Classroom Update - Week of August 13th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• The Go Play Save School Fundraiser started last week. Please return forms and books by August 24th. Thank you to the families who have participated, so far!

• Friday, August 17th is an Early Release Day. School will be dismissed at 1:15PM. Please complete this Google Form to let me know how your child will be dismissing.

• Check out the clubs on the MES webpage. There are many new ones that are being offered this year and new ones being added.

• Forms will be going home in Friday Folders this week regarding School Pictures from Strawbridge. Track 4 students will have their picture taken (these pictures are for the yearbook) on Monday, August 27th.

• Labor Day is Monday, September 3rd. There will be no school that day.

• Friday, September 28th is an Early Release Day. School will be dismissed at 1:15PM

• Track Out Day for Quarter One is Friday, September 28th.

E.L. Education:

Today the students worked on their mid-unit assessment in literacy. They had to compare and contrast poetry vs. prose, determine a poem's structure, and theme and then write a complete summary using the provided checklist. For the rest of this week, the students will continue to analyze what is happening in the book, Love that Dog and how Jack feels about it. They will also continue to identify the characteristics of famous poems like, "Street Music," "The Apple," and "Love that Boy" and start to gather information on how those poets have inspired Jack's writing. On Friday, the students will take their end of the unit assessment. It will primarily center around a text based discussion with peers and as well as a written component.

Poetic Terms to Remember:

• Structure: how the poem is organized

• Rhyme/Meter: whether the poem rhymes and the rhythm or beat

• Imagery: words and phrases an author uses to help the reader imagine with the senses - sight, sound, taste, touch and smell

• Repetition: repeated words and phrases

• Prose: the ordinary form of written or spoken language. It has no meter, pattern or rhyme to it.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Read poetry aloud with your student and invite him or her to find poems or a poet that he or she particularly likes.

• Help your student practice reading aloud fluently and accurately.

• Talk to your student about the meaning of the poems he or she is reading and what inspired the poet. Encourage your student to find evidence of that inspiration in the poems.

• Have your child turn a favorite poem into prose (see definition above)

• Have your child practice summarizing a poem that they read (A summary must include the title, author, details that tell what it is about, and identify the theme with support from the text).

Math:

This week in math, the students will continue to work on additive and multiplicative comparisons. They will be using visual models like math mountains, number lines, and comparison bars to help them in solving their word problems. Then, later in the week, the students will work on understanding the difference between a factor and multiple and being able to identify whether a number is prime or composite. Below are some helpful vocabulary that your child should know for this unit:

Important Math Vocabulary Words:

•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

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Ask your child to solve these multiplicative comparison problems:

• ​The giraffe is 20 feet tall, the kangaroo is 5 feet tall. The giraffe is how many times taller than the kangaroo?

• I have a piece of yarn that is 7 cm tall and Jim has a piece of yarn that is 5 times as long. How long is Jim's piece of yarn?

• 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?

Social Studies:

This week, in Social Studies the students will continue to learn about economics by visiting the FTC's (Federal Trade Commission) website for kids. While at this virtual mall, the students will learn about how and why the FTC was created, the importance of competition in a market economy, all about mergers and monopolies, and how supply and demand are used to determine the price of a product. On Wednesday, the will be taking their Economics Vocabulary Quiz and then they will spend the remaining days of the week learning about budgets and the the importance of saving money. Later next week, probably Thursday, the students will take their end of unit test that will focus on the concepts that we have covered thus far. The students are welcome to take their notebooks home to study and will be allowed to refer and use them on the assessment.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Help them study the economics vocabulary words with them.

• Have them show you the FTC for Kids webpage and investigate the different areas of this mall together (we just focused on the food court area in class).

• Share with them how you create a budget for your household and help them create one for themselves at home, especially if they earn an allowance.