Back on Track, Ready to Run to the Finish Line

I hope you all had a nice off track time. We only have 8 weeks or 39 days left to enjoy our class camaraderie. We have a lot to learn yet and we will be reviewing to solidify many concepts we have already learned.

Spelling
This week and next week we will be immersed in contraction action. We will be learning about forming contractions with not, are and have this week. We will also be learning about contractions with is, will, am, would, had and has. Please reinforce with your child that the apostrophe shows where letters were left out as the contraction was formed.

Vocabulary
We will read a book called "Chato's Kitchen". It has some Spanish words in the story which forces the children to try to understand the words through context in the story. This is a good skill to learn for when they come upon any word they don't know in their reading. This week's vocabulary words are: vibrated, reassured, dumbfounded, cowered, suppressed, and dismayed.

If you can use any of these words in conversation with your child they can listen for them and mark on the vocabulary chart that they heard the word used.

Math
The students did very well on the fractions test on the section dealing with fractions of a geometric shape. Several students are still struggling with the concept of fractions of a set. We will be reviewing and reteaching this information. An example of this topic is: If I had six cupcakes and I ate 1/3 of them how many cupcakes did I eat? The first task is to make 3 equal groups out of the six cupcakes. If I made 3 equal groups each group would have 2 cupcakes. 2+2+2=6. If I ate one of the three equal groups then I would have eaten 2 cupcakes. 1/3 of 6 is 2.

We will also be working on measurement with standard and nonstandard measuring tools and I will give the students a broken ruler and see if they can use it to measure correctly. We will also learn about capacity. This deals with cups, pints, quarts, half-gallons, gallons etc. and their relationship to each other.

We are beginning our reviewing of math concepts for the CRT Testing. This testing will take place on June 7-9. Please make sure your child will be in school on those dates.

Reading
We will begin a study of literary genres. This week we will learn about Historical Fiction. Some of the children will just be involved in discussions and my reading to them. Other children have been reading a book about the San Francisco Earthquake. They will do some work related to this book and this genre.

Heads up - Next week we will be working with Biographies and learn about Autobiographies. The students will be having a writing assignment that if done well could be a treasure for them for the rest of their lives. I will be sending a paper home about this assignment soon. You will just have to help your child list 6 of their favorite childhood memories. They will use these memories to make their own book. This project is like a capstone project and I expect them to do their very best work.

Soon I will begin the Fountas and Pinnell reading tests which help me more specifically determine your child's true reading level. Your children have been making great progress in their reading skills this year.

Science
We will be continuing our work with Life Cycles for several weeks. We are primarily studying the life cycles of: butterflies, frogs, plants and chicks. We will be watching the development of butterflies in a few weeks and we will also take a field trip to Red Butte Garden on June 10th. We are looking forward to that fun time.

I will be going to my son's graduation from Law School so I will be gone from school Thursday - Monday, May 13th, 14th and 17th. Mrs. Emily Crane from third grade, an off track teacher will be their substitute.]

We will also be having two assemblies this week. One is the kick off assembly for the American Heart Association Jumpathon. The other assembly will be a concert by the Bingham Jazz Band.

This weeks keyword is "Historical Fiction". Please write it on your child's tracking sheet and they will be rewarded for your diligence in reading the blog.

Thanks for all you are doing to help your child succeed in school.