November 23-24

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

There is no school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday this week as we have a teacher’s comp day and as we observe the Thanksgiving holiday.

This week’s homework packet will be a little different.  We like to switch things up during vacation weeks to keep things interesting.  Students will be expected to continue their reading and spelling practice.  Then, they are asked to complete a math and literacy worksheet in the packet.  This packet will be due when we return to school on Monday, November 30th.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

THIS WEEK IN...

Writing:  This week, we will be writing postcards to our pirate friends, Pete and Penelope, from our dream islands!  We’ll include information about the people, the weather, location, special features, and landforms.

Nonfiction Fun:  Turkeys, turkeys, turkeys!  We read all about turkeys and collected facts.  Then, we displayed our facts in a fun turkey design.

Feasting on Inferences:  This week, we’ll practice making inferences with some Thanksgiving flair.  First, we’ll help Sage and Max figure out what their mom needs from the grocery store by using recipe cards and clues from the story.  Then, we’ll practice making inferences after reading some short stories.  When we make inferences we use our schema and clues from the text to help us understand the story.

Thanksgiving Then and Now:  We’ll be reading a Thanksgiving themed article from Scholastic News all about Thanksgiving in the 1620s.  Next, we’ll use the text to answer questions.  Then, we’ll make comparisons between many of the ways our lives are different now compared to the lives of the people living in the 1620s.  

Read Aloud:  This week, we’ll read two short picture books.  First, we’ll read The Story of the Pilgrims  by Katherine Ross.  Then, we’ll read A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Diane de Groat.  

Math:  We continue our work with fractions!  We’ll focus on partitioning circles and rectangles into halves, thirds, and fourths and writing fractions to match the part of the shape that we shade.  We’ll be sure to use correct numerators and denominators.  We’ll also talk about fractions that represent one whole (i.e. 2/2, 3/3, and 4/4).  

Science:  We are working on completing our dream islands!  This week, we’ll complete our maps (including a compass rose and key) and paint our islands in life-like colors.  We’ll also finish labeling the landforms we included on our islands.  

Have a great week and a happy Thanksgiving!