It's hard to believe that it's May. This year is flying by.
I am so proud of the effort the children have shown. They make teaching such a joy and a gift.
Your support at home has been amazing. This year has been a challenge, but you have all risen to the occasion. I'm incredibly grateful for all you do.
Here's what we've been up to the past couple of months.
MATH
Since my last post we've completed several units. The children worked on rounding, estimating, and addition and subtraction with regrouping.
In addition, we completed a unit on fractions.
Currently, we are working on a geometry unit. The focus is on quadrilaterals. The students really have to learn a lot of vocabulary for this unit. They also need to reason about different shapes based on attributes such as angles, side lengths, and number of sides.
We will be starting to work on time and graphing next. Our math lessons will be scheduled around Smarter Balanced testing, which begins on May 11th.
One of the best things you can do to help your child with time is to purchase an inexpensive analog clock. Periodically ask your child to tell you the time. You could also ask questions such as: "We'll be eating dinner at 6:00 p.m. How many hours and minutes will it be until then?"
READING
We finished up our unit on main idea. To keep your child practicing, please have him/her read some nonfiction. (Reading a balance of fiction and nonfiction is always a good idea.)
We also completed a unit on point of view. We read short stories, picture books, poems, and nonfiction articles. For our unit, we defined point of view as someone's opinion about something. We focused on these main points:
- Characters in stories have points of view.
- Narrators of stories have points of view.
- Authors of nonfiction texts have points of view.
- READERS have points of view as well. Sometimes a reader will have a different point of view than the character, narrator, or author.
Students read daily and have really built up their reading stamina. In class, we set reading goals. The kids like to hang them up once they've been reached. 😊
Writing
The children finished their Question & Answer books (which were organized by main idea/details). There were a wide variety of topics, because students were given the opportunity to choose subjects in which they were interested.
We wrapped up a unit on Animals Through Time. The students learned ways that fossils tell us about animals that have become extinct. They also learned about selection, inherited and learned traits, and how animal group behaviors enable species to survive.
We've just started a social studies unit about Connecticut. We will be learning about Connecticut's history, the state symbols, and some facts about present day Connecticut.
Smarter Balanced Testing
From May 11th-May 21st we will have our Smarter Balanced (SBAC) Testing. We will not test on Mondays or Wednesdays. However, it is possible that some makeup tests may be given on those days.
MORNING MEETINGS
We continue to enjoy morning meetings as a class. Here are some new daily slides that we've been using.