December 2, 2016

Dear Families,
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We look forward to getting back into a routine for a few weeks before the winter break.  Take a peek at what we have been doing.

Math
In math we have finished Unit 2.  Students learned a variety of strategies and models to help them build a conceptual understanding of multiplication.  We will now move into Unit 3 and focus on adding and subtraction strategies for computing with larger numbers.  Use the link below for more information on Unit 3:
http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/sites/default/files/documents/family/PAR-BR3-U3.pdf


Reading
Students have been participating in book groups/clubs.  Each group is reading a book at their instructional level and meeting weekly to discuss the story.  While reading students are using a variety of strategies to help them understand the text.  Some of the comprehension strategies are asking questions,  making connections, inferring, visualizing, determining importance, and monitoring for meaning.

Writing
Students have published their narratives and will be sharing them with their peers, buddies, and of course their families.  We hope you enjoy reading these stories.  Next we'll move onto informational writing.  We'll begin with paragraph writing and then move into writing reports.

Word Study
Word study will resume this week.  Students should have brought a new word list home with them in their folder on Friday.

Social Science
We will be wrapping up our study of Native Americans and how the environment of the region impacted the way of life of the tribes living in that region.  We will begin our mini unit on European Explorers.  Our lessons will focus on helping students discover why Europeans explored North America.