Reading: Students are now expected to read 25 minutes (or more) each night. Also, we have a new format for our reading log. After reading, we are asking our students to write a 2-3 sentence summary about the main idea of their reading. This is a thoughtful exercise that will cause students to reflect on their reading in a new way.
Science: We continue to work on rocks and minerals. We will review the rock cycle and the various types of rocks. New work will be about the Mohs Hardness test which helps to classify rocks. Also, we will think more about materials engineering and will take a close look at twill and terry cloth.
Writing: Our new unit on opinion writing will focus on book reviews. We will work on the format and organization of how to write a strong book review that expresses your thoughtful opinion about the book.
Word Study: In addition to our word sort work in spelling, we will begin to have 6 high-frequency words for the students to learn each week. These words will be on the Word Sort test each Friday. You can find these words in your child's agenda. Also in word study, we will begin a unit on verbs. It is essential that students can identify helping, action, and state-of-being verbs in order to understand how sentences work.
Math: Multiple Tower and Division Stories assessments and student activity books were sent home on Monday. After a few days of review, we will take our mid-year assessment. Next Monday, January 14 we will begin our unit on fractions and decimals.
Upcoming Dates:
Progress reports for Trimester 2 : January 18
Class Wax Museum: March 1
Student-Led Spring Conferences: March 4 & 5
Earthshine - March 13-15 (Yes, it's sleep-away!)
