The weather is beautiful outside and our classroom is getting warmer. I strongly suggest that your student come to school with a water bottle and light sweatshirt. Students may also bring a towel to use for outside learning. When the weather is nice I like to take students outside to read.
NWEA
We will begin testing this week from Wednesday-Friday. I will reserve 30 minutes each day for testing. Most students take between 30-60 minutes to finish the 50 question test. Please let me know if your child will be out of school this week or next so that I can make arrangements for an altered testing schedule for them. I bring in gum, hard candy, and pop-cycles for the kids during testing. If your child has braces, allergies, or you aren't a fan of the snacks please email me a snack type that you approve of or send an alternative for your child in their backpack.
Math
We will work with graphs and continue our work with multi step word problems with addition and subtraction through 1,000. From the work we have begun with story problems I've noticed that students are able to figure out the math just fine. The struggle is in understanding the story to do the correct equation. Now that there are multiple steps our kids really have to stop and think about the meaning of the text. Here are two examples:
At the arcade, Glen won 25 tickets playing a basketball game. Martina won 48 tickets playing a bowling game. They combined their winnings to get a soccer ball that costs 56 tickets. How many tickets did Glen and Martina have left? -Most students add all three numbers together or disregard their purchase and just add the total number of thickets won.
Mia read 12 books. Pauline read half as many books. How many books did Mia and Pauline read altogether? - Most students answer 6.
The mistakes are kids are making are perfect. They can read and they can do the math; we just need to focus on the details by slowing down a little bit. They are loving working with "big numbers" and have enjoyed our sidebar conversations about multiplication and division. This group of students confidently approaches a challenge and works together to make sure everyone is understanding. I just adore your kids. Thank you for sharing them with me!
Reading
Our students will begin to explore various styles of writing: advertisements, poetry, emails, songs... Our main focus is to understand the text, including the author's purpose behind the writing.
Support at Home
Read, Read, Read! Students should be reading each day for 20-30 minutes. Practicing basic math facts is still critical, especially subtraction. Using IXL, sections G, H, I, J and R will support our work at school this week.
