3-10-17

3-10-17

Thank you to Mrs. Weaver for being our first guest reader for March.  She chose a real tongue twister!!!  Fox in Socks

We finally wrapped up Module 5 this week.  Please look for both the Mid-Module and the End of Module Assessments.  If you notice that your child is still struggling with the addition and subtraction of 3-digit numbers, please try to keep practicing at home.  I will continue to practice at school as well.  My recommendation would be to pick one strategy that works for your child and stick with it until mastery.  All the different strategies are great for some kids but will also confuse others. 

Module 6:  Foundations of Multiplication and Division 

This week: During the next few weeks, we will be exploring the theme Changes, Changes Everywhere. We will read about babies that grow up, making new friends, how plants grow—even how goat wool gets changed into a rug! As we read, we will explore the Big Idea “Living things change over time. ”During this first week, we read Penguin Chick, about emperor penguins and how they raise their babies. This selection gave us information to use as we think about the question “How do you know which facts are important?

This week’s…

Target Vocabulary: finally, junior, otherwise, slippery, steer, waterproof, webbed, whistle

Phonics Skills: Words with r-controlled vowels er (father), ir (bird), ur (nurse)

Grammar Skill:  Adjectives

Comprehension Skill: Main ideas and details—tell important ideas and details about a topic

Comprehension Strategy: Infer/predict—use text clues to figure out important ideas

We are a bit behind in social studies.  One of these weeks, we are just going to have a social studies party to catch up.  We are slowly picking away at map skills.  Eventually we will turn our focus to continents and oceans.  Then we need to get started on our economics unit.  As you can see, we have a lot of topics to cover.  I usually am able to catch up on everything towards the end of the year because we will be in a less demanding spot with language arts and math.

3-3-17

3-3-17

Field Trip

We are headed to Shaw Theater on Monday, March 6th to see Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.  Everyone must bring their own lunch to school that day because we will be eating in our room.  The bus leaves around 11:30 and we will be back around 2:15.  Please let me know if you need me to order a sack lunch for your child from the cafeteria that day.

Snacks

Thank you to everyone who brings in snacks for the class every month.  If it's not too big of a hassle, already packaged snacks are the easiest and quickest.  There not as messy either.  Already packaged cheez-its or goldfish work great.  I can just pass them out quickly and we are on our way.  If I have to go around the room pouring cheez-its out of a box, then it takes a bit more time.

We are looking for parent volunteers to come into the classroom the whole month of March and share their favorite book with the class.  I realize everyone is very busy but if you happen to have a day off and would like to read to our class, please let me know.  We can work around your schedule.  

Every 2nd grader in Portage will be given the OLSAT test.  You should have received a letter earlier in the week explaining the test.  We have a 10 day window between March 20th-30th to administer the test to the kids.  It is broken up into 3 different parts that take around 30 minutes each.  The results of the test won't be sent home until sometime over the summer.

DINING OUT FUNDRAISER AT CULVER'S

On Tuesday, March 7th, we will be having another dining out fundraiser for the LCE PTO at Culver's on South Westnedge! The fundraiser runs from 5-8 pm and there is no flyer needed. Just bring in the whole family and get greeted and served by your favorite LCE teachers! We get 10% of the total purchases that evening!!! Share this information with your friends, neighbors, and family members and help support our school!

This week we wrapped up our Heroes and Helpers unit by exploring the question “How can stories be alike and different?” First, we read the fantasy story Dex: The Heart of a Hero, about a dog that becomes a superhero! We also learned about some real heroes in the informational text Heroes Then and Now.

Target Vocabulary: depended, overlooked, sprang, studied, gazing, hero, exercise, sore 

Phonics Skills: Words with r-controlled vowels or (for), ore (bore) 

Vocabulary Strategy: Prefix over- (means “above” or “beyond”) 

Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast—tell how two things are alike or not

Comprehension Strategy: Monitor/ clarify—find ways to figure out what doesn’t make sense 

We completed our Mid-Module 5 Assessment last week which was pretty much all on adding 3-digit numbers using number bonds, arrow way, and composing or the vertical way.  This week we have been focusing on decomposing 3-digit numbers.  We will probably take the End of Module 5 assessment towards the end of next week.

Lesson 14 &15 

Objective: Use math drawings to represent subtraction with up to two decompositions, relate drawings to the algorithm, and use addition to explain why the subtraction method works.

Lesson  16 & 17 

Objective: Subtract from multiples of 100 and from numbers with zero in the tens place.

Lesson 18

Objective: Apply and explain alternate methods for subtracting from multiples of 100 and from numbers with zero in the tens place.

Use compensation to solve 300 – 159

Add to solve 400 – 278

Compensation  800 - 543

2-17-17

2-17-17

I just wanted to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to make it to conferences this week.  We still have a lot of the school year left to go but we will not be having anymore conferences this year.  Please let me know if you want to touch base about any concerns that you might have as the year continues.  I will also do the same.  Sometimes it's just good to touch base before summer break to make sure everyone is on the same page.  Whether it's a phone call, email, or even meeting before or after school.

This week we pondered the question “What can you learn from signs in your community?” In the humorous fiction story, The Signmaker’s Assistant, a town’s residents learn that they can’t always believe what they read. We also read the play The Trouble with Signs.

Target Vocabulary: assistant, agreed, polite, failed, tearing, wisdom, trouble, cleared 

Phonics Skills: Words with r-controlled vowels ar (car) 

Vocabulary Strategy: Synonyms 

Comprehension Skill: Text and graphic features—tell how words work with art 

Comprehension Strategy: Question— ask questions about what you are reading 

We are off and running with Module 5:  Addition and Subtraction within 1,000 and Word Problems to 100.  It's basically all the same strategies that we learned in Module 4 only now the problems are just getting more difficult.  All the problems will involve 3-digit numbers rather than 2-digit.  We will move at a faster pace in Module 5 since none of the concepts are new.

Lesson 1 

Objective: Relate 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, and 100 less to addition and subtraction of 10 and 100.

Lesson 2 

Objective: Add and subtract multiples of 100, including counting on to subtract.

Lesson 3 

Objective: Add multiples of 100 and some tens within 1,000.

Problem 2: 550 + 200, 550 + 250, 550 + 260

Lesson 4 

Objective: Subtract multiples of 100 and some tens within 1,000.

Problem 4: 400 – 200, 440 – 200, 440 – 240, 440 – 260 

Lesson 5 

Objective: Use the associative property to make a hundred in one addend.

Lesson 6 

Objective: Use the associative property to subtract from three-digit numbers and verify solutions with addition.

We were able to complete our flip books on maps this week.  I think they turned out well and the kids enjoyed making them.  We've talked about how all good maps must have:  a title, map key, compass rose, scale or distance, labels, and it helps to have color.  Throughout the unit students will use cardinal directions to locate places on a map.  They also need to be able to use a map key to locate important features on a map.

2-10-17

2-10-17

Here are all the conferences that I have scheduled for next week.  Please look over the schedule and make sure everything is accurate.

If you would like to make any book orders for February, please do so by Friday, February 17th.  Please remember to use our class code DX98H.  Make checks payable to Scholastic if you are sending the form back in to school.

Mark your calendars now!  March 9th will be our Lake Center Elementary PLTW/STEM Student Showcase event from 6:30-8pm here at LCE.  Many of our students will be showcasing the work they have completed throughout this year in class centered around PLTW/STEM learning. We will also have a MakerSpace set up to explore! 

Click this link to hear more about what PLTW is and how it empowers our students and their futures!  More information and a flyer on our PLTW/STEM Student Showcase event will be on its way soon.  Don't miss out on this fun night!  

We finally finished Module 4.  It felt like the never ending module.  I will share how everyone did on their end-of-module assessments at conferences.  Module 5 is pretty much more of the same only the addition and subtraction gets harder and the problems are up to 1,000 now instead of 100.

This week we explored the question “What words show the order of events in a story?” As we read the realistic fiction selection Luke Goes to Bat, we found out about a boy who learned an important lesson with the help of his grandmother and the legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson. In the informational text, Jackie Robinson, we will learn more about this special American hero.

Target Vocabulary: practice, hurried, position, roared, extra, curb, cheered, final 

Phonics Skills: Words with long i (igh, ie, y) such as sigh, tie, by 

Vocabulary Strategy: Antonyms (opposites) 

Comprehension Skill: Sequence of events—tell the order in which things happen 

Comprehension Strategy: Visualize— picture what is happening as you read