Newsletter 3/20

We began a new unit this week in Reading Workshop: Reading for Information.  We are focusing on learning from non-fiction texts.  Reading non-fiction is a lot like reading stories:  we point to the pictures and look closely, but we are learning new facts.  We learned that readers look at a text and ask questions: What is...?   Why does...?  Where does...?  etc.  While we're reading we mark pages that we want to wonder about with our partner with post-its, so we're prepared for a deeper discussion.

Our All About stories are coming along.  We added some new "tools" to our writing tool boxes this week.  Non-fiction writers can use BOLD to highlight important words and they can make a page to list "different kinds of__" (whatever their topic is- see photo).  We also reminded ourselves to use lower case letters and periods while writing.

We played a game in math called "Fill the Hexagon" this week and we were introduced to 3-D shapes.  Be on the lookout for "homework" (not mandatory) coming home on Monday.  We also did a problem solving activity about shapes.

We continued studying maps this week.  We learned about a key and why it's helpful.  We also compared various maps and discussed the similarities and differences.

We celebrated the beginning of spring by making wonderful wind chimes with Mrs. Clifford.

News and Notes:

• Book sleeves due Monday.
• No school next Friday
• Book Fair wish lists and geometry homework coming home on Monday

Marking places where we wonder

Different Kinds of Chicken (lemon chicken, chicken fingers, just chicken)