Weekly Update 4/19/2017

Updates/Reminders - Mark Your Calendars!! 

• The Beach Field Trip (Fort Fisher Aquarium & Masonboro Island) is next Thursday, April 27th.  All students must be at school no later than 6:45AM.  The charter bus will be departing at Morrisville at 7:00AM sharp!  Please check your email early next week for more detailed information, as well as reminders about what to pack, travel itinerary, etc.  
• 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/.                                            *The Nomination Window for Track Four is May 5th to May 18th  (All forms MUST be received by the end of the school day on May 18th.  Late nomination forms will not be accepted.)
  *Morrisville's Anticipated Testing Dates:  Wednesday, May 31st or Thursday, June 1st
• Spring Pictures will be on Monday, April 24th.  The photographer will take a class photo, which must be prepaid (cost is $10) and individual pictures, which are not prepaid and you will have a chance to review them first before deciding to buy.  Our picture time slot is from 11:50-12:05.  
• Morrisville 5K Stampede will be on Sunday May 7th from 2:00-5:00PM at Morrisville Elementary.  To register, please visit this website: https://morrisvillepta.org/5k-stampede/.
• Mark your calendars for Morrisville's Got Talent!  Tracks 3 & 4 will perform on Friday, May 12th at 6:30PM.  Online registration will be open until April 28th.  Please check the MES website for more information. 
• Track Four Field Day is Friday, May 19th.  More information will follow closer to the date. 
• Reading EOGs are scheduled for Wednesday, June 21st and the Math EOGs are scheduled for Thursday, June 22nd.  If you know that your child will be absent for this assessment, please let me know as soon as possible, so a make-up day can be planned. 
• Meet the Teacher for the 2017-2018 school year will be on Tuesday, June 27th from 5:30-6:15PM.  

What We Are Learning This Week and NEXT:
Reading: 

This week and next week in reading, the students will be working on finding the main idea and supporting details in nonfiction texts.  They will read different articles with a partner and work on organizing the main ideas and supporting details of the different sections onto tree maps.  They will find that paying close attention to the first and last sentence, repeated words, headings, and thinking about what the section is mostly is about are helpful in finding the main idea.  The students will also work on creating a complete summary of the text.  Later next week, the students will move on to finding textual evidence to support their thinking in all of the genres.  

Questions You Can Ask You Child At Home:

*What strategies do you use to help you in finding the main idea?

*Tell me about the main ideas of the sections that you read in your partner activity.  

Writing: 

This week and next week in writing, the students will work on learning what persuasive writing is and how it is different from the opinion writing that they wrote last quarter.  The students will see good examples of persuasive writing through the mentor text, Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School.  The students will then work on brainstorming things that they like and things that they want to change to then finally determine which argument is the strongest and the one that they will want to write about.  They will organize their information on a tree map and then start writing, once that graphic organizer is complete.  

Questions You Can Ask You Child At Home:

*What is the difference between persuasive and opinion writing?

*What topics are you passionate or feel strongly about?

*What topics do you dislike and want to change?

*What topic did you have the strongest argument on?

Math: 

In math this week and next, the students will learn about decimals numbers, which will be a continuation from where we left off last quarter with fractions.  They will be focusing on the following objectives in particular:

       •Writing decimals as fractions and words

       •Recognizing how a decimal number can change when a tenth or hundredth is either added or subtracted

       •Comparing and ordering decimal numbers

       •Rounding decimal numbers to the nearest tenth and hundredth

Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home: 

*Can you write the following decimal (0.34) as a fraction?  In words?

*How would the decimal  0.7 change if you added two tenths? What if you subtracted 3 hundredths?

*Order the following decimals from lease to greatest: 0.4, 1.2, 0.38, 0.04. What strategy did you use to help you?

* Can you round the following decimal (0.67) to the nearest tenth? To the nearest hundredth?

Social Studies: 

This quarter in social studies the students will be learning about North Carolina’s geography, environment, and culture.  This week and next the students will spend time investigating the ways in which the population, transportation, landscape and communication has changed since statehood. They will be utilizing a lot of online resources, as well as become more familiar with reading different state maps. 

Questions You Can Ask Your Child At Home: 

*What are some ways that North Carolina has changed since statehood?