Happy Mother's Day.
Thank you for all you do!
What We Learned This Week
Word Study
We are continuing our study of r-controlled or r-influenced patterns. We reviewed our initial patterns of ar, ir, or, and ur. R-influenced vowels are tricky as many of these words have to be memorized due to them sharing sounds. For example, ir and ur have the same sound which can lead to misspellings of bird (burd) and burn (birn). We introduced ar patterns and related features this week by studying ar, are, air, and patterns that share these sounds, e.g., where. Students did an open sort first where they determine how they will sort the words. Students might sort by alphabetical order or shared beginning consonants. These inventive sorts show a lot about how a student views decoding and encoding and they can be directed to look for initial blends and vowels instead, which are often much more helpful features. We follow the open sort with a closed sort, where the features are dictated by the teacher. Closed sorts still require the students to use both sight (spelling features and patterns) and sound to sort and may include "oddballs," words that share a sound but not a spelling pattern or share a spelling pattern, but do not sound alike. Oddballs we encountered included bear, heart, pear, wear, and where. R-influenced words include a number of homophones (e.g., pear and pair, bear and bare) which require direct instruction and memorization as well.
Reading Workshop
Students are continuing to grow through individual conferences. I'm seeing great growth in these conferences as I can focus on truly individualized reading and word study goals for each student. Conferences with fiction books are focusing on figurative topics of author's message and inference. Book choice is still a challenge for some students. As we head into summer reading, it is important to support your student with appropriate or just-right books. Students should read books they can read fluently, with a normal speaking voice pace, an accuracy rate of approximately 98%, and expression, attending to punctuation and context. You can challenge your student with harder reading material of short passages if you are explicitly working with them on an identified skill, but they should read just-right books when reading independently.
Writing Workshop
Students are building productivity and stamina through their peer letter writing. Students are encouraged to use "wonderful words," great vocabulary and to support them with specific examples or memories of when their classmates were "kind" or "enthusiastic." Each letter gets stronger. This increased writing will support students this week as they take the District Writing Assessment.
Students continue to research animals, working towards a final product which will share what they have learned. Students will get to choose how they do this (e.g., slide show, iMovie, poster board, diorama, etc.).
Math
We continued our study of the metric system with an emphasis on personal references. Students know there are 100 centimeters in a meter and have personal references for a centimeter (width of a jumbo paperclip) and a meter (width of a door). Students also used meter sticks to explore the school looking for personal references. We discussed how a good personal reference is something that will be consistent over time. For example, our height will change and the size of posters and flags will be different, but a piece of printer paper is always 8.5" x 11", a good reference for 1 foot. Personal references are essential for catching errors in measurement computations. Centimeter also contains "cent" which means 100 and can be remembered by thinking of 100 years in a century or 100 cents in one dollar. We ended the week by introducing the fact that there are 1,000 meters in a kilometer.
Science
We continued life science through our research and studying the commonalities of life cycles: birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Important Dates & Reminders
Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders
Happy May!
May 12th through May 14, 2015 - Students will eat in the classroom due to the 5th Grade Musical. Please do not send peanuts or tree nuts in packed lunches!
May 18, 2015 - All library materials are due.
If you have lost an item, email our media clerk, Edie Hartmus to confirm payment or replacement at enhartmus@uaschools.org. You can look for a used copy online or at a book store. It's usually cheaper for you and it guarantees the book will be back on the shelf for next year. If you lost the book and it was hardback, please purchase the hardcopy edition. Alternatively, send cash or a check to Windermere for the replacement cost. Mrs. Hartmus will let you know what that is. Outstanding items that have not been replaced will block your child's record at the beginning of the next school year.
May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day
June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm
June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
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