Weekly Update: April 15th-19th

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

I hope all enjoying your weekend, with the sun peeking through the clouds a little more. We now have a 6 year old in our house as we celebrated Carson's birthday on the 15th. We also ventured to Planet X with Carson and five of his friends (and little brother,Mason), they were a whirlwind and made me exhausted just watching them:)

Field Trip News:

We are excited to share news with you that the 3rd grade will be taking a field trip to Kent Park on Wednesday, May 8th! In preparation for the field trip, we are asking for interest in being a parent volunteer. The time commitment would be from 9:00am to 2:30pm. We are looking for 2-3 adults who would be willing to supervise a fishing rotation as part of the field trip. These volunteers would stay at the pond for the entire day. Participants would need to know how to fish, teach students to cast and reel, and also be willing to put worms on hooks and take fish off the hook if they catch something!These people do not need to bring any materials, they just need to enjoy fishing! Our supervisor at the site will give them instructions on how and what to teach the kids. Thank you in advance and please contact us if you have any questions or concerns!

Reading: Students read about Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. Students used this text and others to determine the difference between fact and opinion. Students looked for signal words such as feel, think, believe to identify opinions. We also learned that authors do not always use these signal words when writing opinions so we also focused on this question:Is this someone's thought, belief, or feeling?

I will be continuing to complete my reading assessments this week.

Spelling: The spelling pattern for this week focused on words with ough like in the words; rough and brought. They also had the pattern augh like in the words; laugh and daughter.

Math: Students learned how to solve multiplication problems using the lattice method. Here is example below:

Use this Everyday Mathematics online link to take you through the steps. You may have to use you child's login and password.

https://media.everydaymathonline.com/em/student/algorithms_in_everyday_mathematics/3/multiplication/lattice_multiplication/online_resources/2-Digit_times_2-Digit_Example_1/M4_C01_P019_F2.swf

Social Studies: Below are the pictures from our monuments. Students did a great job explaining the importance of each individual and the positive impact they had on our world.

This monument was in honor of Lois Marie Gibbs who fought to keep the environment clean and people safe from pollution.

This monument was dedicated to Ruby Bridges who was the first African American to attend an all white school.

 This monument was dedicated to Judy Heumann who fought for the rights of individuals with disabilities.

 This monument was dedicated to Cedar Chavez who fought to protect farm laborers.



Weekly Update: April 8th-12th

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. We had a great week at school, the students especially enjoyed Wednesday with their "Read and Feed" and a visit to Mrs. Wilson's classroom to play math games with the

Kindergarteners. I enjoyed watching their interactions, being helpful and setting a positive example for them. We even got to be a little silly as we danced with them before we went back to our classroom.

Reading:I have begun my reading assessments with the students and will continue these into the next week or so. This week students read about the many uses of magnets. Students read The Power of Magnets and focused on finding examples of cause and effect relationships. During small groups, students got a chance to explore magnets that their classmates had brought in to share.



Spelling: Our spelling pattern this week focused on two syllable words with double consonants. We noticed that the words could be split between the double consonants. Students also sorted the words into the following categories: words with double l, words with double t, words with double r, and words with other double consonants.

Math: This week in math we reviewed the partial products method, practiced multiplying decimals, and identified factors of given numbers. We noticed that some whole numbers only have two factors (one and itself), while others have many. Students should be practicing their fact triangles daily at home.

Social Studies: Students have been working in small groups to learn about the following individuals: Cesar Chavez, Ruby Bridges, Judy Huemann, Lois Marie. Students are creating their own human monuments to display the positive impact they had on our community. Students will present their human monuments on Monday. I will post pics next week.

 

Donations:

Thanks so much for the boxes of Kleenex and pencil sharpeners, they were greatly appreciated. We are still in need of some pencils to get us through the rest of the year if you could spare some. Thanks so much for your continued support, I appreciate it!

Weekly Update: April 1st-5th

Lemme

Leopards

Dear Parents,

I hope you are enjoying this weather as much as I am. I was able to enjoy a run outside which was long overdue. The boys and I also played basketball outside and went for a bike ride. I am hoping this great weather continues.

***This Wednesday, we are going to have a read and feed. Students may bring a snack and drink of their choice.

Reading: Unit 6 focused on a variety of texts including, The Foot Race Across America, Paca and the Beetle, and other short texts. The students made the connection across texts that it takes hard work to reach a goal. Students also practiced identifying the main idea and details within texts.  

Spelling: The spelling words for the next five weeks are review from past weeks. Our spelling pattern this past week had the VCCV pattern (vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel). Students practiced dividing the spelling words between the syllables which they noticed was between the two consonants. We also sorted them into two categories; vowel + r sounds in the first syllable and short vowel sound in the 1st syllable.



Math: In Unit 9, students will focus on three different algorithms to solve multiplication problems. Students will learn standard (traditional), partial products, and the lattice method. Students will practice each of the algorithms, but ultimately choose the one that works the best for them.We have practiced the partial products method so far, here is an example how to use the algorithm.

Ex.            57               Estimate: 60 x 5=300
              x  5
50 x 5=    250
5 x 5=   +_35
               285

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We would love if you could donate any pencils sharpeners to our classroom. We are also down to a couple boxes of Kleenex if you have any to spare. Thanks in advance:)