determine if facts read are important or interesting.  This is a hard concept for third graders.  When most third graders read a fact, if they are interested in the topic, they judge the fact to be important.

Please remember that your child should read nightly for 20 minutes.  They are required to record the title and genre in their third grade planner.

Writing

We will create a narrative criteria chart this week as we start to dissect narratives to find out what makes a narrative interesting and good.  Students will also work with a partner to reproduce a narrative.  Reproduction is like putting puzzle pieces together without looking at the picture.  You have to pay attention to what you know about structure and patterns to make the puzzle (story) make sense. 

Spelling

We had last week OFF from spelling.  This week, your third grader should bring home NEW words on Monday.  8 points for the spelling menu is due on Thursday.  We will test on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Landforms

We are starting a new unit in Social Studies, Geography.  Our geography unit is made up of two parts, landforms and map skills. We will start the unit with a look at landforms.  This week we will review many landforms that are, hopefully, familiar to our students.  Our BIG idea in social studies is that our daily life is affected by the land surrounding us.  When we plan vacations, what we pack, what we do, and our travel are all determined by the land and water features surrounding our destination.  

Some of our upcoming vocabulary will be:

Geography-the study of Earth’s features

Landform- natural features, or shapes, of the land including mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, etc.

Climate- the kind of weather a place has over a long period of time

Human Feature- something that people add to the landscape, such as a building

     Adapt- change to fit the environment   

Update from Mrs. Ford

Language Arts

In Reading this week, we will start our study on Non-Fiction.  We will use non-fiction resources focused on BATS for the next few weeks as an added bonus to our study on non-fiction texts. As adults, we take for granted the many features a non-fiction text grants us as we read.  Third graders will be learning to identify and discuss the purpose of various text features over the next few weeks.  We will be creating an anchor chart similar to this one from the blog, Second Grade Style.

http://secondgradestyle.blogspot.com/2011/10/teaching-text-features.html 

Last week was fun, but we have some catch-up to do in writing.  We will begin critiquing narrative pieces this week.  Students will create their own lists of what narratives may have and must have to make them an entertaining and informative piece for a reader.  

We have parent/teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday of this week.  Since Thursday and Friday will be half days, we will NOT have spelling words this week.  Please look for new spelling words to come home on MONDAY, OCTOBER 28.

We took our first social studies test last week.  We will spend time in Social Studies this week focusing on daily topics associated with RED RIBBON WEEK.  HCE commits to being drug-free (alcohol, to

bacco, and drugs) by accepting and signing the pledge card at school and home with a parent

Monday, Oct 21:   Wear RED to celebrate red ribbon week.

Tuesday, Oct 22: Wear your favorite Sports Team Shirt

Wednesday, Oct 23: Wear crazy socks or shoes.  Go crazy against drugs!

Thursday, Oct 24: Join the fight against drugs and Wear CAMO!

Friday, Oct 25: Wear a hat or fun hair accessories to school!  Hats off to healthy living!

Update from Mrs. Ford

Language Arts
Reading
In Reading this week we will be diving into the word of character traits and character development.  Good readers notice how a character may change throughout a story.  We will begin the week by brainstorming a list of character traits.  What words can we use to describe how the character is acting and feeling?  Then, we will review some books we have read to see if we can find text evidence to support a character's personality trait.  As the week progresses, students will look for this text support in their DEAR time (independent reading) book. 

Writing
 This week we will introduce our first writing genre study, personal narrative.  We will spend the next few weeks sharing examples of personal narratives and noticing and naming the parts of a narrative.  This week we will focus on learning the vocabulary for those parts (setting the stage, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution).
Spelling
Please remember that your child is responsible for completing 8 points and turning in  his or her homework on Thursday mornings.  Students may complete any assignment on the menu they wish.  If they choose to write their words 3 times this week, they may only use that assignments once this week to get 2 of the 8 points.  

Social Studies
In class, we will learn and discuss the words rights and responsibilities.  Students will also participate in a debate to determine if he or she thinks it would be best to live in FREEDOM TOWN (where anything goes) or LEADER TOWN (where one leader tells everyone how they can live.  It's always a great time to hear kids thoughts and watch them come around to understanding how our country decided on its form of government.  

This week we will discuss LEADERSHIP COUNCIL.  We will discuss qualities needed in a leadership council representative and the duties and responsibilities that go along with this leadership position.  Students will be allowed to nominate candidates.  A rubric will then be filled out and accompanied by the nominations to determine who will represent our classes this year.


 

Visualization, Connections and Community

Language Arts

Reading
I have been pulling your children in class to have them read for me.  I will be completing each child's reading assessment by the end of September. I am so thankful for the families who could meet with me last Saturday.  If your family did not meet with me last Saturday, then I will be pulling your child during class for him or her to read for me.
Our classes have been working on extending our ability to read independently during DEAR time (Drop Everything and Read)! 

Please know that your child's nightly homework is to read for 20 minutes. Then, he or she should write the title of the book and the book's genre in his or her planner.  I check everyday!  

In class we have started working on visualization.  Students have been asked to think about what images they see when they read or have words read to them.  We often refer to this as the movie in our mind.  They have been drawing their images for me and sharing them with the class.  These images that students create help solidify the meaning of the text.  If you can't picture it, you probably don't understand it!

We will review the idea of connects as the week closes, and work more closely with this next week.  Connections fall into three categories:  text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to world.  We will begin this week to create text-to-self connections.  
We will read and then work together to think...
What about this story reminds me of something I have done?...something I have experienced?...someone I know?These connections draw us closer to the text while building comprehension.
Writing
Over the summer I kept a gratitude journal.  I would journal each day about something I was thankful for.  I've discussed my experience with my classes and we have taken on a gratitude challenge.  Our goal is to write down 300 things we are thankful for by the end of the year.  Each day during our journal time, students add to their gratitude list.  Then, they either select a topic, or I provide one for them to journal about.  Our journals are not a place where spelling, punctuation and capitalization are important.  They simply serve as a place for us to get our thoughts and ideas out of our heads and onto paper.  It's been a great experience watching your kids share their thinking and their thanks.

Spelling

This was our first week for students to receive spelling words.  
Starting next week (this is a practice week), they should practice spelling and sorting the words each night using the activities found in the menu.  We will write the words in the correct sort inside their spelling spirals for them to have as a reference tool all week. 
I will collect spelling homework on Thursday mornings.  Thursday night your child's only spelling homework is to prepare for the spelling test on Friday. 
During the spelling test on Friday, students will be asked to spell and sort the words correctly.
This process will become routine and familiar with time.  Take deep breaths, and feel free to email me with any questions.  REMEMBER, this week is practice and NEXT week is our first week... so we will GO SLOW! 
Social Studies

We are continuing to focus on citizenship.  This week we have talked about Jane Addams, Ruby Bridges, Helen Keller, and Clara Barton.  These women made HUGE contributions to their communities.  We also took some time this week to focus on community heroes in honor of 9/11.  Students will have lunch with these heroes on Friday and present them with thank you notes and bookmarks.

April 8-12

Language Arts
Reading
Students will continue to prep for the upcoming STAAR exam.  We will review various reading strategies (context clues, summary, predictions, author's purpose, etc.) and genres (fiction, non-fiction and poetry).  We will complete a STAAR reading practice this week during class.  

Students should be reading 20 minutes each night and completing the class blog.  

The reading homework passage will come home on Monday and should be completed and returned on Friday.

Writing
Students will complete a poetry menu.  They have working hard and written some AWESOME poems over the last week. 

Spelling
Word sorts will come home on Monday.  Homework will be due on Thursday.  We will test on Friday.  

Social Studies
We will finish TALL TALES on Monday and begin learning about scientists and inventors who changed the story of America.  We will review the life of Henry Ford and his assembly line that made automobiles more accessible and affordable.  Then, we will discuss the life of Louis Daguerre who invented the daguerreotype--  one of the first ways people were able to quickly get a picture.  We will finish up the week learning about Cyrus McCormick who invented the reaper and forever changed the way American farmers do business!