Conferences are coming up on April 9th & 10th. There are many families to meet with and less conference slots than we would like. If you are unable to get a time slot to meet with us, please let us know and we can work to accommodate you after April vacation with either a conference before school, a phone conference, or one at 3:00 PM.
If you feel you do not need a conference at this point, let us know and we can certainly share your child's accomplishments and goals via email.
Tracking Our Growth
During reader's workshop this week, students looked back at their first attempt to write about their comprehension...something we call open response. Students were amazed at how much they have grown! All students have made incredible growth in their abilities to write about their thinking, include evidence and summarize parts of the text that support the thesis statement or answer the student is attempting to prove.
We will share this growth with parents at conferences and send the examples home to those unable to attend.
Preparing for MCAS
MCAS is right around the corner. I have explained to students that everything that they have learned to do this year is the types of things that they will do on MCAS. They will answer multiple choice questions about the selections they read, they will write open responses about their thinking. We talked on Friday that the test could be considered a game that they are trying to beat. We played some games and students learned that in order to beat a game they need to make sure they read and follow the directions, understand the different parts, use the strategies they have learned, never give up, and work carefully.
Students will preview the text next week and review strategies that they can use to "beat the test."
Minute to Win It
We spent some time last week in math placing fractions on a number line. To help us gather some authentic data, we played Minute To Win It games and created fractions based on the results. Students then placed the results on a number line to help them practice ordering fractions on a number line.
We also spent time last week adding and subtracting fractions. We will continue to work on adding and subtracting fractions as well as placing fractions on a line plot.
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| Minute to Win It....Marshmallow Toss |
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| Sticky Marbles....very intense! |
Our paragraphs for our research writing is starting to take shape. Some students were able to begin putting some of their writing onto their websites. We also talked about writing main idea sentences to start each section of our writing. Students were able to make connections about what they have learned as readers trying to find the main idea to writers creating main idea sentences. This week we will start to think about the text structure of our facts so that we can create a structure in our writing that makes sense.
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