Week of December 11-15

Hello Families,

This week we started doing announcements for the school. Some students were nervous (and understandably so!), but I could see they all felt a huge sense of pride after they were finished! If your child feels anxious about doing the announcements, just let me know and I can send home what they'll be saying so they can practice at home.

We talked a lot this week about what a good partner and group member looks like, sounds like, and feels like. I have noticed our talking in partnerships has been much more focused and purposeful! Students have also commented that our turn and talk time feels so much better as well. :)

It was great seeing families for our Pizza, PJ's and Publishing Family Night! Our students...I mean YouTubers...got a chance to teach their viewers what they've been writing about and leave some compliments for their classmates.

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 4.
• As it starts to get chilly and snowy outside, please remind your child that they need to have their winter gear of hats, mittens, snow pants, and boots!
• Half birthdays are starting to come up for those students with summer birthdays. We do celebrate half birthdays! If your child's birthday is during the summer months, feel free to bring in a half birthday snack if you'd like. 

Upcoming Events

December 12: NO SCHOOL
December 13: Holiday Wear
December 21: Pajama Day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL Winter Break! :)

Curriculum Update

Math: We finished up Unit 2 this week and took the Unit 2 test. Next week, we will fix up our incorrect answers on our test so we can learn from our mistakes! We'll also begin Unit 3, which focuses on place value, rounding, and addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers. We will work to understand place value next week by making drawings of numbers (representing ones, tens, and hundreds), identifying each digit, and understanding place value in word problems. A letter should be going home today with your student explaining more about the kind of work they will be doing in Unit 3 so families can understand this too! :)

Writing: Students were excited to see how many compliments they got on their writing after Family Night! We have been working hard to elaborate on our information writing by adding ideas and facts and connecting our paragraphs and chapters by adding transition words. Next week, we will work on our introductions, conclusions, and adding expert words. We will also be spending time with a partner to help understand where our writing gets confusing and what we can do to clear up that confusion.

Word Study: This week we continued to learn more about suffixes and practiced building words with suffixes. We also talked about how the suffix -ed can make three different sounds: /d/, /id/, or /t/. Next week, we'll go over some more vowel teams (ou, oo, ue, ew) and practice correctly spelling words as we write them in a sentence. 

Reading: This past week we really dug into note taking the main idea of a chunk and chapter of a book and finding the key details that support that main idea. This is tricky but important work. Students are doing a nice job at trying it out. This next week we are starting to think about the authors purpose and perspective of nonfiction texts. We will also talking about how WE can grow our own ideas when reading nonfiction. Remember students should be reading independently at home in their fiction books. Nonfiction can be extra if they'd like! :)

*Scholastic book orders are due December 13. If you would like a gift for the holidays and want it private please let me know and we can work something out. kabarac@kaukaunasd.org

Content: We completed our world maps by adding in some rivers. We also focused on close reading an article about Australia. Close reading is when we look closely and thoughtfully at a text to find evidence of main ideas and key details to help us understand more about the text, like why the author decided to write it or what ideas we have now. Next week, we will begin our centers where students will work in groups to learn more about the world through maps, modeling, statistics, images, reading, and video.



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny