Classroom Update - Week of August 19th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• Tomorrow, your child will be bringing home their data notebooks. It will include their first EL assessment in it. Please review this assessment with your child and sign the data wall sheet at the beginning of the Quarter 1 EL tab. These assessments must be left in your child's binder until the end of the year.

• The Go Play Save School Fundraiser is still going on. Please return forms and/or books by this Friday, August 23rd. Thank you to the families who have participated, so far!

• Forms are going home in Tuesday Folders tomorrow regarding School Pictures from Strawbridge. Track 4 students will have their picture taken (these pictures are for the yearbook) on Wednesday, August 28th. These photos must be prepaid. Retakes will be offered for those interested in November.

• Ident-a-Kid for Track Four will be held on Friday, August 30th. Paperwork will follow soon.

• If you have not signed up for the Remind App, please do so. I will be using this site to communicate and share classroom happenings regularly, so I really hope everyone takes the opportunity to join.

• ​To join send a text message to the number 81010 and type @mrsbrackes in the message space.

• If you are having trouble with this, let me know I can send a message to your cell phone number.

• Is your child interested in participating in CLUBS at Morrisville? Well, if so, please make sure to check out the clubs page on the MES website. Many of the clubs require your child to fill out an application digitally and many of the application dates are quickly approaching.

• Quarter 1 Interims will go home on Tuesday, August 27th.

• Labor Day is Monday, September 2nd. There will be no school that day.

• Track Out Day for Quarter One is Friday, September 27th.

• Mark your calendars for Fall Festival. It will be held on Friday, September 27th from 6-9PM. A flyer with more information will be sent home in Tuesday Folders, tomorrow.

E.L. Education:

Today the students worked on their end of unit assessment in literacy. This assessment had two components, one focused on their ability to participate verbally in a discussion group and the second portion was written that focused on the how Jack (the main character)'s view on poetry has changed over time. This week the students will finish reading the book, Love That Dog and they will focus on analyzing the things and the people (poets) that inspired Jack to write poetry. They will be choosing one of the poets that inspired Jack to focus on and eventually construct an informational essay that provides proof to how and why that poet inspired him.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Continue to 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.

Math:

This week in math, the students will continue to work on understanding the difference between a factor and multiple and being able to identify whether a number is prime or composite. They will spend Thursday reviewing multiplicative comparisons and factors, multiples, prime, and composite numbers in preparation for their assessment on Friday.

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 split into groups to learn more about the piedmont and mountain regions of North Carolina and how they were settled. This is in preparation for a discussion circle that they will have on Wednesday. Later in the week, they will learn more about some of the wars that are a part of North Carolina's history. This week they will be focusing on the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War. The students will be expected to understand who fought in these wars, what they we fighting for and who won the war. We will also be covering the role that North Carolina and its citizens played in these wars. There are some great videos on Discovery Education that we will be viewing in class to further illustrate these topics.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

Discuss with your child the following questions:

• What was life like for settlers in the Coastal, Piedmont, and Mountain regions?

• How were their lives similar and different?

• Tell me about the French & Indian War. Who fought in it? What were they fighting for? Who won?

• Tell me about the Revolutionary War. Who fought in it? What were they fighting for? Who won?