Room 5 News
November 20, 2019
Important Classroom Information
- Wednesday, November 27 - 1/2 day, 12:15 dismissal
- Thursday, November 28 - Friday, November 29 - no school, Thanksgiving break
Updates
Save a Turkey Project
This week, students are working on a special project, leading up to Thanksgiving. For homework, students are asked to disguise a turkey to help make him/her safely past the Thanksgiving holiday! All turkeys are due Friday, November 22. We will use these turkeys during our writing block next week.
Online Literacy Resources:
This year, we are using 2 websites during our reading and writing blocks to help support students' literacy development. Below you will find information about both resources:
TypingClub
TypingClub is an effective way to learn how to type. It is a free, web based tool geared towards developing typing skills through engaging activities. Students can use their school Google accounts to access TypingClub at home.
Flippity
Flippity helps students practice their weekly spelling patterns. In class, we have learned the following patterns: cvc patterns, glued sounds, ch vs tch ending, k vs ck endings, closed exceptions, silent e, and suffix. Students can use this resource both at school and at home.
I hope your family enjoys our upcoming Thanksgiving break. Whether you are traveling or staying local I hope you all have a wonderful, restful time spent with family or friends.
Curriculum Updates
Social Emotional Learning:
Bridge School's monthly theme for November is gratitude. Check out some of the thankful essays students have written throughout the month.
Math:
Most recently in math, we wrapped up our third unit, where students learned to model multiplication problems using equal groups, arrays, and towers. Our next unit deepens students' understanding of multiplication by applying newly learned skills to an investigations project. The overarching goal for this unit is for students to become familiar with the distributive property. See the video to learn more.
Writing:
In writing, we are in the middle of our persuasive writing unit. In this unit, students are writing speeches about important topics in their lives. Students have formed an opinion, created a thesis statement, and supported their thesis with reasons. Now, students are finding the best examples to make their argument even more convincing.
In reading, we continue working through our mystery unit. So far, students have looked for clues and suspects within their mystery book, and have made predictions about what will happen next. Students are currently working on a Mystery Case File using our read aloud, Whodunit Detective Agency: The Diamond Mystery. In the coming weeks, we will begin our nonfiction reading unit.
Word Study:
In word study we learned a new syllable type. Last week we learned about the VCe pattern. Students also call this the silent e pattern. This week, we are learning about suffixes. Students learned that by adding a suffix to the base a word, the meaning of the word changes. See the pictures below for the word study rules we follow in class.
Social Studies/Science:
In science, we are learning about weather. Last week, students learned different ways Native Americans recorded weather using various symbols. This week, students are learning how we can observe and record weather in modern times.
Ask your child
- What is the silent e (or magic e) pattern? Can you give me an example of silent e (magic e) words?
- What is a suffix? How can you tell the difference between a vowel suffix and a consonant suffix?
- How can you make your speech more persuasive?
Snapshots From our Classroom
Buddies
Stop Motion
Writing Partners
Let me know!
Feel free to email me at: marthur@lexingtonma.org