Februarynews Letter

FebruaryNews Letter

Dear Families,

January was a very busy month with the assessments, new literacy unit, projects, the arrival back of Flat Stanley and finally the cold weather! Here is a brief summary what we will be working on in each subject throughout the month of February.

Homework Folders:Remember to check your child’s folder each night for notes and any information from school. Also, if you have not done so yet, please take some time to clean out your child’s homework folder. An empty homework folder will help to keep your child’s work organized and make it simpler for them to find their homework each day. Once work has been checked and sent home there is no need for your child to bring it to and from school every day. If your child’s homework folder is falling apart, please purchase them a new homework folder. I suggest you buy a sturdy plastic homework folder. Also replenish any notebooks and please make sure your child has sharpened pencil every day.

Reading: We will be continuing reading Charlotte’s Web, and will be discussing and responding to the text providing textual evidence in our answers. The goals of this unit will be for the students to understand relationships between characters through events and challenges in the story and understand that relationships matter to a community.

To support your child at home, after they finish reading ask them questions about what they have read, For example, what was your favorite part of the story and why? Describe the main character. What was the most important event that happened in the story and why? What connections can you make to the story? Why did you make those connections? When they are answering those questions they should provide evidence from the text to support their answers.

Writing: In writing, we will continue to focus on responding to Charlotte’s Web. The students will be creating stories from the points of view of familiar characters in the text. The students will develop their own opinions about characters and how they respond to their situations and interact in their communities. The goal of this unit will be for the students to understand that details and signal words help reader’s sequence events in the story.

To support your child at home encourage them to always include “why” when they are writing. Often times the students write answers but do not include why they think that way. They should also re-read their writing and if they have not explained their reasoning, then they need to go back and include more details.

Math: This month we will be doing Chapter 6 (3-digit addition and subtraction). This chapter will focus on building fluency with addition and subtraction. Students will add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawing and strategies based on place value, properties of operations and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction. Students will use the different strategies learned in chapters 4 and 5 (2-digit addition and 2-digit subtraction) and apply them while adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers.

By the end of the chapter, students will understand how to draw quick pictures to represent 3-digit addition, break apart 3-digit addends, regroup 10’s and 1’s when adding 3-digit numbers, and regroup 100’s, 10’s and 1’s when subtracting 3-digit numbers.

Social Studies:We will be starting a new unit on Urban, Suburban and Rural communities. The big idea for this unit is why and how do communities develop differently? We will learn about the 3 types of communities, characteristics of each community look at examples of each community and discuss the pros and cons of each community.

This month we will start by introducing the 3 types of communities and discuss what are some reasons people choose to live in a certain place. We will create lists of reasons why someone might move to an area (jobs, family, weather, price etc.) and reasons why someone might choose not to move to an area.

To support your child at home, go to the library and take out books on different communities. Discuss with our child why you chose to live in the community you live in. As well as, talk about where you would live if you could pick anywhere in the world to live in and why you would choose to live there.

Science: This month we will begin our unit on force and motion. We will be investigating different forces (push, pull, gravity and friction) and how they make things move or stop.

To support your child at home go to the library, take out books on force and motion, look on the internet for activities and simple experiments you can do at home. If you find a great experiment or investigation that you would like to share with the class feel free to do it and share your results with the class

Projects: There are 5 projects this month. The first projectdue is our PresidentDay reports.

Thesecond project due on February 9th is our Influential African American project. You are to come to school dressed up as your Influential African American and need to be prepared to read your index card to the class and parents. Our presentation for the parents will be on Friday, February 26th at 9:15 in room 214.

The third project will be to make Valentine’s for the class. Valentine’s Day is a time to show that you care for and appreciate others. Please have your child make Valentine’s for all the students in the class. You do not need to buy Valentine’s, but you can if you would like. All Valentine’s should be sent to school on Friday February 12th, 2016. You can bring in a special snack to share with the class. (Peanut- free)Don’t forget to include Miss Jessica and Mrs. Hamblin too.

The fourth project is your Spider Research report due: February 22cnd.

The fifth project is the 100th day of school project- dress up how you would look in 100 years. This project is due Monday February 29th (Leap Day). Your child is encouraged to come to school on February 29th looking like they would look in 100 years from now. You also need to have your five facts from 1916 and a 100 calorie snack

Important dates to remember:

February 2cnd- President Research Report Due

February 8th- Chinese New Year Observed No school

February 9th- African American Influential Project due

February 12th- Valentine’s Day Party

February 12th- Queens Alliance Trip Money due

February 15th- 19th- Winter Break- No School

February 22cnd- Spider Research Due

February 23rd- Parent Spring Conference Sign Up sheet due

February 26th- Influential African American Presentation

March 1st- Community Researchdue (Urban, Rural, Suburban)

March 3rd- Spring Parent teacher Conferences

March 7th- Important Women in Our Lives reports due

March 16th, 23rd, and March 30th Queens Alliance Workshops

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you, Mrs. Warshaw