Author Visit - This week the students will have the special treat of meeting Bryan Chick the author of the book The Secret Zoo
The story is about a brother and sister who live next to a zoo. One night the sister mysteriously disappears leaving behind only a few pages from her dairy as clues. The brother Noah and his friends, The Adventure Scouts, set out on a mission to rescue her. They become friends with a group of zoo animals who claim to know what happened to her. The animals lead them through a secret entrance into a fantasy land called the City of Species, where animals and humans live alongside each other. This book, which is the first of a series, is a fast-paced mix of mystery and fantasy. There is enough action and suspense to keep the most reluctant reader entertained while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of friendship and teamwork. It promises to be the beginning of a popular series --School Library Journal
I will be begin to read the book as a read aloud in class to get the students excited about the visit and the book:)
Citizenship- This week we are going to review playground safety. The students will be reminded how to use the equipment properly, correct swing etiquette and why it's important not to run on the blacktop. Recess is about releasing some energy and having fun, not getting hurt.
Reading - This week we will read the story I'm in Charge of Celebrations by Bryd Baylor. This story is actually a poem a girl shares about her love of desert life. She tells of her experiences like dancing in the wind on Dust Devil Day and sleeping outside on a hot summer's night during the time of The Falling Stars. We will revisit the strategy of creating mental images and discuss how authors use text and pictures to create vivid images in our minds. There will be a quiz on the story Thursday, April 7th.
Vocabulary - admiring, choosy, average, signal, tracks, celebrations
Biographies - Next week we will start a 3-week unit on biographies. The students will be choosing a famous person to research. Mrs. May will be giving a lesson on how to research in the LMC and the computer lab. Once the students have gathered all their research, they will be creating cereal boxes to advertise their famous person. After they have designed and completed their cereal box, they will give an oral report telling the class what they learned about their famous person. More information will come next week, however, start eating lots of cereal now because...
Each student will need to bring in a empty, regular size cereal box by April 15th.
If you can send in an extra box that would be great. There are always a few who forget or a family that doesn't eat cereal. Below is an example of the project.
Writing- The students have been slow about finishing their make-believe stories. There will not be anymore class time to work on these stories. If a student is not finished, he or she will have to finish it at home for homework. All stories will be due no later than Friday, April 8th. We will continue our unit on expository 4-square writing over the next two weeks. Students will be assessed on two multi-paragraph papers. The first will be on why _____(student chooses) is a great season and the second will be on their favorite place. From there we will move into "How-to" writing.
Spelling - The pattern this week is vowel, consonant, vowel words. In this pattern, the first vowel has a long sound and the second vowel has a short sound. The spelling test will be Friday, April 8th and the spelling menu will be due on Friday also. I have added all the spelling lists through the end of the year to Spelling City. This week is list #23.
List #23 Base - belong, hotel, focus, miner, pupil, begin, music, future, behind, tiger, become, motel, baker, cabin, ocean
List #23 Alternate- spiders, locate, silent, motivate, majority, copilot, adore, record, lotion, laser, beautiful, humorous, kilometers, basically, difference
Bonus = banana
Math -
We will be starting Unit 9 on multiplication. We start the unit solving number stories which involve multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000. Then we move into multiplying two-digit by one digit numbers using the partial products algorithm. This method of multiplication is different from the way you and I learned in school. The algorithm is designed to help students understand the process of multiplication. Throughout the unit, the students will be taught how to use partial product multiplication, lattice multiplication and standard multiplication.Once they understand the different ways to multiply, they may choose whichever method they prefer. Below are a couple short tutorials on partial products to help you understand the process a little better.
Science - The mobiles are mostly finished and they look amazing! The students worked very hard on these and it shows. We are almost finished hearing the rain forest animal presentations and are about ready to start our new science unit on the moon. We will start by learning about the physical characteristics of the moon and how the surface compares to the earth and the sun. Then we will move on to space explorations and astronauts. Finally, we will conclude the unit by exploring the 8 phases of the moon and discussing how the moon rotates and revolves. Check out all the moon links on the left side of the blog.
Current Events - News stories are due Friday, April 8th. This week's reporters are
Team #1 Team #2
Anchor –Rutika Anchor – Jimmy
Book – Ethan Book – Mikenna
Commercial – Abdullah Commercial – Nadia
Food – Annika Food- Penelope
Movie- John Movie- Emily
Sports – Jack Sports – Yamini
" May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door"
~Irish Blessing~
