Sunday, September 13, 2015

Week of September 14

We have finished our iReady Math and Achieve3000 diagnostics. These programs are up and available for use at home. The link to the right under "Student Technology" will take you to the DCPS page to access both programs. This year students have a common user name and password for all programs! In reading class this week, we worked through a complete Achieve3000 lesson so students will be familiar with the format. Parents are encouraged to sit and learn about Achieve3000 early on so you know how it works!

Resources this week...
Cox:
Monday - Art
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - PE
Kluge:
Tuesday - Art
Thursday - Music
Friday - PE

ELA: Listening and speaking are very important in our curriculum and are part of our Florida ELA standards. Below are our norms for discussion and some photos from an activity called a carousel. Groups read a question related to a selected text, think, discuss, and work together to determine their group answer.


This week, as we continue to work with the text, Nasreen's Secret School, we will plan and write effective paragraphs about Nasreen's special story. We will look at a well written paragraph and identify the following elements:
Topic sentence
Detail #1
Explanation of detail #1 (example from the story)
Detail #2
Explanation of detail #2 (example from the story)

Our next story in our unit focusing on the great lengths people around the world go through to gain the power of reading and education is:
This book tells the story of a boy from Appalachia who is reluctant reader.  After repeated visits by a traveling librarian, the boy sees the joy and value in reading. Below is our graphic organizer we use for each book we read. The SIWBS will be a part of our upcoming mid-unit assessment. It can be applied to most fiction books. This is a great tool to use at home when you talk about what students are reading. 
MATH:
This week in math the students will solve two types of division situations.  Division problems where the group size is unknown and problems where the number of groups is unknown using factors of 2 and 3.   Students will use tape diagrams and arrays as tools to compare and analyze problems.  Students will use arrays and tape diagrams to practice solving division problems and transition to problem solving using abstract division and multiplication equations. The students will skip count objects in models to build fluency with multiplication facts using units of 4. 


Example of tape diagrams:

Math homework this week:
Lesson 11
Lesson 12
Lesson 13
Lesson 14

Math to practice at home:
·     Practice labeling tape diagrams to solve problem situations.
·     Discuss and practice analyzing problem situations comparing different unknowns. 
·     Ask your child how what the quotient represents affect the way a tape diagram is represented/drawn?
·     Practice multiplication facts  (2, 3, 4, 5)

SCIENCE:
This week in Science we will continue discussing how scientists work together to answer questions about the natural world.