Ack News 1/31

ACK NEWS
 Week of January 31

HOMEWORK

Monday-Thursday  -Math sheet -Reading Response -Read 20 minutes -Words Their Way Monday--word sort.  Have your child sort their words and teach someone at home their pattern Tuesday--speed sort.  Time your child and see how fast they can correctly sort their words. See if they can beat their time. Wednesday--blind sort. Give your child their headings and read the words aloud individually so your child cannot see the word. They must tell you the appropriate heading it goes under. Thursday-- choice!  I have sent home a packet of all the homework guidelines. On the last page, there is a list of different choice options for a Thursday activity. FRIDAY THIS HOMEWORK IS DUE.  Someone at home must sign off on the homework sheet that your child completed an activity each night.

WHAT WE ARE LEARNING

MATH

Students are working so hard on their fluency and are showing great growth in both multiplication and division. Keep working with them at home! In math this week, students will divide three- and four-digit dividends by two-digit divisors resulting in two- and three-digit quotients.  Tonight they should have only worked on their math for no more than half hour.  We will continue with division through the rest of the week and then start on our fraction unit next week.  I will continue to work on division during intervention for the next couple weeks to ensure mastery in this skill.

READING, WRITING, and WORDS THEIR WAY

READING: The past two weeks we have been working on making inferences--using context clues and background knowledges to make predictions about what would happen next, etc. etc.  This week, we will be using similar skills to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.  We will be taking a look at some more challenging texts (with a higher level vocabulary) in order to learn strategies to use when coming across new words.  The idea is to have students use words/phrases around the word, any background knowledge about prefix/suffix/root word meaning, etc. in order to figure our what the word means--instead of skipping over it. WRITING: Last week in our writing workshop, we took a look at the opposing side of our chocolate milk debate.  It was interesting to watch many of the kids start to change their minds about their initial stance.  Students also started to collect further evidence (for both sides of the argument) to add to their notes by watching videos and reading other articles on the issue.  This week, we will be sharing the evidence they collected and adding it to our class evidence chart.  By the end of the week, based on the evidence collected, students will be taking an official stance on the argument and work to create an outline of their claim. WORDS THEIR WAY: Students will receive their new sort/pattern for the week.  As always, their homework will be due Friday.  Students should be completing at least one activity per night to reinforce their pattern.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Continuing with our civics/government unit, this week we will be taking a closer look at the first 10 amendments to our Constitution (Bill of Rights) and what they mean for an individual's rights.  We will also look at the preamble to the Constitution and dissect the meaning of that as well.  This will eventually lead us into taking a look at the body of the Constitution.

SCIENCE

Chemistry is the study of the structure of matter and the changes or transformations that take place within those structures. Learning about the properties and behaviors of substances and systems of substances gives us knowledge about how things go together and how they can be taken apart and gives us the opportunity to use and develop models that explain phenomena too small to see directly. Learning about changes in substances can lead to the development of new materials and new ways to produce energy and resources such as clean drinking water. The Mixtures and Solutions Unit we are doing has five investigations that introduce students to fundamental ideas about matter and its interactions. Students come to know that matter is made of particles too small to be seen and develop the understanding that matter is conserved when it changes state—from solid to liquid to gas—when it dissolves in another substance, and when it is part of a chemical reaction. Students have experiences with mixtures, solutions of different concentrations, and reactions forming new substances. They also engage in engineering experiences with separation of materials. Students gain experiences that will contribute to the understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; and energy and matter. They are super excited to start this unit this week and can't wait to share what they have learned.

REMINDERS

-Dental Insurance paper work went home this week. If you did not receive it, let me know and I can send another one home. -Most finished iReady and they worked so hard to show what they know!  I will send home their results with progress reports next week, but please ask your child how they did because I know they are excited to share their news. -Chorus is cancelled for tomorrow.