Reading: We will be finishing this study on facts and opinions this week. The children will take a short assessment on Wednesday. Just so you know, instead of seeing a percentage grade, you will see a 1, 2 or 3 at the top of the assessments. Since this is a topic that we will cover again later on in the year, at a deeper level, I am not anticipating marking any papers with a three. Even your child does well on the assessment, expect a two which means he/she is on target and I expect that the next time the topic is covered, he or she will understand facts and opinions at that deeper level. We will also begin talking about reading "signposts" and genres later this week.
Math: Our main focus is on place value. The children need to have a strong foundation of understanding numbers. This means understanding the value of the number, all digits within the number and how it compares with other numbers. Today, we discussed how each place value is ten times more than the place value to its right (10 is 10x bigger than 1; 1,000 is 10x bigger than 100). The children will take a few short assessments this week for me to check their understanding. I do hope to see some threes in math since math concepts build on one another. If a child does not make a three, then I will be working with him/her more closely and I would love to see him/her doing some extra practice at home. This website has some great activities and games that are right along the lines of what we are working on: Place Value. Later on in the week, the children will begin working on a place value menu where they choose activities to work on independently or with a partner that will challenge their thinking on the topics we are covering.
Language: Our focus for the first few weeks of school has been and will continue to be nouns. We have discussed what a noun is and now we are discussing types of nouns such as singular, plural, common and proper nouns. On Friday, in the classroom, children played some games on this website identifying plural nouns and practicing correct spellings of plural nouns: Plural Nouns. This basketball themed game will also be great practice for common and proper nouns: Common vs Proper Nouns.
Science: We have been investigating materials that are opaque, translucent and transparent. We will also do a few experiments this week where we look to see how light can play tricks on us. I am anticipating that we will be ready for our science assessment on light on Thursday. Since this is not a topic we will cover again this year, your child should be earning a three. Your child will be bringing home a notebook with information in it, but there are two different websites that may be helpful when studying for this test: Light Game and I have created some matching/definition cards on Study Stack that can be used to study light.
Alabama History: The students are learning more about world geography and how to read a map. We've talked about different kinds of maps, parts of a map, continents, oceans and how the earth is divided. We should be ready for our geography test on Friday. Your child's notebook should have sufficient information in it, but there are some other options as well. To study where the continents and oceans are, this website has a variety of games and activities: World Geography. And on the same Study Stacks website, the children can practice terms and definitions for World Geography.
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