Quarter 3 Newsletter
Dear Families,
It is hard to believe we are halfway through the school year. The growth I have seen in the children has been amazing. I appreciate all you do at home in making sure homework and reading logs are complete and responding with a note of encouragement in the weekly Nothing Notebook. As we continue into third quarter, there are many new units of study and exciting lessons planned.
Last quarter we learned about how visualizing helps us in our reading. We added this skill to our “toolbox” of reading strategies, which also includes activating schema, making real connections to text, using metacognition, and determining importance. By exploring these different concepts, we are building a strong reading foundation. It is great to see students using the reading strategies we have learned and applying them to their understanding of texts. We have just begun learning about making inferences and using these skills to “read between the lines.” Students make an inference when they use clues from the story to figure out something that the author doesn't tell them. Soon we will be moving into summary writing using our learning about main idea and details to help us.
After two weeks of learning what good poets do and writing our own poetry, we are revisiting personal narratives. The lessons for this unit help encourage students to make their writing clear and interesting as they tell about those small moments in their lives. We are working on word choice and description and ways to strengthen leads and endings. We will end third quarter with persuasive writing in which students will be writing a persuasive piece on a topic of interest.
In mathematics, we have begun learning about place value to one thousand by representing numbers using groups of 1s, 10s, and 100s, adding and subtracting multiples of 10 and 100, and solving money story problems involving pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. We will be moving into our sixth unit, which will focus on geometry and fractions. In Unit 6, students will identify, describe, draw, and create 2-D shapes based on their defining features and learn about fractions by splitting whole shapes into halves, thirds, and fourths.
This quarter our social studies unit is The World Around Us. Students use geographic terms and tools to describe places and learn about how people in communities manage, modify, and depend on their environment. Our science unit this quarter is Balance and Motion. Students will develop a curiosity and interest in the motion of objects. They will explore concepts of balance, counterweight, and stability, as well as acquire the vocabulary associated with balance and motion to communicate their observations.
Thanks again for all you do to support your child at home. Be sure to contact me if you ever have any questions.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Purcell
It is hard to believe we are halfway through the school year. The growth I have seen in the children has been amazing. I appreciate all you do at home in making sure homework and reading logs are complete and responding with a note of encouragement in the weekly Nothing Notebook. As we continue into third quarter, there are many new units of study and exciting lessons planned.
Last quarter we learned about how visualizing helps us in our reading. We added this skill to our “toolbox” of reading strategies, which also includes activating schema, making real connections to text, using metacognition, and determining importance. By exploring these different concepts, we are building a strong reading foundation. It is great to see students using the reading strategies we have learned and applying them to their understanding of texts. We have just begun learning about making inferences and using these skills to “read between the lines.” Students make an inference when they use clues from the story to figure out something that the author doesn't tell them. Soon we will be moving into summary writing using our learning about main idea and details to help us.
After two weeks of learning what good poets do and writing our own poetry, we are revisiting personal narratives. The lessons for this unit help encourage students to make their writing clear and interesting as they tell about those small moments in their lives. We are working on word choice and description and ways to strengthen leads and endings. We will end third quarter with persuasive writing in which students will be writing a persuasive piece on a topic of interest.
In mathematics, we have begun learning about place value to one thousand by representing numbers using groups of 1s, 10s, and 100s, adding and subtracting multiples of 10 and 100, and solving money story problems involving pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. We will be moving into our sixth unit, which will focus on geometry and fractions. In Unit 6, students will identify, describe, draw, and create 2-D shapes based on their defining features and learn about fractions by splitting whole shapes into halves, thirds, and fourths.
This quarter our social studies unit is The World Around Us. Students use geographic terms and tools to describe places and learn about how people in communities manage, modify, and depend on their environment. Our science unit this quarter is Balance and Motion. Students will develop a curiosity and interest in the motion of objects. They will explore concepts of balance, counterweight, and stability, as well as acquire the vocabulary associated with balance and motion to communicate their observations.
Thanks again for all you do to support your child at home. Be sure to contact me if you ever have any questions.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Purcell
Quarter 2 Newsletter
Dear Families,
Time seems to be speeding up as we find ourselves in the midst of second quarter. We have already experienced and will continue to be involved in exciting and challenging learning this quarter.
During the coming weeks, students will be immersed in nonfiction text. In reading we will examine the similarities and differences in fiction and nonfiction. We will look closely at the different nonfiction conventions and their function and purpose for us as readers and writers. We will be learning how to determine what is important in a text, organize our thinking about the text, and then paraphrase the information we encounter. This will be very helpful as we write informational texts.
In writing, students are writing nonfiction all abouts on an animal they are interested in. Students will learn how to research, determine importance in order to take notes, and finally put it all together in paragraph form. They will also utilize the writing process as they research/plan/take notes, draft, revise, edit, and publish. Students are excited to teach their peers something new as they become experts on a variety of animals!
Students have shown much growth in math. We are working on our third unit of Bridges math curriculum which concentrates on adding and subtracting within one hundred and then we will be moving into Unit 4 which will focus on measurement. Also, don’t forget to keep practicing basic addition and subtraction facts with your child at home; this is an essential building block for our future work!
Our social studies unit this quarter is Working to Meet Our Needs. In this unit, we will explore needs vs. wants, producing and consuming goods, natural resources, service workers and their jobs, trading goods and services, why work is important, and how income relates to spending and saving.
In science this quarter we are studying Air and Weather. Students will observe and describe changes that occur in weather over time and become familiar with instruments used by meteorologists to monitor air and weather conditions. Students will be encouraged to think about how the daily and seasonal changes in weather patterns affect humans, plants, and animals. We will be using vocabulary associated with properties of air and weather conditions to communicate our observations. We look forward to having a local meteorologist visit our classroom with some hands-on learning as well as finding out more about what a meteorologist does!
We appreciate all you do at home to encourage your children. Students have been working hard and this is evidenced by the work they are producing and the growth we have witnessed. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful children with us.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Purcell and Mrs. Gilmer
Time seems to be speeding up as we find ourselves in the midst of second quarter. We have already experienced and will continue to be involved in exciting and challenging learning this quarter.
During the coming weeks, students will be immersed in nonfiction text. In reading we will examine the similarities and differences in fiction and nonfiction. We will look closely at the different nonfiction conventions and their function and purpose for us as readers and writers. We will be learning how to determine what is important in a text, organize our thinking about the text, and then paraphrase the information we encounter. This will be very helpful as we write informational texts.
In writing, students are writing nonfiction all abouts on an animal they are interested in. Students will learn how to research, determine importance in order to take notes, and finally put it all together in paragraph form. They will also utilize the writing process as they research/plan/take notes, draft, revise, edit, and publish. Students are excited to teach their peers something new as they become experts on a variety of animals!
Students have shown much growth in math. We are working on our third unit of Bridges math curriculum which concentrates on adding and subtracting within one hundred and then we will be moving into Unit 4 which will focus on measurement. Also, don’t forget to keep practicing basic addition and subtraction facts with your child at home; this is an essential building block for our future work!
Our social studies unit this quarter is Working to Meet Our Needs. In this unit, we will explore needs vs. wants, producing and consuming goods, natural resources, service workers and their jobs, trading goods and services, why work is important, and how income relates to spending and saving.
In science this quarter we are studying Air and Weather. Students will observe and describe changes that occur in weather over time and become familiar with instruments used by meteorologists to monitor air and weather conditions. Students will be encouraged to think about how the daily and seasonal changes in weather patterns affect humans, plants, and animals. We will be using vocabulary associated with properties of air and weather conditions to communicate our observations. We look forward to having a local meteorologist visit our classroom with some hands-on learning as well as finding out more about what a meteorologist does!
We appreciate all you do at home to encourage your children. Students have been working hard and this is evidenced by the work they are producing and the growth we have witnessed. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful children with us.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Purcell and Mrs. Gilmer
Quarter 1 Newsletter
Dear Families,
It is hard to believe we are well on our way through the first quarter. We have had a busy and exciting start to the school year. We have especially enjoyed getting to know your children and we are going to have a great year together! Remember, if you ever have any questions or concerns please let us know.
Students are working very hard in all subject areas. We are reading and writing daily. We have been talking about story elements including characters, setting, problem and solution. We then dug deeper into character analysis by examining character traits, comparing characters, and thinking about how characters change in a story. Next week we will be activating our schema and making connections to texts to help us better understand what we are reading. In the weeks that follow, we will be practicing shared inquiry using our Jr. Great Books. It is always wonderful to hear the many great ideas shared around our focus question.
In writing, we have been working on personal narratives and even more specifically, small moments – those little moments in life we can focus on and explain with much detail. We have done a few mini lessons to help students with things like making meaning and focus, and will continue to learn about organization, vocabulary, details, leads, endings, and revision to further improve the writing we do daily.
So far this school year in math we have reviewed efficient addition and subtraction strategies to fluently add and subtract within 20. We have also been working on writing equations to represent one step story problems as well as reviewing odd and even numbers. In the coming weeks, we will explore base ten concepts, review the first three place value units (ones, tens, and hundreds), work on various strategies for double-digit computation, and measure and compare the lengths of objects.
Our science unit this quarter is Plants. Students are observing the structures of plants and
discovering ways to propagate new plants. They are observing and describing changes that occur as plants grow and comparing classroom plants to those in the schoolyard. Students are also exploring how living things survive in their environment. We will be visiting Hudson Gardens in late September to wrap up our unit on plants.
After we wrap up our first science unit, we will be moving into social studies to explore My Community and My Country as we think about how people cooperate to establish and maintain a productive society.
As a final note, please remember to return signed Friday folders and the Nothing Notebook with your words of encouragement each Monday. Thanks to all of you for sharing your wonderful children with us!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Purcell and Mrs. Gilmer
It is hard to believe we are well on our way through the first quarter. We have had a busy and exciting start to the school year. We have especially enjoyed getting to know your children and we are going to have a great year together! Remember, if you ever have any questions or concerns please let us know.
Students are working very hard in all subject areas. We are reading and writing daily. We have been talking about story elements including characters, setting, problem and solution. We then dug deeper into character analysis by examining character traits, comparing characters, and thinking about how characters change in a story. Next week we will be activating our schema and making connections to texts to help us better understand what we are reading. In the weeks that follow, we will be practicing shared inquiry using our Jr. Great Books. It is always wonderful to hear the many great ideas shared around our focus question.
In writing, we have been working on personal narratives and even more specifically, small moments – those little moments in life we can focus on and explain with much detail. We have done a few mini lessons to help students with things like making meaning and focus, and will continue to learn about organization, vocabulary, details, leads, endings, and revision to further improve the writing we do daily.
So far this school year in math we have reviewed efficient addition and subtraction strategies to fluently add and subtract within 20. We have also been working on writing equations to represent one step story problems as well as reviewing odd and even numbers. In the coming weeks, we will explore base ten concepts, review the first three place value units (ones, tens, and hundreds), work on various strategies for double-digit computation, and measure and compare the lengths of objects.
Our science unit this quarter is Plants. Students are observing the structures of plants and
discovering ways to propagate new plants. They are observing and describing changes that occur as plants grow and comparing classroom plants to those in the schoolyard. Students are also exploring how living things survive in their environment. We will be visiting Hudson Gardens in late September to wrap up our unit on plants.
After we wrap up our first science unit, we will be moving into social studies to explore My Community and My Country as we think about how people cooperate to establish and maintain a productive society.
As a final note, please remember to return signed Friday folders and the Nothing Notebook with your words of encouragement each Monday. Thanks to all of you for sharing your wonderful children with us!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Purcell and Mrs. Gilmer