Weekly News 1/10

Happy New Year! We are back into full swing and ready for the new year! We started the year off by looking back at our second quarter goals and deciding if we have met them or if we still need to work on them and how we can continue to work on them.  Then, we decided on a word we wanted to focus on this year- hopefully you've seen them on Seesaw and you can check them out below. 

Literacy and Inquiry:
This month literacy and inquiry will be fully integrated as students research and explore a system of their choice and then write to teach others about that system.  We have spent a lot of time refining our system topic ideas and coming up with a focus question.  The bulk of our literacy time has been about previewing a text before reading to predict the main idea and then working to find the main idea of a text.  We will get into researching our topics next week!

Third Grade Math:
Third graders have been focusing on building their understanding of multiplication and division.  We have been working on equal groups, arrays and story problems.  Up next will be a "Multiplication Bootcamp" where we will focus heavily on math facts for a week or two.  Any practice at home will be very beneficial!

Fourth Grade Math:
Fourth graders have been working on reviewing and applying multiplication vocabulary.  We have explored the concepts of factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers. This week we did a "multiplication reality check" to assess how well everyone has their math facts memorized. This was a wake up call for many that they need to be working more to get these facts down.  If you need any suggestions on things you can do at home to help, please reach out to Mrs. Ganier!

Immigration Day:
Third grade parents mark your calendars for March 13th! Your child will be participating in an Ellis Island Immigration simulation on that day with the other third graders.  This day will be part of a larger study in our classrooms on historical fiction, the power of story, multiple perspectives and history.  Fourth grade students will have a choice of a few different time periods to immerse themselves in and third graders will be focused on the Ellis Island immigration time period. 

Upcoming:
2nd quarter closes Friday, January 17th
Early release- Friday, January, 17th
No school- Monday, January 20th

Have a wonderful weekend!