Thanks for checking our December “newsletter”! It has been a busy couple of months and time is sure flying fast. Keep up-to-date on what is going on in our classrooms by checking out below. Also take a look at the important dates for this month. As always, feel free to leave us a comment, bookmark us, and add us to your feeds.
Check out these important dates:
December
4-6: Predictive Testing (Math)
5: Photo Make-ups
5-7: Holiday Book Sale
11: New Extended Day begins
12: Pajama Day!
24 - Jan. 1: Winter Recess
Here’s what we’re working on in our classrooms:
Mathematics
We are moving forward in Investigations. Unit 2, Describing the Shape of the Data, has been wrapped up and we are now moving into our second multiplication unit, Multiple Towers and Division Stories. This unit contains four investigations. Students will revisit multiplication facts and increase their fluency as we begin breaking apart double-digit multiplication by place value. We ask you continue to help them practice their multiplication facts as much as possible. These facts will help them grasp the relationships within more difficult numbers as well as division concepts. If your child already knows his/her facts by heart, please challenge them to write about a strategy or pattern they notice in the day’s work. We are stressing vocabulary and effective communication in class to help students speak (and write) like mathematician… and they can never have too much practice.
Reading, Writing & Social Studies “Mega-unit”!
After our Following Characters Into Meaning reading unit and our Realistic Fiction writing unit, we will embark upon an exciting integrated unit that combines non-fiction reading and writing with our next social studies unit, Three Worlds Meet: Natives/Explorers/Slaves. In this colossal unit, students will learn how to read expository, narrative non-fiction, and hybrid texts as research sources while learning the history of New York. Students will study the ways in which authors convey information, comparing various styles and their effectiveness. Using what they learn about good informational writing, they will choose a research focus and practice note taking from of a variety of sources. They will then use this research to create a non-fiction writing piece that gives them a foundation of structure and organization, quoting and paraphrasing from a source, using text features to tuck in more information, and incorporating content-specific vocabulary in their writing.
