Weekly Update 10/18/13

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend!  We enjoyed the weekend by walking the neighborhood and enjoying the nice weather, visiting with friends, and making homemade applesauce.  It was a great fall weekend.  Many of your children had wonderful stories to tell as well!
*Important information:
Homework has been going well...students have been doing great with the reading response online!  I'm so impressed and told them so!  I know it can take awhile having them type or tell you what to type but by the end of the year they become pros at both responding and using the online format!  Continue monitoring your child's homework and assisting if needed.  However, if you do help, please write a note to let me know so I can review it again during the school day.

What's been happening this week?
In literacy, we've been working on making predictions as we read.  Making predictions before and during reading helps us understand the story line and characters better because we're thinking more about the text and what could happen next.  We've made predictions and evaluated whether they came true and why or why not.  During writing workshop, we've been working on editing and adding more. We used Jane Yolen's book Owl Moon, to observe writing skills she used to make the reader become engaged in the story and tried some of it in our own books.
Ask your child what "Thinking, talking, and feeling" means.
In math, we've been working on addition and subtraction fact families.  The better we know number combinations that go together, the more easier we can solve addition and subtraction equations.  The fact triangles that came home this week are a great way to practice!
Ask your child what the fact family for 4, 6, and 10 would be.
In social studies, we worked more on the continents and oceans and began a "Me on the Map" project.
On Friday, we started writing to our NY pen pals!  We are all very excited about this new adventure!  In the past, the students have been very engaged and really enjoyed this activity over the year.  They love learning about their pen pals and writing about themselves and what we're doing in our classroom!

Have a great weekend!