Math: This week we will delve more into 3-dimensional, solid shapes. Please have your child bring in their 3-dimensional objects this week for our Shape Museum! They will continue getting a lot of hands-on practice with tan-grams, pattern blocks and picture creation.

Reading: This week we compare and contrast the information we can glean from illustrations vs. the information we learn from text. We will continue reading our Read Aloud chapter book. We will also start practicing how to read longer passages and answer comprehension questions after highlighting information.

Writing: Students will write about their vacations. We will also try our hand at writing realistic fiction which will then segue to fiction/fantasy writing. We are also starting to focus upon building our vocabulary and using more interesting, or “sparkling” words in our writing!

Phonics: This week we will be learning the diphthong /ou/ or “ow” sound using the letters “ow”  as in crowd, and “ou” as in round.

Science: Students loved going on our nature walk, sketching the plants and then painting them in class! We will wrap up our unit on the wonderful world of plants and there will be an assessment early in the week!

Social Studies: This week we will be learning about George Washington Carver and all of his contributions to the worlds of science, farming and peanuts! This unit will tie in nicely to our Science unit on Plants.

S.T.E.M.: Students had so much fun creating their free-standing plants using STEM materials, and then conjuring up a magical story involving the plant’s magical powers. We were able to identify the characteristics of those creations that met the challenge, and those that fell short. This was a great learning experience for all! This week we will be building off of our solid figure math unit and will be creating 3-dimensional solid figures using toothpicks and mini-marshmellows.

Melissa

Math: We will wrap up our unit on measurement with an assessment. We will start our unit on shapes and will be discussing and identifying defining and non-defining attributes. They will be getting a lot of hands on practice with tangrams, pattern blocks and picture creation.

Reading: This week we will continue practicing how to identify the connections between 2 characters, events, ideas or pieces of information in the text. This will extend from our unit on finding similarities in text. We will also start to discuss the different types of information that can be learned from illustrations vs. text. We have also started reading a Read Aloud Chapter Book!

Writing: Students really enjoyed writing their own Public Service Announcements. We all got to learn about causes (protecting animals!!) that they care about and they were able to try to drive some change in these areas! Look for a Public Service Announcement coming your way about STEM! This week we will write narratives about a spring memory. This will tie in nicely to our plant/spring unit.

Phonics: This week we will be learning the “eer” sound using the letters “ear” “eer,” as in the words “cheer” and “year.”

Science: We will continue reading, writing about and discussing the wonderful world of plants! This week we will be observing the wonderful world of plants and trying to recreate some of our own! I love all of the intuitiveness of the students on this subject!

S.T.E.M.: Students will work on and finalize their S.T.E.M. plant creations, as well as their magical stories and will be able to share these with their classmates. I look forward to hearing them all!

Melissa

Math: This week we will be learning about measurement. Students will be ordering objects from shortest to longest, estimating the length of objects, and finding the actual length of objects using non-standard units of measurement, such as cubes and pennies.

Reading: This week we will be practicing how to identify the connections between 2 characters, events, ideas or pieces of information in the text. This will extend from our unit on finding similarities in text.

Writing: Students will be learning how to write Public Service Announcements. This will tie in nicely to our units on Opinion and Informational Writing! They will be writing their own Public Service Announcements!

Phonics: This week we will be learning the “00” sound using the letters “oo,” “ew,” and  “ue” as in the words pool, threw and rule.

Science: We will be kicking off our unit on plants! I know we have some budding botanists in the class, so this should be fun for all!

S.T.E.M.: We will be creating our plant STEM project. Students will have to create a plant that has magical powers. This will be a STEM projects that incorporates writing and creativity!

Melissa

Math: This week I will assess adding to 100. Then, we will be focusing upon subtracting within 100 and beyond. As always, please review math facts: addition and subtraction to 20 each night at home! It will help in everything we are doing and learning in math!

Reading: We will start learning about Point-of View while reading. This will focus upon who is telling the story and what effect this has upon the details and essence of the story. This will be incorporated into their reading logs.

Writing: Students will be writing persuasive pieces this week. We will also continue working with verbs, subject/verb agreement and verb tenses (past, present and future).

Phonics: We will be working on the “or” sound by using the letters, or/oar/ore/ such as in the words “sport,” “board,” and “score.”

Social Studies: We will be culminating our Harriet Tubman unit and there will be an assessment this week.

S.T.E.M.: Students loved building their cup structures. We were able to incorporate measurement through estimation and actual measurement using non-standard units of measurment. We also ordered their structures from smallest to largest. They are working so well collaboratively, through creativity and communication. Their critical thinking skills are really developing as well and students were able to deduce what strategies produced better results. This week we will kick off our plants STEM activity which will fit nicely into our plants unit that we are starting next week.

Melissa

Math: We will continue learning how to add and subtract to 100 by using 10’s and 1’s. For example, 60+27=87. We will also be solving word problems using these skills. We will begin to regroup as well, i.e. 27+8=35

Reading: We will continue working on our ability to compare and contrast characters and their experiences. We  use the word, “contrast” for differences and “compare” for similarities. They will be able to practice this skill in their reading logs this week, as well!

Writing: We will continue writing about opinions and will also start to learn about verbs, as well as subject/verb agreement.

Phonics: We will be working on the “er” by using the letters, ir/er/ur as in “turn,” “bird,” and “serve.” Students may have a little more trouble with this this week, discerning which letter combinations to use.

Social Studies: We will be learning all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.

S.T.E.M.: Students were introduced to our new S.T.E.M. challenge, designing a structure. They were able to select their group members and select a strategy for their design. Many of them started to design their models as well. This week we will be building these structures, estimating their height, measuring them with a non-standard unit of measurement, as well as comparing the sizes of the structures.

Melissa