Week Nine

We had a productive week in Room 104.  We started reading and writing units on non-fiction, worked a lot with place value and numbers in math, and continued our study of solids and liquids in science. We had some fun, too!

Our ELA Block included our sixth week of spelling and our fourth week of handwriting. How is your child doing? Remember that SpellingCity is there for you to try activities and practice spelling tests at home. In HWT, we worked on "magic c" letters a, d, and g. In language, we looked more at nouns, practicing some irregular plural nous and identifying proper nouns.  In RUOS, we began our "Becoming Experts" unit on reading non-fiction. We looked at books and tried to pay attention to the details, ask questions, and ask what the author is trying to teach me. In WUOS, we started non-fiction writing in our unit "The How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing." We're trying to include more details and organize our writing by chapters, topics, or steps.

In our afternoon block, we investigated liquids in Science. We observed liquids as they moved in a bottle. We noticed that they take the shape of their container, they always go to the bottom of the container because of gravity, and that the top is always level to the ground. We also moved liquids to different sized or shaped containers to see how they'd change. Finally, we reviewed what we learned, watched a video on solids. liquids, and gases, and did a comprehension check. In math, continued our module on place value and counting. We worked on counting bundles craft sticks in groups of ones, tens, and hundreds. We tried to count up and down from 90 to 1,000 using one, tens, and hundreds. We looked at the value of each number in a number, and then tried looking at numbers in unit form (368=3 hundred, 6 tens, 8 ones) and expanded form (368=300+60+8). We did a great job! We also had a World Culture lesson on Africa and snuck in a silly spider-pumpkin art project on Friday!

We also had some great specials. We worked on finishing pictures in Art with Ms. Sundquist. We learned some new songs and played  a game in Music with Ms. Altshuler. We learned and used more descriptive vocabulary words in Spanish with Sra. Colmenero. We read a story and checked out books in Library with Mr. Withers. We had some fun games and activities (including Gods and Pharaohs) in P.E. with Mr. Simatic. And we met with our Reading Buddies in Mr. Manus' class on Friday, too!

Looking ahead, we will have two early dismissal days next week for P/T Conferences. Have a great weekend. See you back in Room 104 on Monday!