Happy Winter Break!

 Thank you to the room parents and volunteers for running a fun party for the class!  Have a wonderful winter break and see you in the New Year!

December News

 Happy December!!

What’s happening in class this month?

Reading:  We are starting December with an author study on Janell Cannon, where students will be noticing similarities in her writing and illustrations, as well as getting to know some interesting characters.  We will work on some characterization skills as well.  

Guided Reading has been going strong.  Groups are working on summarizing texts, finding the message or lesson of the story, identifying nonfiction text features – so many important reading skills! :)  

Our December book report will be on a FICTION book at students’ personal reading levels.  It will be due after winter break, on Tuesday, January 7th..

Language/Writing:

We have published our narratives – yay!  Students had a “publishing party” right before Thanksgiving break where we rotated to read several classmates’ stories and leave compliments.  We are now starting our nonfiction writing unit.  This begins by reading mentor texts during which students will learn that authors write nonfiction to inform, explain, and even entertain their readers.  Many facts are included in these types of books, with pictures, diagrams, and drawings to support the text.  Authors also use figurative language (it’s not just for fiction writing!) and vary the font size to stress certain words.  After the mentor texts students will research an animal and will be utilizing the strategies they observed from nonfiction authors to write a nonfiction book. 

Students will also be practicing language/grammar skills including: proper nouns and recognizing and sorting words based on beginning & ending digraphs. 

Math: Students are continuing to work on our measurement module! We are measuring time, weight (in grams & kilograms), and liquid volume (in milliliters & liters).  We will take the mid-module assessment the first week of December before moving on to rounding to the nearest ten & hundred, and using the standard algorithm to add and subtract two- and three- digit numbers.  We are set to finish Module 2 on the last day before winter break.

Science/STEM:

Students are continuing to learn all about forces!  In November, students learned that the train rose because a force acted upon it.  Then, students investigated what objects magnetic forces can act on, and discovered that it was a magnetic force that caused the train to rise.  Students added the words attract & repel to their science vocabulary.  In December, students will wrap up chapter 3, focusing on the question: Why does the train fall?  While learning about gravity and in chapter 4, we will focus on the question: Why does the train float even though gravity is acting on it? as students explore the concept of balanced forces.  Ask your child to tell you what he/she has been discovering about forces!