Happy Fall Friday Families!

We had a wonderful time today celebrating the season! It was nice to take time to have some fun! 

Literacy

*We have just finished up another text, The Road to Freedom, about a mother and daughter’s journey to Canada to escape slavery in the South. We used this text to continue to talk about how a character's perspective influences their point of view. We have also continued working on summarizing stories while including a character's response to the events in the story. As we closed out this week, we moved back to nonfiction with a new text about Cesar Chavez, a migrant worker who made a significant impact on the rights of workers. We are using this text to continue our work on identifying an author’s main point and their supporting reasons and evidence.   

Writing

*We are wrapping up our first analytical piece of writing. Students read two nonfiction articles and analyzed the information. In doing so they decided whether they personally felt that cellphones should be allowed in school. Surprisingly, not all students felt that they should! As we planned for the paper, we focused on the key parts of an essay: the introduction, conclusion, and choosing key details and text support. Students should be working to finish these essays next week and will submit them for review. At some point they will be sharing them with you at home!

Math

*We are at the end of our second unit in Math which focused on fractions. The Unit 2 targets included addition and subtractions of fractions with unlike denominators and solving fraction story problems. We did a fun google form review with a Toy Story theme to help prepare for our test, which was given this morning. Feedback will be provided soon for students and families. Next week we will begin our work with Unit 3 which focuses on decimals. We will be writing decimals in standard form, word form, and expanded form, rounding decimals, and solving addition and subtraction of decimals problems.

Social Studies

*When Social Studies resumes after our science cycle, we will continue to learn about different types of governments found around the world: Democracy, Dictatorship, Parliamentary System, and Monarchy. Students will be deciding and defending which government they feel is most effective and best for the people. 

Science

*We have moved on from our work with ecosystems and have been learning about the four Earth systems: the hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere. Students began by learning about what types of things are found in each system. Then this week we looked closer at how the systems interact to form various types of weather. 

Other Notes

If your students are involved in band or orchestra, please make sure that they have checked their schedule on the days they attend and are aware of their designated lesson time.

Upcoming Events

Nov 2 - No School - State-allocated planning day 

Nov 3 - No School - Election

Nov 11 - Veteran’s Day

Nov 13 - Half Day

Nov 20 - Trimester 1 Ends

Nov 25-27 No School

 

Happy Friday Families!

It was so great to see many of you at conferences! I really enjoyed the opportunity to speak with you! Going forward, although parent and student office hours will no longer be a part of the new schedule, I am always happy to communicate with you via phone or email!

Please reference the Principal's Message and the Superintendent's message regarding schedule changes & in-person safety procedures. 

Literacy

*We have just finished up another text, Operation Clean Sweep. We are using this text to talk about how a character's perspective influences their point of view. In this particular test, the story was told from the point of view of a young boy in the early 1900s when women had recently won the right to vote.  We have also been working on summarizing stories while including a character's response to the events in the story. Next week we will begin another text titled Road to Freedom. We will continue to focus on how point of view influences how the story is told, as this story is told from the perspective of a young girl who is escaping slavery with her mother.

Writing

*Next week, we will begin our first analytical piece of writing. During writing lessons this week we learned how to analyze a prompt in order to respond effectively.  Students will read an article titled  "Cell Phones in Schools" and will choose a perspective from which to respond to the question, "Should students be able to carry their cellphone with them throughout the school day?" We will focus on the key parts of an essay such as the introduction, conclusion, and choosing key details and text support. 

Math

*We are currently working within the second unit in Math which focuses on fractions. The Unit 2 targets include addition and subtractions of fractions with unlike denominators and solving fraction story problems. Students have completed two checkpoints on these targets, and are receiving instruction based on the needs identified on the assessments. The end of unit assessment will be given at the end of this month. 


Social Studies

*We started our discussion on the responsibilities and powers of government officials at various levels and branches of government and in different times and places. We will begin to focus specifically on the responsibilities and roles of the branches of the U.S. government. Starting on Monday with our new schedule, Social Studies will no longer be taught asynchronously, but will now be instructed directly.


Science
Once our cycle of Social Studies is complete, we will once again begin to work on Science. We will continue our focus on ecosystems. Over the next few weeks, students will be learning more about how the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers contribute to a food chain, and ultimately, a food web. 

If your students are involved in band or orchestra, please make sure that they have checked their schedule on the days they attend and are aware of their designated lesson time.

Upcoming Events
Oct 19- Hybrid Schedule Begins 
Oct 20- Early Release Day@2:00

Nov 2- No School - District-allocated planning day 

Nov 3- No School - Election Day