You may see a special gift for you soon courtesy of HPC!  Your child worked hard during Build-A-Gift to make something with love.  Thank you to the parents and Parents Club people for making all that happen!

In reading this week we continued to research a particular question we had regarding sever weather or a natural disaster. We began creating a one slide project of our findings that we will present next week. We talked about how to evaluate sources based on trustworthiness and date of publication.  We learned that authors have goals when they write nonfiction, such as hooking our attention, building a mood, or clarifying a point.  Our job is to try to figure our what they are doing.  We looked at some specific techniques nonfiction authors use like making comparisons, quoting authorities, giving a story, or incorporating humor.  We are just beginning to look at authors and their craft for making us think and feel a certain way.  This is thinking “about the text,” and is higher level thinking for our children.  This skill is what makes some texts more difficult to understand, even though we can read all the words.

In writing this week we talked about what makes a sentence a sentence and how to avoid run on sentences and sentence fragments.  Sentence formation is a need I have seen in the students’ writing, and we will continue to learn about this topic.  We have also reviewed verbs tenses.

In math this week we worked a lot on multi-step word problems.  We looked at words like “times as many” and “more than,” and practiced braking apart long problems into smaller steps.  This tough work takes paying attention to details!  We will take the final test on this math unit on Monday.

In science this week we talked about how to measure the volume of liquids and solids. We compared liquids and solids in terms of mass, shape, and volume.  We tried finding the volume of some odd shaped solids using graduated cylinders.

We learned about our RAS, or reticular activating system, and how it acts as our personal secretary in helping us focus.  We practiced sorting sounds today and tried to focus our attention on the important sounds in the room.  We talked about how making noises distracts others from being able to focus, or do mindful listening.

Important Dates

December 21- January 2 – Winter Break – Our last day before break will be Wednesday, December 20.  We will return to school on Wednesday, January 3.

Friday, January 19 – 1/2 day – noon dismissal