Weekly Update 2/20/2017

Updates/Reminders: 

• Single Subject Acceleration (SSA) is the practice of assigning a student to a higher-grade level than is typical, given the student's age, for the purpose of providing access to appropriately challenging learning opportunities.  SSA is an accelerative practice that allows students to show mastery of the content of a course without having taken the course.  If you want to learn more about SSA, there are a number of upcoming Parent Information Sessions that you can attend.  You can view the schedule here: http://bit.ly/2m0U7pC or by visiting the WCPSS Accelerative Practices website at http://wakeacceleration.weebly.com/.  
• Our incredible PTA organizes a Science Go Round every year.  This year's event will be held on Thursday, February 23rd.  For this the classes get to learn about various science topics from volunteers, who come to talk to the children.  It is a very fun event and one that the students look forward to each year!
• Interims will go home this Friday, February 24th.  
• Next week Morrisville will celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday and the fact that March is reading month.  Encourage your child to participate in the Dr. Seuss themed spirit activities below: 

• The Morrisville Science Fair is scheduled for Thursday, March 2nd from 6-8PM.  If your child is interested in presenting a project, they are to fill out the following form https://docs.google.com/a/wcpss.net/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3Svr_19GV1A3Q6h017SbOgIDc85X24L-QOiN7MME5dYwAjg/viewform?c=0&w=1 to register for this event. 

What We Are Learning This Week:
Reading: 

Last Thursday, the students began their second novel study unit that centered around social issues.  Some of the common social issues that we will be discussing are: Growing Up, Courage & Honor, Culture & Diversity, Overcoming Obstacles, Fitting In, Forgiveness, and Abandonment.  The students will study these social issues through a variety of picture books that will be used during the daily mini-lessons and their novel study.

Some specific mini-lesson topics this week will include:

*Good readers reread familiar texts to find and identify the social issues thread throughout the text.

*Good readers evaluate situations or character responses that deal with social issues by responding to prompts.

*Good readers talk about what they know about gender, race, or class before reading a story that has one of these at the core of the story. 

Questions You Can Ask You Child At Home:

*What social issue(s) is/are found in the book you are reading?

*What details from the text support it?

*What is fair/unfair in your novel?  Why?

*What pressures does your main character have?

*How does your main character behave?  *What might motivate or influence your character to behave that way?

Writing: 

This week in writing the students will be finishing their conclusions and working on editing and revising their paper independently and then with their writing partner.  This paper will not be taken to final copy.  The students will start another opinion paper at the end of this week.

Questions You Can Ask You Child At Home:

*How did you begin your introduction?  Does it catch your reader’s attention?

*Do you have topic and concluding sentences for each paragraph?

*Do you have at least three details to support each topic sentence?

*Tell me how your conclusion shows why your claim is significant?

Math: 

This week, in math, the students will learn about different strategies for comparing fractions.  Some of the helpful techniques that we will be focusing on this week are creating visual representations (fraction bars), ordering the fractions on a number line, and by finding common numerators and denominators. The students will take a common assessment on this skill next Monday, February 27th. 

Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home: 

*Show me all of the different ways that you have learned to compare fractions.

*How can you use benchmark fractions like  1/2 to compare fractions?

*Which method of comparing fractions do you feel the most successful using?

Social Studies: 

This week, the students will begin the Earth Materials (Rocks & Minerals) unit.  Students will observe the properties of rocks and minerals and learn the difference between rocks and minerals.

Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home: 

*What are some properties of rocks and minerals that you are learning about in class? 
*What is the difference between rocks and minerals?