This week we are continuing our focus on family with the Essential Question: How are families around the world the same and different? This serves as a wonderful opportunity to discuss your family history with your child. We will continue to practice identifying key details in the stories we read, and review the short vowel spellings of short u, short e, and short i. In addition, we will continue to explore the inflected endings –s and –es. We continue to focus on sentence structure this week, refining our understanding of statements (telling sentences) and questions (asking sentences).
In writing this week, your children are moving onto the third stage of their story. So far, they have come up with an idea, orally told the story to a partner, and sketched their ideas in pictures across multiple pages. This week we will focus on writing the important details that match the sketches. They are quite proud of their progress thus far, as am I! In Mathematics, we will continue our work with skip counting, as well as review key concepts such as comparing numbers (greater than, less than, and equal to), even and odd numbers, and a review of the quarter. Students will practice making coin exchanges this week (5 pennies exchange for a nickel, two nickels exchange for a dime, etc.). This is an important concept you can reinforce at home. Ask your child to create exchanges with pocket change you may have. They can first count the coins (practicing those skip counts) and then exchange the lower denomination coins for those with a higher value. For instance, you may give your child: P P P P P P P P N N N D D (where p=penny, n=nickel, d=dime). Your child could practice counting the amount, and then ask for exchanges such as a nickel for their 5 pennies, a quarter for the two dimes and a nickel, etc. They may need to make several exchanges based upon their comfort with this activity (they may not see that they can exchange two dimes and five pennies for a quarter. They may first exchange the five pennies for a nickel and then exchange the two dimes and the nickel for a quarter). On Friday, we completed our second STEAM activity. The students were given a list of materials that they were able to use in order to complete the activity. They needed to make a nameplate that was easy to read from 4 meters away. The name plate had to stand upright on its own for at least one minute, have at least one moving part, and display two interest of the child (i.e. dirt bikes, soccer, dance). The creations were amazing! The best part of the entire process was that the students began to embrace the idea of STEAM. Once we had gone over the directions, they instantly began to collaborate. Even though they were working on individual projects, without prompting they asked each other for advice, helped one another, and gave out kind complements. These first 4-5 STEAM projects are all meant to build this type of mindset in our learning community. At the end of the challenge, I was impressed with their reflections. Multiple students shared that their designs didn’t go as planned and that their classmates gave them ideas for improving their work. We are STEAMing ahead with this scientific practice! Important dates for next week: Monday- GYM day, please wear or send sneakers Tuesday- Wednesday- Popcorn Day, available at snack time for $0.50 School Board Meeting, 6:30, Library Thursday- Magazine Drive kick-off assembly 8:30am, gym Friday- Ice Cream available at lunch for $0.50
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