Week of October 5-9

Math:
We are starting a new unit this week: TIME!
Today we introduced the concept of time - reading both analog and digital clocks. I was slightly surprised by how much difficulty students seemed to have with this. There are always at least 2 different ways to read a clock. For example: if the clock reads 4:15, this can be read as "four-fifteen" or as "15 minutes after 4" or "quarter after 4". This is something you can practice at home! Ask your child/tell your parent what time you are sitting down to dinner. Then think of an alternate way to say it.
Remember:

• 15 minutes is referred to as "quarter after"
• 30 minutes is referred to as "half past"
• 45 minutes is referred to as "quarter to"
• numbers on the first half of the clock are "after" (28 minutes after 4)
• number on the second half of the clock are "to" (10 minutes to 5)

Wednesday and Thursday we'll be discussing Elapsed Time. This tends to be a difficult concept as well. For example: "Ms. Willett goes to school at 7:15am. She leaves school at 3:00pm. How long is Ms. Willett at school for each day?"
Please go through examples like these at home as well. This will help students greatly if they are getting extra support at home. A great activity is a game called "Are We There Yet": give them two times of a potential car trip and have them tell you how long it takes. Even practice driving from your home to school. What time did you leave? What time did you arrive? How many minutes does it take you to get to school? How many minutes to your Aunt's house? The grocery store? The mall?

Science:
In Science we will continue with the water unit. We will be covering our last "formal" lesson: Usable Water, then will be doing fun activities about water pollution and conservation (which will also be on the test). Thursday we will be reviewing ALL of the Water Unit and then Friday students will be tested on all of the lessons thus far: The Amazing Molecule, Water Cycle, Water Clings, Mixing With Water, Usable Water, and Water Pollution/Conservation.

Literacy:

Book Report:

Children should be reading a new book for the next book report. It will be due Oct. 29th. Read, read, read at home every day!

Read Aloud:

We will read a nonfiction text: “Teammates”, by Peter Golenbock. We will focus on multiple problems and solutions, and cause and effect.
We will also read "Weslandia", by Paul Fleischman, to focus on Analyzing Character and Setting and Identifying the Main Idea and Supporting Details.
Read Aloud for fun! “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”, by Judy Blume.

Shared Reading:

We will be reading a poem, Oath to Friendship, anonymous, China, 1st century B.C., to focus on the characteristics of poetry and elements of exaggeration in poetry.
We will also read an excerpt from Weslandia, we will focus on Character Analysis and Context Clues.

Interactive Writing:
Teammates:
We will make a flow a chart to write what caused each one of the story’s character to act the way they did, and then follow each cause to its final effect.
Synonyms and antonyms: We will be discussing the meaning of the following words: extraordinary, launched, opponents, prejudice, segregation, teammate, apathetic, hostility, taunts, and audible, and coming up with synonyms and antonyms for all of them.
Weslandia:
Web chart for a character analysis.
Main idea and supporting detail chart.

Independent Writing:
Teammates: Student will use the cause and effect flow chart to write an opinion paragraph telling which of the three character’s actions and behavior they think was the most significant.
Weslandia: Students will write an opinion paragraph telling what they liked and disliked about Walter’s civilization, and why?


Students will also participate in Guided Reading groups and Centers.