Manning's Message

Chorus Concert

Looking forward to seeing the students performing in their concert Wednesday night at 6:30!

Language Arts

During the past weeks, students have continued to focus on non-fiction texts in their reading groups and are becoming familiar with how non-fiction text features are used to help them better understand.  Students have also completed their response to “Teeth”, and we are seeing some improvement in their ability to answer a question with specific details from the text and in their ability to analyze why these details support their answer.  

This week we begin to a focus on non-fiction text structures of compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem solution, sequence, and description.  The students are learning that they can identify a text structure by paying attention to the key words and are how the text is organized.  Knowing a text’s structure will help in understanding the text.  Students will be practicing identifying these structures during guided reading.  We will also focus be focusing on the Theme or message of a story. 

Students are continuing to work on their opinion pieces about whether homework is necessary (Looking forward to reading these!) and finishing up their Gingerbread stories during Daily 5. We are beginning  Narrative writing this week, and the students understand that there are two types of narrative: personal and fictional.  We will learn how to write an entertaining opening and will be learning how to describe a story critical setting, object or character.  

Mathematics

We have tested Chapter Six and the students have corrected their errors and reflected on their mistakes. The test went home today, please review it with your student, sign and return it to school by Thursday.  We will begin Chapter Seven:  Decimals.  Students will learn to recognize, compare, and round decimals in tenths and hundredths. Students will also be exploring the connections between equivalent fractions and decimals using models, number lines and equations. 

Social Studies

We are beginning our study of Immigration. The students came home with an assignment tonight to find out who in their family immigrated to the United States, when, and why they came.  This sheet is due on Thursday.  If there is any difficulty finding this specific information, let me know. Most students already knew country of origin and this information is helpful.

The students are learning about Southern Region of our country. They are learning about the physical features, climate, and natural resources in the two sub-regions of the Upper and Lower South.  The students are developing an understanding of how the region’s culture is affected by the land, climate, and resources. They will also learn about the different groups of people living in the South and how they have affected each other. Students took the states/capitals and map test last Thursday and have brought it home for your signature.  Please sign and return this test as soon as possible.  Students who achieved a score of 3 (proficient) on this test, will have the opportunity to try to earn a 4 (advanced) on Thursday by identifying 3 out of the following 4: label capital location on the map, identify postal code, identify major city, identify state nickname.  Students who earned a 2 on the past test, will take a retake states/capitals and map test on Thursday. 

Science

In the past weeks, students participated in an investigation entitled “What makes a roller coaster go so fast?” students explored how energy can be stored as height. In the activity, they investigated how hills give roller coasters energy by experimenting with a model “bumper coaster.”  They also participated in an investigation entitled “Why is the first hill always the highest?”  In this investigation, students explored how high the hills of a roller coaster can be. In the activity, students added hills to the bumper coaster they built in the previous investigation. These two experiments gave the students a deeper understanding of hills and energy. Ask your student what they have learned about energy.