Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on January 5, 2015
Happy New Year! I hope your vacation was filled with good memories that last until next year. I was able to re-connect with friends and family, play my favorite video games, and yes, catch up on work!
Our reading comprehension focus this week is on Asking Questions and reading to look for answers. Now that the students are readers, their #1 job is to think while they are reading. Often though, we have to remind them that the important thing now is to take meaning from reading, and asking questions is essential to that task–and sometimes it needs to be taught. After your child reads a page/part/chapter of a homework book, ask: What questions did you have while you read that? Did the author answer them? Did you have to infer the answer or did the author just state it? What questions do you have now about what you read?
We continue to develop our young writers’ narrative writing skills by practicing how to stretch out a main event. Look over the “Recess” main event coming home today. These were done with teacher support and show the kind of writing we hope that students come to own. This week we will try writing stories of an event from this past vacation week, offering less support to give students opportunities to gain independence.
Our math work this week focuses on multiplication and division. The important ideas: multiplication means repeated addition of equal groups; multiplication sentences are a shorthand way of showing that; division is the process of arranging things into equal groups; division can also be thought of as subtracting equal groups; both multiplication and division can be used to make sense of and solve real-world problems. The web abounds with online games to practice both operations. This site is good for beginners, to build an understanding of combining equal groups: http://www.kidsnumbers.com/multiplication.php. A quick web search will return lots of others, and if students already have the concept they should try applying it with Greg Tang’s math games by following the link above.
Besides mapping, our Term 2 Social Studies focus is on learning character traits and applying that knowledge to understand famous U.S. and world figures and their contributions. What makes these historical leaders worth remembering? How did Lincoln’s honesty, Cesar Chavez’ determination, Harriet Tubman’s bravery, and Susan B. Anthony’s patriotism affect the lives of others and forever change our understanding of America? These are the kinds of questions we will attempt to answer by analyzing biographical texts and media. Here’s a bountiful and ever-growing resource of biographies for kids to keep the conversation alive at home: http://gardenofpraise.com/leaders.htm
I was overly ambitious in planning the week before vacation! This week we will engage in several investigations designed to help students understand how air can be compressed, and what outcomes that has on a system as a means of understanding the forces that affect air and weather. For super fun with air at home:http://www.superchargedscience.com/documents/Top%20Ten%20Air%20Pressure%20Experiments%20to%20Mystify%20Your%20Kids.pdf
