We have just hit our midterm point of the nine weeks as well as wrapped up Theme 4. We will begin Theme 5 this week. It is called One Land, Many Trails. We will be going back to pioneer days reading about Sitting Bull and other interesting people and events in history. Each story in this theme is nonfiction which is very important for students to practice as 50% of their FCAT test is nonfiction reading. Ask your child throughout the next weeks who they are reading about and what they have learned about that person.
Reading
This week our focus is drawing conclusions. This is when students have to "read between the lines." They will have to use story details to draw a conclusion about a character or something in the story. This week's story is A Boy Called Slow. Students will practice drawing conclusions about Sitting Bull. They will answer the questions Wednesday night for their reading log as well as have a vocabulary test on words pg 468. This week there are two extra words: inherited and vision. I suggest students read the story at least 3 times through the week also noting other words they don't know in the text.
Students are also practicing a play with a group of their peers. This is to support our focus on the genre plays as well as the listening, viewing, speaking standard. They are excited about performing their play...ask your child what their play is about.
Writing
We are still working on our book publishing project. Students should be getting their kit this week. Ask your child what their book is about!
Spelling
This week students are studying words with prefixes and suffixes. They should have a focused spelling pretest in their reading log folder to study through the week.
Important dates:
March 7.................early dismissal
March 11................daylight savings time begins
March 19-23.............Spring Break
Until next time,
R. O'Steen
