News You Can Use
from Ms. Bez and Mrs. Rise
Reading
Over the next couple of weeks readers will immerse themselves in studying elements of plot and plot structure. Our study will focus on identifying characters, setting, problem/conflict, climax, solution/resolution, and conclusion. We will begin by working as a whole class to dissect these elements in Tomie de Paola’s Strega Nona and Dav Pilkey’s Dogbreath. We will then move on to using various texts and picture books for students to continue this work in partners and on their own. Readers will also use sticky notes to track these elements in their independent reading books.
Writing and Word Work
I have been so impressed with the hard work of our writers! Their The Best Part of Me pieces turned out so special. We also began creating heart maps in our writer’s notebooks to kick off our personal narrative unit. These maps help writers to brainstorm and record important people, places, and objects from their lives. Each part of their heart map can then help spark special memories that could be turned into stories. Our next step will be narrowing down our big ideas—watermelon stories—to small moments, or seed stories. Finally, writers will use a variety of graphic organizers to outline their stories. Graphic organizers such as timelines and story mountains help writers to keep their stories focused and organized.
Our next word study unit will focus on suffixes. Students will be bringing home new lists and spelling boards today. Students will once again need to complete at least 4 of the activities and have you initial, which shows me that you have seen their completed work. Spelling boards are due on Friday, October 3nd. The suffixes we will focus on are –ly, -er, -est, and –less.
Math
Mathematicians did a wonderful job mastering the concepts of Chapter 1. Tests came home on Friday for you to review with your child and were due back, signed, today.
Chapter 2 has brought about a lot of excitement—multiplication! Students will learn a variety of strategies to solve multiplying 1-digit numbers by larger numbers, including the Distributive Property. Next week students will take a mid-chapter check to see how they are doing before we move on to solving two-step multiplication problems and multiplying by larger numbers with regrouping.