March 5, 2021

Reading and Science

This week, students practiced how to understand the sequence of events in stories and nonfiction pieces. They did an excellent job noticing sequencing or transitional words like next, finally, meanwhile, and that evening. Our current science unit on life cycles fit in perfectly with our reading skill. We studied the life cycles of pandas and frogs and observed the sequence of events as they grew older. The students were surprised (and a little sad) that pandas leave their mothers to find their own territories when they are only two years old!

Next week, the students will learn to recognize cause and effect relationships in the passages and books they read. We will continue to study the life cycles of various plants, animals, and insects as well! Ask your child if their bean plant is still growing! Some of them have sprouted stems and leaves.

Writing

The students picked new story topics this week and many of them have begun planning and writing their stories. The students are focusing on the writing trait of choosing stronger words for their writing. They are looking for places in their work where they can include sensory details like what they see, smell, hear, taste, touch, think, and feel!

Spelling

This week the students practiced putting words into the past tense by dropping the “y” and adding “ied” to the end of the word. Next week, the students will learn that when you put a short vowel word into the past tense you double the ending then add “ed”, like in the words scrubbed, planned, and hopped.

Math

Over the past two weeks, the students played “Basketball addition.” This game required the students to add groups of numbers together. We talked about how with adding, you don’t have to keep the numbers in order, but instead, you can look for the easiest way to add them up! For example, if you’re adding 4 + 3 + 6 + 7 + 8, you can look for the numbers that will add up to ten and add them first. So, 4 + 6 = 10 and 3 + 7 = 10. Then you have 10 + 10 + 8, which is a much easier problem!

The students have also practiced doubling and halving numbers and writing multiplication story problems. Next week, the students will practice measuring items to the closest centimeter and inch by rounding up or down to the nearest number. They will also continue to practice two-digit subtraction and work on graphing data.