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| Happy Snow Day! |
We are currently reading, A Cricket in Times Square. This class loves read alouds. Mario Bellini and his parents own a struggling newsstand in the station. Mario hears a strange sound for New York, a cricket chirping. Written in 1960 this is STILL a timeless treasure. Students are loving the adventures of Chester, Tucker, and Harry.
MATH
In math, we have been working with fractions. We have reviewed fractions on a number line and fractions of a set or a whole. We are using manipulatives such as a fraction tiles, rulers, and pattern blocks to look at fraction parts, equivalent fractions, and fractions greater than one.
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| Mal works on equivalent fractions with fraction strips. |
We also made fraction sundaes last week. Students chose ice cream flavors and wrote fractions for the sundaes they created.
We continue to do spiral review each week and look at concepts such as addition and subtraction with regrouping, perimeter and area, elapsed time, graphs, multiplication, and word problems.
ELA
We have been working in Book Groups. There are four different books we are reading right now. Groups read, discuss, and answer questions about the books they are reading.
We are also working on some MCAS practice. MCAS - stands for Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. This year we are doing MCAS 2.0 online version. We have been working on paper/pencil versions of the ELA test and have also started working on an online version of the test as well. In order to be more comfortable with the computer format, we have been working together to choose best answers, practicing how to write a response, and also working on getting more familiar with using the Chromebook keyboard.
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| Chromebook practice! |
On Monday we started learning about the Puritans. Ten years after the arrival of the Pilgrims, this second group of English settlers arrived. Students will discuss the reasons these settlers came and similarities and differences between the two groups.
We started our discussion using the text, Massachusetts Our Home as we read. We will also look at other texts that focus on life in colonial times.
This week are finishing up our nonfiction books. Students have been working hard on writing the chapters of their text. We will finish by writing a conclusion chapter this week and put together our final drafts. We have books about Ancient Greeks, soccer, dogs, ballet, and more! I will share these with you at our conferences this month.
Word Study groups have been busy with word sorts. Our four word study groups sort words, alphabetize, find meanings, and separate the words into syllables. This week we went to the Computer Lab to work on typing word study sentences. We changed fonts, used italics, different text colors, and underlined our word study words. Students enjoyed the challenge of working on these sentences.
