October Math

Math 

In math this month, the students will continue to work on multiplication and division strategies to solve two digit by one digit examples and word problems on the topic.

Our unit will be moving into Engage NY Module 3. This 25-day module builds directly on students’ work with multiplication and division in Module 1. Module 3 extends the study of factors from 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 to include all units from 0 to 10, as well as multiples of 10 within 100. This allows students to build fluency with facts involving a particular unit before moving on. 

Ways to Help at Home

Please work with children to assist them in becoming more fluent and faster at answering 2 by 1 multiplication and division problems.  Do drills, flash cards or the following websites at home, several times a week.

Websites

www.multiplication.com

www.fun4thebrain.com

www.kidsnumbers.com/multiplication

www.mathplayground.com

Upcoming Tests

The mid module assessments were given the week of 10/5

A multiplication/division quiz (to check the students' fluency and understanding of word problems will be given the week of 10/12)

The end of unit assessment will be given at the end of the month once the entire unit is complete

October Read Aloud

In Read Aloud, we have been reading and enjoying the book, FRINDLE.

 

Students think Nick is creative since he created the word, FRINDLE

 Students are practicing how to actively  engage in meaningful conversations.  Many of our students are actively participating in group discussions BUT we still have a few that are quite timid. Please ask your child, “How was Read Aloud today?” Did you participate?  

 Eventually, we want all students to take part in book discussions as it plays an integral part in our learning.

At this time, you may have noticed that students come home daily with a Read Aloud response question.  This question is always based on that day’s reading and used to assess students’ understanding of the text. Please ensure that all answers are clearly RESTATED and answered with SPECIFIC TEXT DETAILS.  Everyone has been working very hard on this and improvement is already noted! 

REMINDER!!

Vocabulary Tests will be given based on the following “character”  words.  Students will be assessed on their ability to use the words in proper context.  These words are used daily in class during conversations.

Here are the words for this unit…

STRICT

CREATIVE

CLEVER

GREEDY

TROUBLE MAKER

COURAGEOUS

REPUTATION

LEGENDARY

LAZY

As always, thank you for your continued support!

Upcoming Read Aloud work will focus around reading nonfiction informational text…. We will share further information as the unit gets closer!

October Reading Workshop

October Reading Workshop

In October we will assess our students’ reading by administering a grade-level reading test.  Students will read a short text and answer multiple choice and short response questions.  These grades will be shared with parents and appear on report cards.

We will be starting our character unit where we will continue to work on the reading skills taught in September and also focus on the skill of inferring.

Inferring

Inferring is using clues in a text to figure something out.  Not all of what the author wants us to know is explicitly stated in the text, especially as we move up in reading levels.  It is up to readers to figure out some important things.  Students also need to continue to work on building their reading stamina, pushing themselves to read for longer periods of time.

We will learn to infer character traits based on the things our characters say, do and think.  We will also work on increasing our character trait vocabularies.

·      What did my character say in this scene?

·      What did my character do in this scene?

·      What was my character thinking in this scene?

o   All of these things show me that this character 

is _____________.

What parents can do to support readers at home:

·      Continue to do the things suggested in the September blog post.

·      When you see your child reading, ask them questions such as “What kind of person is your character? How do you know that?”

October Writer's Workshop

Writing Unit 2: Character Feeling Change

Focus:

         Children will be working on:

• identifying and highlighting the main character's feeling in the beginning of the story and end of the story with details to support the feelings. They will ask themselves: what the main character said, did or thought.
• they will identify and highlight the part of the story where the main character's feelings change and what happened to make the feelings change (what caused the feelings change)
• they will mark up mentor text to show the structure of the essay (introduction,body paragraphs,conclusion)
• they will discuss and mark the different feelings identifed and the supporting evidence for the feelings as well as the cause of the feelings change.