October 23, 2015
Dear Parents,
The Great 29 of 25 have been hard at work now that we are in the groove of 5 day school weeks in October.
We have been working hard in math on reviewing multiplication facts and relating this to division. Next week we will take a virtual world tour where we measure and calculate distances. We will also be solving number stories (word problems), and learning to turn words into number sentences. Our mid unit quiz will be this week and cover these new concepts as well as revisit the concepts from prior units including landmarks of data sets.
In Journeys, our new reading program, we are making our way through lesson 4. The essential question in this unit is “Why might people raise money for a cause?” We are having some great discussions about this topic. In addition, we began working in small guided reading groups called literature circles. Two groups have begun this week and three more groups will be starting next week. Your children will be reading a novel with several of their classmates and meeting each week to discuss these wonderful books. There are five roles in a literature circle; the discussion director, who asks questions about the reading that gets people talking, the literary luminary, who chooses several passages from the reading that stand out (funny, sad, confusing…) and shares these with the circle, the connector, who makes connections between the book and their own experiences in life, other books they have read or the world in general, the vocabulary enricher who selects several words that stand out to them for a variety of reasons including meaning, repetition, mellifluous, and last, but not least, the illustrator who sketches a scene or two that stand out for them in some way, they may be very descriptive, humorous, or confusing. This is one of my favorite times of the school day because I have the opportunity to get to know my students in a smaller more intimate group.
We are concluding our tour of the Northeast with a several fun activities. We were factory workers at a candy factory learning about mass production as we cut, placed and wrapped “candy” in an assembly line. Next week we will learn how hard it would be to climb to the top of the Empire State Building in New York City by “climbing” the stairs in place. It will be hard work, but we will be able to appreciate skyscrapers! We will review what we learned and our chapter 4 test will be on Thursday, October 29.
Look at these hard working candy factory workers!
Next week at Davis we will celebrate Red Ribbon Week where we pledge to be Drug Free! Monday we will wear red to support the slogan of the day. Tuesday is Crazy Sock Day. On Wednesday we will wear running clothes to show support of “Run Your Own Life-Be Drug Free. On Thursday we will wear pajamas to support “Shoot for Your Dreams- Be Drug Free” and of course Friday will be the fabulous Fall Celebration complete with costumes, a parade and a party in the classroom. We are looking forward to the wonderful celebration being planned by Mrs. Bergin and Mrs. Ditri, our fabulous homeroom mothers.
Have a lovely weekend! The weather looks very promising.
As always, thank you for being partners in your child’s education.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Badulak