April 2-6 Newsletter
Pamela Herbert
This week we will be reading a text called “Hunting for Dinosaur Tracks”. This is a story that teaches how much we can learn from looking at dinosaur tracks. This covers looking at the size of the print, the stride of the prints, the shape and the number of prints in one area. These clues teach us about how dinosaur’s moved. Ask your child what clues the dinosaurs left that teach us about how they moved.
In phonics and dictation we will be practicing: the f sound spelled, ph, f and ff. We will also be learning about the aw sound as in hawk spelled au, al, aw and a by itself. Lastly, we will be focusing on the or sound spelled or.
This writing focus for this unit will continue to be on writing a descriptive paragraph. We will continue to work with adjectives in our writing. We will also be focusing on writing the main idea in a topic sentence and in a concluding sentence. We are also working on incorporating similes into our writing. I am also working with the kids on being able to write more. They are doing a half page journal write on a given topic every day. We will also be writing descriptive paragraphs using the information we got on our dinosaurs for our dinosaur reports. We are learning more specifically about adding details and examples into our writing.
Our focus will be on understanding main idea.
We will also be continuing with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as our in class reading.
In math we will be working on some review. We will not be starting Unit 10 until after Spring Break.
In Science we will be working on Chapter 6. This chapter is on different forces. We will be working on how gravity affects objects. Specifically, we will be looking at what causes objects to fall.
This week we will be doing our Unit 4 Open Court district test. On Monday, we took the reading comprehension portion. On Tuesday we are taking the Spelling portion. On Wednesday we will be doing the vocabulary portion. On Thursday, we will be doing the grammar portion. The grammar portion will be focused on: articles, adjectives, past present and future tense of state of being verbs, contractions and making things plurals.
We are also starting our dinosaur reports. Your child was given a specific dinosaur to write about. This week we are working on turning our information into descriptive paragraphs. We are writing three paragraphs: one on what their dinosaur looks like, one on where the dinosaur lives and one on what the dinosaur eats and who eats their dinosaur. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence, at least 4 detail and/or examples, and a concluding sentence. Each paragraph should have a simile and multiple adjectives.
FYI No Homework Packet this week!!! Happy Spring!!!
Upcoming Dates to Remember…..
Monday April 2, 2012
Reading Comprehension Open Court Unit 4 Test
Happy Birthday Jun Hao!!
Tuesday April 3, 2012
Spelling Open Court Unit 4 Test
Happy Birthday Michael!!
Wednesday April 4, 2012
Vocabulary Open Court Unit 4 Test
Thursday April 5, 2012
Comprehension Test on “Let’s Go Dinosaur Tracking”
Grammar Open Court Unit 4 Test
Spring Egg Hunt 2-3
Friday April 6, 2012
No School
Saturday April 7, 2012
Happy Birthday Chinmay!!
No School April 6-13 Spring Break!!!
Wednesday April 11, 2012
Happy Birthday Alex!!
Herbert High Fives
Brandon Aliaga For improved focus in class and for being a good friend to everyone!!
Jasmine Castellano For always being a great example for her fellow classmates!!
Andrew Liang For always being a great participator in class discussions!!