Week 4


LITERACY

Writing: 3D students have started on a new writing project about fall. The focus of this project is using our five senses to write with elaborative detail. I started off the week by reading the book Let It Fall  by to the class. The students were asked to listen to fall/autumn specific words or phrases and we compiled a list on chart paper. This upcoming week, students will be put into groups to read and look through other fall books to gather words and/or phrases for each of the five senses. This will be the starting block of their descriptive paragraph about fall. 
Handwriting: The students have begun practicing a new set of letters in cursive handwriting: the "kite string" letters. These letters include i, t, u, w, j, p.

Reading/Spelling: The students received their first spelling list of the year! The focus this week was on short vowel sounds in double syllable words.  The students get several opportunities to work with the spelling list words throughout the week and are given an informal test at the end of the week. Practicing these words at home is strongly encouraged. 

MATHEMATICS

The students continued to practice counting backwards to find the missing 'gap' number between two numbers. Once they found the missing 'gap' number they were able to extend the decreasing pattern. They were introduced to two new math games to practice the skills of counting on and counting back between two numbers.




This week, the students practiced their basic facts of +2 in the form of Mad Minutes. Their personal goal was to get more equations solved each day. On Thursday, we had our final Mad Minute of the week and I am happy to report  (again!) that all of the students improved compared to their scores on Monday. Way to go!

SCIENCE

The students were finally able to answer the questions "what is a mineral?" and "what are rocks made up of?". A rock is a naturally occurring solid that is made made up of minerals. A mineral is formed naturally in the Earth and they are solid, inorganic and have a crystal structure.

Before their Rock Walk Field Trip, the students were introduced to six different words that scientists use to describe rocks, the properties! As a group, the students tried to figure out the definitions for each of the properties. Once they learned about each property they had the opportunity to observe various rocks and describe the rock based on two or more of those properties. Keeping the properties in mind, the students were asked to find two very different rocks on their field trip that they will be conducting a Rock Test with later on in the week. The students had some really great finds!























Highlights of the Week




 













Team Work!

















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