October 31st

Reading

We spent all week studying Spiders! Our reading groups read a magazine article about spiders and worked on identifying main idea and details from each section. 

The students also split into groups and each group researched a different type of spider and created a poster about their learning.

Ask which spider they researched! What are some new spider facts they learned?

Writing

This week we read I Will Never, Not Ever, Eat a Tomato. After reading this book the  students created lists of the things they liked/did not like and wrote a story from this list. We discussed how they could choose something they didn't like and tell the story behind why they don't like that thing, or they could choose a like and tell about about the reasons that they like it.

The class has also been continuing to work on our "No Excuse Writing": word wall words spelled correctly, punctuation in every sentence, capital letters only where they are needed.

Write a letter to a grandparent, help your child make sure that they have correct capitals and punctuation.

Math

This week we learned some new games to help practice subtraction facts. The class played halves concentration and 3-in-a-row (which practices -10 strategies). We also really hit hard the using 10 to help us subtract.

At home: Try using flashcards or playing math games on the computer to help build those addition facts to be automatic. Once students master those they will move on to subtraction.

Working on the number of the day

Playing our new math game: Halves concentration

Social Studies

We started our unit on using the environment. We read about what natural resources are, how people use the environment for shelter, food and clothing. Then we did an activity where they looked at an ocean environment and pretended they were dropped off in the middle of it and needed to use the environment to create their own food, shelter and clothing. 

Next week we will begin discussing how people hurt the environment, and what we can do to help.

Extras

With our focus on Anti-Bullying this week the kids were able to dress up in some pretty fun outfits! It was fun to come to school each day and see their creativity. 

After reciting our bucket filler pledge each day we discussed how we could be bucket fillers and not bucket dippers (or bullies).

Ask your child what they've learned about bullying, and how they can help to stop it.