Ack News 11/2

ACK NEWS
 Week of November 2, 2017

HOMEWORK

Monday-Thursday -Math sheet -Reading Response -Read 20 minutes -Words Their Way Tuesday--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

Intervention for the last 6 week assessment ended yesterday.  Students worked really hard to work on some of the skills they were struggling with and made some great gains during this time. There assessment will go home this week and I will share with you all their accomplishments they have made so far this year at conferences. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at ackermant@nashua.edu. Starting this week the students will be introduced to multiplying and dividing decimals.  This will be our next unit of study.  Please take time to practice multiplication or division with your child and encourage them to do xtramath at home along with just practicing the "old fashion" way- flash cards or reciting them out of order as quick as they can. I have spoken to each of the classes about Zearn and iReady.  Students should be on lesson 11 in Zearn or at least doing 1 or 2 lessons a week. They can accomplish this easily if they come in to school on time, focus on finishing their morning work quickly and starting a lesson.  Unfortunately, some students have not finished more than 1 or 2 lessons all of October. I have spoken to each of them individually and expressed my concerns, reviewed expectations, and discussed strategies to ensure that they can accomplish finishing 1 or 2 a week.  If you have a computer at home, please take a minute and have your students share with you the website and ask them where they are in their lessons.  Again, they should be around lesson 11.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or call the school. With the new phone system you can leave a message directly to me voice mail and I will get back to you quickly.

READING, WRITING, and WORDS THEIR WAY

READING: This week, we will be focusing on a new skill--identifying different nonfiction text features and determining the author's purpose for including them.  We will be reading a variety of nonfiction articles and applying this knowledge base to them. *As always, students will be asked to continue writing about their 20 minutes of reading each night.  They may choose any one of the following strategies:  ​Visualizing (drawing what they the visualized happening and including a description of what the drawing represents) Make connections (text to self, text to media, text to text, or text to world) Summarize Ask questions Make predictions (and elaborate on why using evidence from the text) WRITING: This week, we will continue to work on expanding their narratives.  Specifically, we will be working on elaborating on important parts and using paragraphs to organize their writing.  The overall goal is to have students be able to include/do the following: ​slow down the actions in their story add dialogue give (sensory) details show small actions add internal thinking separate into paragraphs WORDS THEIR WAY: Students will receive their new sort/pattern for the week.  They should be completing at least one homework assignment each night at home to reinforce the pattern. ​Monday-- sort words and teach someone your pattern Tuesday-- speed sort Wednesday-- blind sort Thursday-- choice from page of activities Friday-- DUE back to school

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will continue to analyze early European exploration.  We will be taking a step back from Columbus and taking a look at two new explorers-- John Cabot & Ferdinand Magellan

SCIENCE

Students are currently learning about the moon, how it moves and the lunar cycle. They have learned new vocabulary, reviewed the phases, and participated in a simulation of the moon cycle using a light source and foam ball to illuminate the phases. The order of the moon cycle is: New moon, Waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, Full moon, Waning gibbous, Last Quarter, Waning crescent and back to new moon. This happens in a 28 day period. Here is a link to some interactive moon sites to help your child learn the phases. They will also have a study guide go home with them tomorrow or Monday. They will be tested on the phases in a week. http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1174012&backurl=/shelf/my

REMINDERS

-Book Fair starts next week on Wednesday -Parent Conferences 11/8 and 11/16, please email me or call the school to book a conference time if you have not done so. I will send you reminders home tomorrow. - Bread fundraiser went home today -Title 1 Contract needs to be signed and returned as soon as possible -sign and return progress report envelope if you have not done so yet -Cranberry Day will be November 21. Each student will make cranberry bread and then participate in cranberry activities. If you are available to help out with bread making in the morning or activities after lunch that day, please let me know. We will be asking students to bring in items for the bread and some activities but will send home a link to some needed items next week.