* Midterm grades will be sent home on Friday with your child. This will take the place of Weekly Folders this week. You will receive 2 copies of the midterms. One is for you to keep for your records, the other should be signed and sent back to school with your child by Friday, May 6th.
* This week our theme in Treasures is "Artists at Work". The kids will use their inference skills to draw conclusions about the main character in our fiction story. We will also work with following written directions while reading "How-To" articles.
*All of our spelling words have the "er", "or", or "ar" endings. They all sound similar when saying the words, so the kids will really have to study the different patterns.
* In grammar we will work with the adjectives "more" and "most". We use the word "more" when talking about 2 things and we use the word "most" when we compare more than 2 things. We will also talk about the rule of never adding the ending -er or -est to the adjectives when you use more or most to describe a noun.
* Our focus this week in math will be on finding formulas to calculate the area of shapes. We will begin experimenting with rectangles. The kids will explore the formula "l x w = A" and "b x h = A" . We will also work with finding the area of parallelograms and triangles. We will end our week with a review of everything we've learned so far in Unit 8. The kids will receive a study guide and practice test over this unit. We will take our test over Unit 8 on Monday or Tuesday of next week. A parent letter explaining our next unit will come home with your child either the end of this week or the beginning of next.
* In writing, the kids are putting their characters into everyday situations and creating passages that SHOW their character's personality. We will be working to replace "said" with various tags to create stronger dialogue. We will also review the "shape of the story" using a picture book and the kids will begin to create a believable problem for their character to go through.
* We will finish up Unit 7 this week in History Alive! This week the kids will present their billboards in the hopes they can persuade others in the class to settle in their colony. The kids will then do some research on the 5 other colonies highlighted in our book. They will learn the reasons the colony was founded, geography/climate, what jobs were available, and who could participate in government. A study guide will be sent home with your child at the end of the week. We will take our test over Unit 7 on Monday, May 2nd.
* Thank you to our Art Awareness moms for coming into our classroom to present about colonial portraits! Mrs. Torres and Mrs. Vasilakos had the kids excited about the art pieces that were shared! Thank you again!
* I think that is it for the week. Stay dry and if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!
