Week 31
What a fun week at CJDS! On Wednesday, we visited the South County Regional Library. The students took a behind the scenes tour of the library and saw how the librarians sort, file, organize, and shelve resources. Mrs. Sandy read the students a story and then they had the chance to check out nonfiction books. I will be returning books to the library next Friday, April 7th and I am happy to return your child’s as well!
We love reading our library books!
On Thursday, our Judaica teachers planned a fabulous “Pesach Day!” The students heard Passover stories, played Matza Bingo, and made charosets from many different countries! We ended our day by singing Pesach songs with Morah Donna.
Reading
Does your child know how to Use the Clues? This week, we worked on using the context clues in a text to determine the meaning of unknown words. The students learned that context clues might not be in the same sentence as the difficult word, but instead they may have to think about what is going on in the context of the story at that time. For example, in our chapter book, The Secret School, the teacher was very sad about leaving her students. Using what we knew from the story, we figured out that the word reluctant meant not wanting to do something or doing something sadly. The students were able to Use the Clues to determine the meanings of words in fiction and nonfiction stories they read throughout the week.
This week the students continued practicing reading words containing the vowel pairs- oi and oy. We also worked on dropping the final “e” on long vowel words like “shape” before adding “ed” or “ing,” and doubling the final consonant on the end of short vowel words like “spin” before adding “ed” or “ing.” We will continue these skills next week!
Vocabulary
The students read a nonfiction magazine article this week on exploring the outdoors and a “how-to” piece on growing an avocado plant. From these two texts we studied the words: Alarm, collect, damp, insect, plant, safe, scatter, soil, team, and tool. Next week, the students will read a magazine article on Yellowstone National Park and study the words: Dive, enemy, frighten, herd, pack, prove, seal, smooth, soar, and steady.
Writing
This week the students continued working on their life cycle research projects. They finished taking notes from nonfiction sources and made sure the notes were in their own words. The students began crafting introduction paragraphs that grabbed their readers’ attention and explained what information they would be sharing in their reports. Next week, the students will write the “body” paragraphs of their reports that give information on each stage of the life cycle.
Math
We continued our measurement unit this week by studying perimeter. The students learned how to find the perimeter, or border, of an object by adding up each side’s length. We have been working with inches, yards, miles, meters, millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, and kilometers. Next week, we will practiced adding up mileage, continue studying capacity, and learn about area or the amount of space a shape covers.
One more week until Pesach! 🙂
