3M News
Week of 2/1/16
A note from Ms. Massara
Shoes boxes- Please save shoe boxes for your child's Valentine's Day card box. You can send them in any time next week.
Book Fair- We will be attending the book fair on Thursday 2/11.
Math test- Our math test on fractions will be on Friday.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks so much for your continued support!
Important Dates:
2/8 Interim Reports in Genesis, Grades 1-5 3:30 PM
2/9-2/11 Scholastic Book Fair
2/11 Book Fair Family Night 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
2/12 Valentine’s Day Parties 2:00 PM
2/15 Presidents’ Day – No School
2/16 No School For Students-Teacher Professional Development
2/18 PTA Meeting 8:30 AM, Library
2/18 Community Meeting 1:45 PM
2/19 Spaghetti Bingo 6:00 PM
2/25 Salad Bar Lunch
2/26 School Store 11:50 AM – 12:40 PM
Math
Fractions
This week in math we learned about all different types of fractions. One was improper fractions. In proper fractions are when the numerator is bigger than the denominator. They are used for counting the parts in more than one whole. Another fraction we learned about is mixed numbers. They are also used for counting more than one whole. Mixed numbers have a whole number and a fraction. We also got MAD in math this week. Getting MAD means multiply the whole number and the denominator then add the product plus the numerator. Then keep the denominator the same. This is how we learned to turn an improper fraction into a mixed number. Learning about fractions was fun. I hope you learned as much as we did!
-Bennett,
Exploring equivalent fractions on a number line
Fraction Pizza
-CeCe,
Chemistry
This week in science we learned how to make mixtures with our chemical and water. Then we learned how to separate the chemicals from water. One chemical went through the filter, another chemical stayed in the filter, and another chemical was in the petri dish. To make a mixture you have to take 10 ML of water in a cup, then take a level spoonful of your chemical, and then stir for 30 seconds. Then, you must dump two more level spoonfuls in and stir for another 30 seconds. Have you ever done that in third grade? Some of our chemical mixtures could be separated by evaporation and some can be separated by filtration. Did you know that? Well, I hope you liked reading about our science unit!
- Avery and Linus
Reader's Workshop
Homographs
Do you know what homographs are? If you don’t you’ll find out after you read this. A homographs are words that are spelled the same, sometimes pronounced the same or different, and have different meanings. Here are some examples wind and wind, bat and bat, fan and fan. Wind is to pull something. Wind blows in the air. A bat lives in a tree. Another bat is in baseball. You need to read the sentence to know what definition of the word is being used. Now you know what homographs are.
-Brooke, Connor, Michael
Contractions
In 3M we have been learning a lot about contractions. We performed contraction surgery this week. We made a surgery booklet for contractions. Our surgery book is a book full of contractions with bandage apostrophes. The surgery booklet teaches us contractions in a fun way. This is how you do it. You get 4 or more sheets of paper for the book. Then you cut out two words that make up the contraction. Then you cut off the letters we don’t need anymore and glue the contraction together with the bandage apostrophe. Then we wrote the words that make up the contraction. Before we get to anything else a contraction is two words put together and the apostrophe takes the place of a letter or more than one letter. That is contractions!
-Evelyn and Natalia
Yonder Mountain
In 3M we read the book Yonder Mountain. It was awesome! It was about a chief named Chief Sky who was getting too old and the tribe had to choose a new chief. They nominated three men to take the test to become a chief. The three men were Black Bear, Gray Wolf, and Soaring Eagle and they are all Cherokee Indians. They were tested to go to the top of Yonder Mountain and bring back what they found. The first one, Black Bear, went a little bit up the mountain and then stopped to rest. That’s when he found crystals and that’s what he brought back but he did not follow orders. The second one, Gray Wolf, went halfway up the mountain and passed by healing plants and decided to take them. The last man, Soaring Eagle, followed orders and went to the peak of the mountain but only brought a story back. Soaring Eagle got chosen by Chief Sky to become the new chief to lead them on a journey up Yonder Mountain. And that was the story of Yonder Mountain!
-Carrie and Sabrina
Compare and Contrast
We learned a lot about how to compare and contrast. When you compare you find the similarities of the two things. To contrast is to find the differences in two things. Some signal words to let us know two things are being compared are similar, alike, same, as well as, and both. Some signal words to let us know two things are being contrasted on the other hand, although, different, however, and as opposed to.
-Sammy
Analyzing and Evaluating
This week we learned all about analyzing and evaluating! Analyzing is when you carefully scan though the text and find clues to evaluate a character in the story. Evaluating is when you form an opinion about a character from the clues you found from analyzing. We did a RACE response on one of the characters from a story we read. We had to analyze clues from the text to form an opinion and evaluate the character. For example, “No matter how long he’d have to wait.” I could analyze that clue and evaluate his actions to show that Joe is patient. Thanks for reading!
-Ryan
Subject and Verb Agreement
This week we learned about subject and verb agreement. Subject verb agreement is when the subject is plural the verb stays the same and when the subject is singular the verb has to end with an “s” or “es”. For example, in the sentence, She plays tag on the playground with her friends. In this sentence “she” is singular so “plays” has to have an s on the end. That is what we learned about subject verb agreement this week.
-Mia and Colette
Writer's Workshop
Text and Graphic Features
Did you know that text and graphic features are good for organizing your writing? You may find them in books, posters, and many others places. We are here to teach you about them. We are now adding them to our information books to help our reader when they read our information book. Some text and graphic features are covers, titles, table of contents, headings, captions, pictures, diagrams, labels, special print, and many more.
-Camila and Kyle
Art Class- Pinch Pots
Dear Readers,
Do you know what pinch pots are? We made one in art this week. They are clay formed into a sort of baby rattle. The ones that we are making are sort of like a toy also. You start to make them by forming a hole in the center of the clay. Then you pinch the sides to create the pot.
-Moriah and Sophia