12-4-15

12-4-15

Polar Express Pajama Jam

Our holiday party will be on Friday, December 18th.  We will be having our Polar Express Pajama Party.  We will watch the movie during the morning and have some popcorn and juice boxes.  Our afternoons are pretty packed as it is but any left over time will be spent having a Read-In.  Kids are more than welcome to bring in a blanket, pillow, books, stuffed animal, etc...  Just remember that they have to be able to take it all home on the bus that day.  If you are interested in donating some microwaveable popcorn, paper bowls, or juice boxes, please let me know.  I will also need a volunteer to come in and pop the popcorn in the staff lounge if anyone is available that morning.

Math

We have reached the point in our math lessons where we are learning about composing and decomposing ones and tens when adding or subtracting.  Just remember, 

composing = carrying over  

decomposing = borrowing.  

They just call the process by a different name now.  Students are also expected to draw pictures of the place value disks to show the process.

We will continue to practice this strategy through the rest of Module 4 and again in Module 5.  We just finished Lesson 12 if you are using Zearn at home.  It will be a good idea to practice on Zearn at home to reinforce the 2 strategies.

Composing

Decomposing

Language Arts

During the next few weeks, we’ll explore the theme Tell Me About It. Our reading selections in this unit focus on how we communicate with each other. From a fanciful tale of typing cows to artists from around the world, we’ll read about the ways people share their ideas and feelings. As we read, we’ll explore the Big Idea “We learn from each other.” We began this week with a humorous fiction story called Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type.  Farmer Brown’s cows have found a typewriter, and they’re using it to demand better working conditions. What will Farmer Brown do? We also read about how real animals communicate in the informational text Talk About Smart Animals! Throughout the week we considered the question “What helps you make a decision about a character?”

Target Vocabulary: problem, impossible, understand, impatient, furious, demand, gathered, believe

Phonics Skills: Base words with endings -s, -es (including pronunciation and syllables)

Vocabulary Strategy: Prefixes pre- (means “before”) and mis- (means “not” or “badly”)

Comprehension Skill: Conclusions— use details to figure out more about the text

Comprehension Strategy: Infer/predict—use clues to figure out more about the story parts or important ideas

Social Studies

Portage - Phase 3

Here come the Settlers!  In the 1830's the first pioneers of Portage made their way west from the state of New York.  They traveled by covered wagon that were pulled by oxen.  They had to travel on roads where the mud was so thick they were lucky to make it 10 miles a day.  The pioneers were attracted to the area because of the rich farmland, oak openings, and prairie land.  Despite the wolves that roamed the area and mosquitoes that infested the wetlands, word spread back east to New York and New England about this great farmland.

The Little House on the Prairie books go great with this part of the unit.  We are even watching the very first episode of the show that was on TV back in the 70's. 

We will continue to build our log cabins, add the general store, one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith, and sawmill throughout the next week.

Then we will start working on what Portage looks like today.  My goal is to have this social studies unit wrapped up by winter break.  That way we can focus on maps when we return for the new year.