Math – Unit 2, Using Numbers and Organizing Data, started with students taking a virtual field trip to Washington D.C.. Next week students will practice reading and writing numbers up to one billion as well as review number place value. On Monday students took the Unit 1 assessment. Their graded tests will be coming home soon.
Reading – We continue our journey through the decades learning about Washington’s History in our novel, Horse’s Tale. This week we read about the decades of the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s, following the horse from Ritsville to Yakima, to Roslyn. Ask your child what Henry’s phobia was, and why he had to get over his fear.
The class is still engrossed in our read aloud, Maniac Magee. Ask your child what’s been happening lately. What unfair things have happened to Maniac recently? Why did he get in a huge fight with Angela? Have them tell you about Cobble’s Knot.
Writing – This week we’ve been working on choosing a favorite personal narrative piece. We’ve spent time studying great leads and endings in books at school and at home. Students have practiced writing different types of leads and endings for their favorite piece. They also have practiced writing a discovery draft—re-writing their favorite story quick and long in order to bring out more details. Ask your student about which story they selected. Ask them to explain why it’s a seed story and not a watermelon story.
Social Studies – Students worked on team tasks and individual tasks this week in our studies of Regions of Washington. Meanwhile, I met with expert groups. Every student will be an expert on one of the four remaining regions: Coastal Region, Cascade Mountain Region, Columbia Plateau, and Okanogan Highlands (we studied our region: Western Lowlands as a class). In expert groups students read, sketched, labeled, highlighted, and mind mapped. They’ll have a chance to teach the rest of the class about their region, and then we’ll play the process grid game. Ask your student what region they are an expert on. See if they can tell you a major city, a landform, a product produced there, what the climate is like and an interesting fact.
