- This Friday, December 16th is our field trip to the Meymandi Orchestra Hall to watch the North Carolina Symphony perform. We will be leaving Morrisville at 9:30 sharp, so please be sure to have your child at school on time. It is recommended that your child dress in nice clothes for this event. Your child can bring clothes to change back into when we return, if they wish.
- Mid Year Benchmark Reading and Math testing will be on Monday, December 19th (Reading) and Tuesday, December 20th (Math). Please let me know if your child will be absent either one of these days, as they will have to make it up this week.
- Track Out Day is Wednesday, December 21st. Report cards will be going home that day.
- We will be staying in the trailer third quarter, therefore the students will be able to keep their school supplies at school over break.
- Track in day for quarter three is Monday, January 23rd.
What We Are Learning This Week:
Reading:
This week in reading the students will finish our study on analyzing nonfiction text to determine and describe whether it is a firsthand or secondhand account of a topic, comparing the similarities and differences between the two accounts and integrating information between the two to respond to a question. The students will take their final reading assessment on Wednesday and it will cover these topics. The rest of the week, the students will work on strengthen their reading comprehension through reading both fiction and nonfiction texts.
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
*Is this a firsthand or secondhand account of the topic? Explain how you know.
*How are these articles similar? How are they different?
*Which account is more trustworthy?
Writing:
This week in writing, the students will work on writing an introduction and conclusion on their energy research reports. They will also, work on editing/revising their work in writing conferences with the teacher and peer conferencing. Finally, the students will work on publishing their report in Microsoft Word.
Fab 5:
1. Clear topic sentence
2. 3-5 elaborated supporting details
3. Variety of transition words (try to use at least 3!)
4. Strong vocabulary
5. Clear concluding statement (that is different from your topic sentence)
Questions You Can Ask You Child At Home:
*How are you coming with your research?
*Tell me about the Fab 5?
*Where are you in the writing process?
*What are your strengths as a writer?
*What do you need to work on?
Math:
This week in math the students will work on recognizing lines of symmetry in both regular and irregular shapes. They will learn how shapes have vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines of symmetry and how some figures can have no lines of symmetry (asymmetrical), while other can have many lines of symmetry. The students will also investigate 2-dimensional figures and categorize them based on their attributes. There will be a strong focus on the classifying them based on their lines, sides, and angles. The students will also learn about the two different ways that we can classify triangles. The first way is by their sides: equilateral triangles (equal sides), isosceles triangles (2 equal sides), and scalene triangles (no equal sides) and angles: acute triangles (all angles are less than 90 degrees) right (one angle is 90 degrees) or obtuse (one angle is greater than 90 degrees). The students will take their final math assessment on Friday.
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
*Show me how many lines of symmetry are in a square? Rectangle? Trapezoid?
*What are some ways that we can classify shapes?
*Show me an example of an obtuse scalene triangle? Or an acute isosceles triangle.
Science:
The students will review magnetism and electricity on Monday and Tuesday. Students should study their notes to prepare for the Magnetism and Electricity test. Guiding study questions have been listed in the Science Notebook. The test will be given on Wednesday, 12/14. It is NOT an open note test.
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
*Show me your science notebook.
*Are there any areas that you need help understanding?
Reading:
This week in reading the students will finish our study on analyzing nonfiction text to determine and describe whether it is a firsthand or secondhand account of a topic, comparing the similarities and differences between the two accounts and integrating information between the two to respond to a question. The students will take their final reading assessment on Wednesday and it will cover these topics. The rest of the week, the students will work on strengthen their reading comprehension through reading both fiction and nonfiction texts.
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
*Is this a firsthand or secondhand account of the topic? Explain how you know.
*How are these articles similar? How are they different?
*Which account is more trustworthy?
Writing:
This week in writing, the students will work on writing an introduction and conclusion on their energy research reports. They will also, work on editing/revising their work in writing conferences with the teacher and peer conferencing. Finally, the students will work on publishing their report in Microsoft Word.
Fab 5:
1. Clear topic sentence
2. 3-5 elaborated supporting details
3. Variety of transition words (try to use at least 3!)
4. Strong vocabulary
5. Clear concluding statement (that is different from your topic sentence)
Questions You Can Ask You Child At Home:
*How are you coming with your research?
*Tell me about the Fab 5?
*Where are you in the writing process?
*What are your strengths as a writer?
*What do you need to work on?
Math:
This week in math the students will work on recognizing lines of symmetry in both regular and irregular shapes. They will learn how shapes have vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines of symmetry and how some figures can have no lines of symmetry (asymmetrical), while other can have many lines of symmetry. The students will also investigate 2-dimensional figures and categorize them based on their attributes. There will be a strong focus on the classifying them based on their lines, sides, and angles. The students will also learn about the two different ways that we can classify triangles. The first way is by their sides: equilateral triangles (equal sides), isosceles triangles (2 equal sides), and scalene triangles (no equal sides) and angles: acute triangles (all angles are less than 90 degrees) right (one angle is 90 degrees) or obtuse (one angle is greater than 90 degrees). The students will take their final math assessment on Friday.
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
*Show me how many lines of symmetry are in a square? Rectangle? Trapezoid?
*What are some ways that we can classify shapes?
*Show me an example of an obtuse scalene triangle? Or an acute isosceles triangle.
Science:
The students will review magnetism and electricity on Monday and Tuesday. Students should study their notes to prepare for the Magnetism and Electricity test. Guiding study questions have been listed in the Science Notebook. The test will be given on Wednesday, 12/14. It is NOT an open note test.
Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home:
*Show me your science notebook.
*Are there any areas that you need help understanding?
