Week of Aug. 31 - Sept. 4

Math - Friday we started a graphing assignment in class. Students had to choose a topic and then survery the class for results that they could graph. They were given all class Friday as well as all class today (Monday). They receieved a small piece of paper that told them the 6 requirements they needed to fullfill to complete the graph. If this was not completed in class, this will be homework tonight, as the assignment is due on Tuesday. Tuesdaywill be a short graphing quiz to make sure they not only know how to read graphs, but that they now also know how to MAKE graphs. This week we will be beginning our next unit in Math which will be Place Value and Time.

Science - We are still working on our Water Unit. Today they had the whole period to work on the Water Cycle assignment. If this was not completed in class, it is also their homework for tonight (Monday). If your child seems to have a lot to work on for both assignments due tomorrow, this means that they did not use their class time wisely.
Tomorrow is a small quiz for lessons 1 and 2 - The Amazing Molecule and The Water Cycle. Students have handouts in their science notebooks to help them review for this. We also discussed both at great length during class time. Wednesday we will be visiting the Science Lab for another demonstration.

Literacy:

• This week students will be taking the DRA' s, therefore, it is very important that students come to school every day, get a good night sleep and eat a good breakfast.

• We will also begin to work on "Fiesta Catracha". Our departamento is Francisco Morazan. Students will be divided in groups and will be assigned a place or topic to research about and to print pictures to decorate the posters. They will be summarizing the information in class and will create colorful posters to illsutrate and inform about their place or topic. If you have any arts and crafts that may contribute to our display please send them next week.

• Read Aloud: We will be reading an African Tale, "Mufaros's Beautiful Daughters", by John Steptoe. We will focus on using a diversity of reading strategies like: making connections, making predictions, using context clues, and visualizing.

• Shared Reading: We will be reading the poem "Ancestry Africa", by Ashley Bryan, We will focus on interpreting poems and making connections to poetry.

• Interactive Editing: We will be editing a piece about the Solar System. This is a powerful strategy that allows students to support reading comprehension through discussion, to practice summarizing skills, and to construct their own writing .

• Independent Writing: Students will write their own original piece by using the key words we selected as class during Interactive Editing to write about the Solar System. Students will also write a letter to a friend. The objective is to show that they know the parts of a letter, their correct capitalization and puctuation. They will also be writing different types of sentences: interrogative, exclamatory, declarative, and imperative to show they can identify each type and can punctuate them correctly.

• Students will also participate in Independent Reading and Centers.

• We will continue to read for fun! "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”, by Judy Blume, is getting better by the minute. Students have a delightful time listening to all of Peter's and Fudge's adventures.