Week 24 Newsletter

Announcements

2/4 – Tuesday – 4^th grade lunch and learn

2/5 – Wednesday – Constitutional Compromises Quiz

2/5 – Wednesday – Spring Picture Day

2/7 – Friday- Progress Reports

Homework

Two Achieve articles – I encourage parents to work with your child at least on one of the articles. This helps you understand how your child interprets the questions and allows you to talk them through the correct ways to come to an answer (rather than them just choosing one at random).

Reading

In reading this week we finished up Theme. Students performed their skits they prepared and their peer audience determined the theme they were attempting to portray. It took longer for each group to present than I anticipated so next week we will begin looking at the elements of poetry.

Writing

In writing this week we wrote the introduction to our informational research papers. We talked about different types of leads to grab our reader’s attention such as: asking a questions, interesting fact, or using a famous quote. After students decided on their lead we talked about possible strong topic sentences and how to introduce the subtopics that would be discussed throughout the paper. Next week students will continue to write their body paragraphs and hopefully start on conclusions.

Social Studies

In social studies this week we discussed the Constitutional Compromises. We talked about the Virginia and New Jersey Plans and how they were joined together to form The Great Compromise. Then we discussed how slaves being factored into the state’s population caused a disagreement between the Northern and Southern states. This lead to the Three- Fifths Compromise. Lastly, we covered the compromise that pertained to slave trade. I will send home a short study guide Monday along with work we have done in class on these topics. We will have a quick quiz Wednesday on these topics.

Week 23 Newsletter

Announcements

Monday – 1/27 – Field Trip to Coca Cola Space Center

Friday – 1/31 – Red Folders, Traveler Reports, & Achieve Logs are DUE

Friday (6:00)/Saturday (4:00) – Little Mermaid Play @ Rainey McCullers

·       Any student that brings their ticket stub from the play is allowed to dress OUT OF UNIFORM Monday, 1/27!

Homework

·       Two Achieve articles – Due Friday

·       Research on historical figure – as needed

Reading

In reading this week we finished up our unit on Theme! One of our standard is for students to be able to differentiate between drama, prose, and poetry, so this week we looked continued looking for themes in dramas. Some students have been working in groups to write their own stories in drama format. They are using their knowledge of theme and including their chosen theme multiple times throughout their scripts. Once they finished the writing portion, they practiced performing their drama, and will perform for their classmates. It will be their classmate’s job to determine the theme of the drama.  Other groups of students have been given scripts of fables and fictional stories. They have been practicing reading their scripts, following the directions the scripts gives, and performing for their classmates. Their peers will also have the job of deciding what theme is being delivered through their performance.

Next week we will move onto looking at the major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of each.

Writing

In writing we will continue our informational writing on the historical figures. This week we finished gathering websites sources and subtopics. We also looked at ways to grab the reader’s attention in the introduction of the paper. They will write their own introduction and start on the body paragraphs. We will talk about various transitions they may include to make sure their papers sounds fluent rather than robotic. J Please be on the lookout for research homework. There may be nights when they need to gather more research or finish writing part of their draft.

ELA

In grammar this week we continued looking at progressive verbs. We continued practicing when to use who/whom. One trick we talked about is he/she = who and him/her = whom.

·                   Ex: The girl _____ is in third grade, got first place in the art show.

·                  Ask yourself “Who got first place in the art show?” SHE got first place in the art show.             She=WHO

I also introduced the relative pronoun “whose.” This is the only relative pronoun that shows possession/ownership.

·                 Ex: Students, _______, parents are here, get a homework pass.

·                Parents belong to the students so the relative pronoun is whose.

Next week we will talk about the correct uses of “which” and “that.”

Week 22 Newsletter

Announcements

Monday – MLK Day – No School!

Tuesday – St. Elmo

Tuesday – Tutoring Starts!

Monday 1/27 – Coca Cola Space Science Center

Homework

·        ***We will begin Achieve Logs again – Two articles for the week, 75% or better (ideally 88% or better to show growth), and must be signed by parents.

·        ***If students are not making adequate progress with their informational research during their given class time, I will expect them to gather research at home and bring it to class the next day.  
*   ***Practice RW tests online as needed 

Reading

In reading this week we have been focusing on theme. We started off by discussing common themes found in stories and watching some of the 1930s Disney cartoons to identify themes. We read fictional dramas from our Reading Wonders books such as, “The Ant and Grasshopper” and “Ranita and the Frog.” Through these stories we were able to discuss dramas and scripts, which we will continue to look at next week as we well. Students learned about writing a constructed response to the theme of passage. They learned that the questions they should ask are “What did the author want me to learn?” “What are the connecting details” and “How does this apply to my life?” We practiced writing constructed responses together for “The Ugly Duckling” “The Ant and the Grasshopper” and “The Three Little Pigs.” Students also completed task card activities and a Kahoot! game. Next week we will continue reviewing theme through dramas and practice constructed responses.

Check out the Reading tab to look at examples of constructed responses we wrote in class and the picture of common themes we have been using. :) Also remember there are Reading Wonders practice tests up that students should utilize for practice. 

Writing

In writing this week we began our Informational Writing unit. I explained to students that they would choose one of the famous historical figures from our Social Studies standards to research and write their informational paper about. I am modeling as we go. As of now they have done a little research on the figure they have chosen and we discussed gathering research from multiple websites and resources. Next week we will begin organizing our notes and looking at writing the introduction paragraph.

Grammar

This week we began talking about relative pronouns; who, whom, whose, which, and that. We started with who and whom this week. Relative pronouns are typically confusing in that there are multiple rules that apply when deciding whether to use who/whom. So this week we talked and practiced whole group and I did tell them that I am no expert on this topic as I still get confused myself! J We will continue learning about relative pronouns next week and practicing A LOT.

Social Studies

We will be learning about Congress, 3/5 Compromise, and The Great Compromise J