Newsletter

Social Studies
Hopefully your child is falling into the routine of bringing home their blue social studies folder to prepare for Friday’s quiz. Please take the time to chat with them about the main ideas of this week’s lesson: Our Land and Resources. Encourage them to connect the main ideas to their own life or share stories from our class discussions. This practice helps students to gain understanding of the material; simply rereading it does not guarantee understanding. This week we will focus on the natural resources available in our environment, such as water, soil, air, and other living things. We will discuss specific examples of landforms and resources, from the Mississippi River to the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Science
Our focus on the functions of stems and roots continues this week as we experiment with gravity’s role in plant growth. For example, what would happen to a germinated plant if we hung it upside down? Would the roots grow up or curve around and grow down? Which way will the stem grow? Or, what if we planted a germinated plant in soil on its side…would the roots grow sideways? Check with your child at the end of the week to see what we’re observing in these student generated experiments. There will be a quiz next week on the parts of a plant and their functions. Look for more information in the student planner this week.

Math Workshop
Our first math homework quiz will be tomorrow (Tuesday), as previously mentioned in the student planner. It will cover the material from the first three homework sheets. Students were instructed to make corrections as we reviewed these sheets in class, in order to be sure these sheets could be used as study tools. These sheets can be filed at home or discarded after the quiz.
In math workshop, we will be continue working on place value with story problems that involve adding and subtracting two and three digit numbers and finding the number of 10s or 100s in a given sum. Students are encouraged to use the two strategies that are most comfortable for them (the first to solve, the second to double check). They are required to form an equation before attempting to solve the problem; they are also asked to label their solutions. Please help them to follow the same routine when assisting with homework.