Last week in January

      This week we will continue our work with mysteries. The students have done some excellent work identifying suspects, writing about clues and attempting to solve the mysteries before the detectives. We have been reading a Nancy Drew mystery together as a class. It has provided a more complex example of a mystery. We have also begun to work on answering some more detailed comprehension questions. This has given me an opportunity to teach the class some tricks for taking a test.

     We are working on division in math. This week we will be working on different types of word problems that can be solved using both division and multiplication. We will spend time talking about relating multiplication to division. It is very important that you are practicing math facts as often as possible.

      We have completed our realistic fiction unit in writing and we have just started an informational writing unit. The students will be writing about a topic they are experts on. The students will need to make a final decision on their topic by Wednesday. We will begin our work by looking at mentor texts and exploring different organization techniques.

      The students were very excited to learn that we will begin a Solar System unit in science. We brainstormed a list of facts we know about the Solar System today. By the end of the week we will begin an in-school research project.

    This week, I will send home our latest math test to be corrected and signed. Please return this to school by Friday. Current events this moth is optional. Many students have already signed up to present! Finally, a letter about our Valentine's Day celebration will be sent home this week, with the names of all the students in the class.

4 day week

    We will be very busy this week. In reading, we are working on a mystery unit. We have read a mystery together and each student is reading a mystery in his/her book group. Our work centers around the structure of a mystery, as well as key vocabulary like detective, theory, motivation and clues. This week we will try to imagine ourselves as the detective and discuss the role of a sidekick.
   In writing, we will complete our realistic fiction unit and begin an informational writing unit. During this unit students will be writing to inform the reader on a topic of their choice. It would be very helpful if you and your child could discuss possible topics at home. The topic should be something your child is an expert on and can write about with minimal research.
    In math, we will begin to explore division. Please continue to practice multiplication facts at home. We will also be looking at the clock and reviewing how to tell time to the half hour, quarter hour, and the minute. You will see a mix of these math concepts for homework this week.
    In word work, we will be exploring prefixes, suffixes and root words. Also, this week is the unit review for spelling, so we do not have spelling homework. In Social Studies we are finishing a travel brochure about modern day Egypt.