Fall is in the air! Beautiful, colorful, crisp autumn. This is my absolute favorite time of year.
I am thankful for all the different seasons, but the beauty of fall is my favorite. I love pulling on a pair of jeans, feeling the warmth of a cozy sweatshirt and heading out! Whether I'm running errands or taking a leisurely walk with my dog, I appreciate the warm sun and cool air all around me. I call the changing weather of fall, "sweater weather" and it's the best. Thanksgiving falls at the end of "sweater weather" with the simple message of giving thanks. We are all blessed to be a part of the May Watts community and it's common goal of putting kids first. Together we really do make a difference.
Here is what's happening in 3- BA through the Thanksgiving break:
Citizenship- The Cool Tool this week is being thankful. The students of May Watts have many things to be thankful for. This is a perfect time of year to remind ourselves of just how fortunate we are. Students will be reminded to say "thank you" and appreciate every kindness that comes their way. I would like to take the time to thank you all for your support and generosity. I heard many positive comments during conferences and I truly enjoyed getting a chance to share in the joy of your children.
Reading - The students seem to be thoroughly enjoying our unit on Chris Van Allsburg. This week we continue with his books begining with reading The Stranger. I absolutely love this book because it really gets the kids thinking ---who is the stranger? It's the perfect book to discuss the reading strategy of making inferences. We will examine how we make predictions and draw conclusions based on what the author doesn't say! Students will be encouraged to use the text and what they already know (prior knowledge) to form an opinion about the text. Who is this young man who doesn't speak and seems so comfortable with the animals? Where will your mind take you! Reading is thinking and this book is superb. Check out more of Chris's books on my Shelfari page. We will also read The Sweetest Fig and continue to ask questions and infer meaning. The two days before the break, we will finish up our study of Van Allsburg books and the students will watch his books come to life in videos.
FYI - I found this absolutely awesome web site if you are looking for a good book for either yourself or your children. It's called the Lazy Readers' Book Club. The site has a complete listing of children's books as well as young adult and adult books. I spent way too much time the other day reading the book reviews. Also, the site takes you directly to Amazon to purchase the book. The site supports a non-profit organization called Book- Ends which supports children's literacy. Just find a good review - buy the book and make a donation to support literacy. Sounds like a winning combination to me. Lazy Readers' Club
Spelling: The spelling pattern this week is the /ou/ with the pattern being ou and ow words. The Test is Friday November, 19th. the spelling menu is due on Friday as well. Here are the words for the week.
There is no spelling test Thanksgiving week.
Base List #10 - crown, proud, however, count, crowded, around, south, loud, house, shouted, howl, growl, bounce, fountain, sound
Alternate List #10 - crouch, sour, pounded, found, around, plow, frown, growled, houses, allowance, meow, chow, brownish, bouncing, towel
Bonus word - Thanksgiving
Writing - The students are working hard on their letter writing unit. We discussed persuasion this past week and now they are ready to write. This week they will write letters convincing their parents of something! Be forewarned parents - they can be pretty darn persuasive. The short week we will finish our letter writing unit with the students writing a persuasive letter from a turkey's point-of-view about the traditional Thanksgiving menu and how it's time to change up the main course --- a burger maybe? The students have a great time sharing their turkey writing. Finally, in conjunction with our citizenship Cool Tool of the Week of being thankful, the students will write letters to the May Watts staff thanking them for all they do. After the Thanksgiving break we will start exploring narrative writing.
Grammar - We will be discussing the "NYMS" - synonyms, antonyms and homonyms that is!
Synonym = words that have similar or same meanings (small = tiny, little, wee)
Antonym= the opposite meaning of a word (small = big)
Homonyms= words that look alike, sound alike (or both) but have a different meaning (sea, see)
Math - We began unit 4 which focuses on multiplication and division number stories. This week, we will focus on multiplication/division fact families focusing on the 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's. The students are excited to learn they can multiply and divide these easy facts. The study guide went home Friday and is due on Wed., November 17th. The Unit 4 test will be Thursday, November 18th.
Accelerated Math- Unit 4 focuses on mainly decimals. We will begin unit 4 by learning decimal place value and basic concepts about decimals. In the next week we will also compare and order decimals and estimate with decimals. The students will also be adding and subtracting decimals to compute balances in a savings account.(money).
Current Events - This Friday's News teams are :
News Team #1 News Team #2
Anchor –Brian Anchor – Adira
Book – Keanu Book – Michael
Commercial – Ryan M. Commercial – Anthony
Food – Keilah Food- Ishaan
Movie- Samhitha Movie- Rose
Sports – Shaswat Sports - Sydney
Science - Last week we started our new unit on Simple Machines. The students learned the scientific definition of work: Work = Force ( push, pull or lift) applied to an object to move it over a distance. We will begin to study the six common simple machines; lever, pulley, wheel and axle, screw, wedge and inclined plane. I added some Simple Machine sites to the blog.
Thanksgiving: (noun)
1. the act of giving thanks 2. a prayer expressing gratitude
3. a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine
goodness
For me, Thanksgiving is food, family, football, fun and giving thanks for the many blessings in my life. I hope your holiday is everything you want it to be. Enjoy the time off, relax and most of all, cherish the gift of your children. Enjoy the new Thanksgiving links :) I will update after the holiday.
"Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude."
~E.P. Powell
