Classroom Update - Week of September 5th

Interims:

Interims went home today. Please review your child's interim report and sign and return it back to school by Friday. Also, please check your child's LIGHTHOUSE binder for new data in the quarter 1 section of the binder. Please initial your child's data wall when you have gone over the assessments to let me know that you have viewed them.

Updates / Reminders:

• Our first field trip to the North Carolina Symphony will be on Thursday, September 28th. Please have your child dress nicely for this event. They may bring clothes to change into once we return to school, if they would like.

• Our next early release day is Friday, September 29th. Students will dismiss at 1:15PM.

• Track Out Day is Friday, September 29th, however report cards will not go home until Friday, October 27th. Since we will be staying in the same classroom (Room 410) all year, there is no need to take home school supplies over track out.

• Mark your calendars for Morrisville's Annual Fall Festival! It will be held on Friday, September 29th.

• Monday, October 23rd is track in day.

Reader's Workshop:

This week in reading, the students will be reviewing the four major standards that we have covered thus far in reading: making inferences with fiction and nonfiction texts, summarizing, identifying the theme in fiction texts and finding the main idea in nonfiction texts. Students will either work in small groups to remediate this skill or for those who have shown mastery, they will move on to our next unit which will focus on empathizing with the characters in fiction texts. The students will work on this in small group novel studies.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What inferences can you make as you read? What evidence from the text supports that inference?

• What is the theme (lesson or message) of the book that you are reading? What evidence from the text supports this theme?

• Show me how you use a Brace Map to find the main idea and supporting details of nonfiction texts.

• How does the brace map help you in writing a summary of what you just read?

Writer's Workshop

This week in writing the students will finish their narrative by publishing it using Google Docs or pencil/paper (student choice). As the students finish, these narratives they will be utilizing the following revising/editing guidelines to make changes to their stories.

Important Questions to Consider When Revising Narratives:

• Whisper read your narrative aloud to yourself. Does it sound right? Do all parts make sense?

• Is your writing in logical order? You want to be sure that your story follows a sequence of events.

• Are there any unnecessary (so what) details? If so, get rid of them!

• Does your narrative paint a clear and vivid picture in the reader’s mind?

• Did you use interesting and juicy words in your writing?

• Do most of your sentences begin the same way? If so, how can you change them?

• Does your introduction draw the reader in?

• Does your conclusion seem complete?

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• How did you end your narrative? Does it seem complete?

• What do you plan on doing to improve your narrative?

• What type of feedback did you receive from your writing partner on how to make your paper stronger?

Math:

This week in math the students will continue their factoring unit that has them listing factors, finding multiples, and determining whether number 1-100 are prime or composite. It is important that with this unit of math, the students practice and are fluent with their multiplication fast facts. Therefore, if they do not know all of their facts yet, they should be studying a little each night. They will take their next math assessment on factoring next Monday, September 11th.

Important Math Vocabulary:

•Factor: one of two or more numbers multiplied to find a product

•Multiple: a number that is the product of the given number an integer

•Product: the answer to a multiplication problem

•Prime Number: a number that has exactly two factors, itself and one

•Composite Number: a number that has more than two factors

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What is the difference between a prime and a composite number?

• Can you tell me the factors of 32?

• What are the first twelve multiples of 6?

Science

This week, the students are observing the properties of rocks and minerals. Students will list their observations in their science notebooks. They will use the scratch test to examine the property of hardness and identify minerals. Then, we will talk about the special properties of the mineral calcite. Then, they will test rocks to determine if the mineral calcite is present in them.

Questions to Ask Your Child at Home:

• What are the properties of minerals?

• Can you give me an example of each? (For instance, luster is a property. A mineral's luster can be shiny, glassy, pearly, dull, metallic, etc.)