2 Week, 2 Quarter!

With Halloween around the corner and so much excitement in the air , it's been a very interesting week.  In spite of anxious children awaiting next week's festivities, students worked hard this week and a lot was learned.    

Here is a summary of what happened in our classroom:

​In Langauge Arts...

• This week's genre focus was on traditional literature, particularly fables.  Students learned that fables are short stories, always teaches a valuable life lesson, and most often times will have animals as main characters.  Students learned about Aesop fables.  We read The Fox and the Crane.  Majority of the children identified the moral as "treat others the way you want to be treated."  While this was a very fitting author's message we also talked about the following version of that message: He who plays a trick on someone, should expect to be tricked in return.  
• The essential question this week was What can animals in stories teach us?  Using the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, students completed a tree map of the story elements and a flow map of the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  Then we read a different version of the same story called Wolf, Wolf! by John Rocco.  Then using their tree maps of the story elements and their flow map of the sequenced events, students created a double-bubble map to compare important elements of both stories.  

In math...

• Students wrote addition and subtraction equations to form fact families.  Students used math stories to help them understand the relationship between the equations.  
• Using non-standard units of measure such as paper clips and connecting cubes, students practiced various measuring skills.  They learned that the unit needs to line up with one edge of the object, you measure to the nearest whole unit, there should be no gaps between each unit, and the units should be the same size.  For example if you're measuring using paper clips, all paper clips should be the same size: a pencil is 6 small paper clips long.  
• After learning about non-standard units of measure, students were introduced to standard units of measure.  We talked about why using this common language of standard units of measure, such as inches and feet are important.  When you buy a piece of lumber from the store or need to get a suit tailored to your size, we use customary standard units of measure.
• Students practiced using their rulers to measure objects around the classroom in inches and in feet.  They learned to align the first scale on the ruler with the starting point of the object.  
• Then students compared lengths of objects using key words like difference and how many more.

REMINDERS AND ANNOUCEMENTS

• There will be early release everyday until Friday the 11/3 to accommodate Parent teacher conferences.  Besides the normal Wednesday dismissal, school will get out everyday at 1:05 p.m.  Wednesday will remain the same 12:50 dismissal.
• There is a Costume Parade in which your child can participate in.  There was a half sheet flyer that went home on Friday that explains the rules and guidelines about costume attire.