Newsletter Info

Math
We are getting deeper into our Math studies on multiplication and division. The students are beginning to use and understand multiplication notation and solving multiplication problems in context. For example, Alan sees 6 cars. Each car has 4 wheels. How many wheels does Alan see? The students should recognize this is 6 groups of 4, which is 4+4+4+4+4+4 = 24 wheels. We will also practice finding the multiples of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 by skip counting and begin to understand the relationship among skip counting, repeated addition, and multiplication. Students can be practicing their skip counting at home to deepen their understanding! The homework sheet for this week is Sheet #11, and will be checked Wednesday and Friday in class. We will also have our Tuesday Math Quiz. This week it will focus on analyzing pictographs.

Social Studies
This week's theme will be our democratic government. We will discuss how citizens make decisions in local, state, and national government by voting in elections and going to town meetings. We will learn the role of local government in making laws and providing the services that we utilize each day in our community. We will also discuss how tax money is used to pay for services like buses, subways, trash collection, and running water.

Science
We will conclude our animal unit this week with our test and a writing assignment for our portfolios. Students will write a friendly letter from one animal to another describing adaptations animals utilize (ex. hibernation or migration) to survive changes in season. Later in the week, we will begin our new unit on stars and gravity. We will begin by examining the following guiding questions: Why does the Sun appear larger than other stars we observe? and How are stars different? It will be important for students to realize that the Sun is not the largest star. It only appears so large in size because of its close proximity to Earth.