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.

Feb. 4-9

LANGUAGE ARTS

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 thinking as we read.
  
One strategy we will use is just like what kids did in class this week.  They will record their notes and thinking as they read.  THIS WEEK their notes will cover the sequence of events that happen in the story.  The thinking that they may record can be connections predication, questions and inferences.

Then we will 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 some 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.
WRITING
This week in Writing, we will finish our how-to essays.  Then, we will start talking about what work will need to go into our BIG 6 research project.  BIG 6 is a great organization tool for research.  

SPELLING
Spelling continues to be more of the same.  Students should bring home new spelling words on Mondays.  Homework is due on Thursdays.  We will take our test on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES

GEOGRAPHY

This week students will learn the parts of a map.  Some of the vocabulary we will cover is: map key, map scale, compass rose, intermediate directions, cardinal directions, scale and symbols.  Over the next few weeks, we will learn about different kinds of maps and globes.  At home, please talk to your child about when you use a map.  Let your child plug in an address the next time you use a navigation system.  Maybe you could have your child serve as a guide the next time you are at the mall or zoo.  

Language Arts and Social Studies

LANGUAGE ARTS

READING

In Reading over the next few weeks we will be synthesizing our reading.   
My concrete example for synthesizing is this...
Think about when you make pasta.  You have to boil the water, add the dry noodles and then cook them, but that's not the way we eat our pasta.  We have to strain the noodles to get rid of the water but keep the REALLY  good pasta.  It's the same when we synthesize our reading.  We have to read the whole book, and even let it boil for a while, but synthesizing happens when we strain the information and we are left with the REALLY good stuff. 
This week we are working with non-fiction.  Your children are reading texts and trying to distinguish the FACTS (to record in their notes) from their THINKING (connections, thoughts, ideas, questions).

WRITING
This week in Writing we are working on how-to essays.  We have reviewed the features of this text.  Over the next few days, we will consume some good examples and create a class essay.  Then, students will work to create a how-to essay to teach us how to play his or her favorite game.

SPELLING
Spelling continues to be more of the same.  Students should bring home new spelling words on Mondays.  Homework is due on Thursdays.  We will take our test on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES

GEOGRAPHY

Students will have a geography quiz on Friday.  It will cover the first half of our unit of study.  Please make sure to look over the review sheet sent home last Friday.  Students have also been encouraged to take their Social Studies Journals home each night to aide in preparing for the quiz.