Classroom Update - Week of August 26th

Upcoming Events / Reminders:

• Tomorrow, your child will be bringing home their data notebooks. These assessments must be left in your child's binder until the end of the year.

• Yearbook School Pictures from Strawbridge will be taken 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 be sent home tomorrow in Tuesday folders.

• Quarter 1 Interims will go home on Friday, August 30th. In future quarters, they will be sent home in Tuesday folders.

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

• Guest Illustrator, Christopher Eliopoulos, the illustrator of the Ordinary People Change the World series, will be visiting MES on September 12th for 3rd and 4th grade students! If you would like to order one of his books, an order form will be going home in Tuesday Folders this week.

• 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:

This week the students will be working on formulating strong informational paragraphs on a given prompt. The students will specifically focus on what inspires writers to write poetry. They will first focus on the poet, William Carlos Williams as a class and then choose from one of the poets that they learned about in Love That Dog to to study more in depth. The poets they can choose from are Robert Frost, Valerie Worth, and Walter Dean Myers.

Working to become an effective learner is the habit of character emphasized in this unit. These are the specific effective learning skills students will focus on:

• I take initiative. This means I see what needs to be done and take the lead on making responsible decisions.

• I take responsibility. This means I take ownership of my ideas, my work, my goals, and my actions.

• I persevere. This means I challenge myself. When something is difficult or demanding, I keep trying and ask for help.

• I collaborate. This means I work effectively with others.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Ask your child to share with you some of the things that they have learned about the poet William Carlos Williams and what we as a class discussed inspired him to write.

• Have your child tell you (later in the week) about which poet they chose to study further. Have them tell you why they chose him/her and explain what research they are finding about this person and possible things or people that might have inspired them.

Math:

This week in math, the students will work on solving problems involving fixed areas and fixed perimeters. Later this week, they will apply their knowledge of area and perimeter to solve word problems. A large focus has been placed on students drawing out rectangles and labeling them properly to show their work. We have also used square inch tiles, to allow students to physically build these figures. An emphasis has also been placed on solving area and perimeter word problems that contain multiplicative comparisons. Please see some examples below to further help your child at home. The use of manipulatives is very appropriate at this stage of learning, but it is also important for your child to learn how to apply the taught formulas to solving these types of problems.

• Area = length x width

• Perimeter = length + length + width + width

How to Help Your Child at Home: ​

Here are some word problems that you can ask your child at home to further support their learning in school:

• A rectangle is 5 times as long as it is wide. It is 6 inches wide. What is the area of the rectangle. Draw a sketch to show this.

• A rectangle has a length of 24 inches. That is 6 times longer than its width. What is the width? What is the area?

• A rectangle has an area of 48 square inches. It length is 3 times its width. What are its dimensions?

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies the students will learn more about some of the wars that are a part of North Carolina's history. They will be focusing on the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil 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. The students will start Science with Ms. Wade on Friday, August 30th.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

Discuss with your child the following questions:

• 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?

• Tell me about the Civil 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?