Newsletter: September 18-October 1

Literacy

Reading Workshop: Nonfiction Unit of Study
Next week will begin our Nonfiction Unit of Study by learning about different types of nonfiction- literary nonfiction, biography, and reference nonfiction. Students will go on a nonfiction scavenger hunt to see how well they can identify the types of nonfiction books. Students will browse through books, identify the topic, and make observations about how information is presented. As we move forward, we will be looking at a variety of nonfiction text features authors include and how these features help us, as readers, understand the text better.

By the end of September we will have completed the last of our benchmark and beginning of the year assessments- fluency checks, comprehension checks, spelling assessments, and MAP testing. This information will be used to form reading groups and word study groups for the first part of the year beginning in October.

Students will have their first spelling test on Tuesday, September 24. Each student has a unique list of up to 20 high frequency words that was created based on words the student misspelled on the high frequency word assessment. Their lists can be found in their assignment notebooks on this week's page. We will be working with high frequency words for 2 weeks until we are ready to begin our Words Their Way routine in early October. Weekly vocabulary words will also become part of word study throughout the year. Five new words will be introduced each week starting next week.

September Genre of the Month: Reference Nonfiction
Students have selected a reference nonfiction book from the library as part of our Forty Book Challenge. During the month of September, they are asked to read their selected book and complete a brief summary/reader's response in their Reader's Notebook. All entries should be completed in their Reader's Notebook and turned in to Mrs. Cioni no later than September 30.

Writer's Workshop: The Writing Process
As we wrap up "The Writing Community" unit this week, we will begin a two-week unit called "The Writing Process". In this unit, students will select a piece of writing they wrote in our first unit and learn about the process of editing and revising their work for publication.

Math

Unit 2: Estimation and Number Theory
In this unit, students will be learning about factors and multiples. They will learn to estimate products and quotients, and how to multiply multi-digit numbers using models. Students should be practicing their basic facts every night for 5-10 minutes. There is a tentative test scheduled for Friday, September 27.

Advanced Math

Unit 2: Whole Number Multiplication and Division
In this unit, students will be learning to use rules and strategies to multiply and divide multi-digit numbers. Students will also learn to use order of operations to evaluate numeric expressions. Students should be practicing their basic facts every night for 5-10 minutes.

Science: Our Geosphere

This week, students have been learning about the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition with river table investigations. There will be a quiz on the first four lessons of the unit on Thursday, September 19. In addition to the study guide that came home on Tuesday, students are encouraged to check out the homepage of the class website for our Twitter feed. The class Twitter feed has photos and videos of some of the investigations we did in class. Being able to explain what they learned through these investigations is a great way to review the concepts of abrasion, weathering, erosion, and deposition.

Next week we will learning about Earth's moving plates, the different types of plate boundaries, and earthquakes.

Upcoming Events...

September 24 VIP/Book Talk: Patricia

September 27 Happy Birthday, Patricia!
September 27 One Book, One School Assembly to reveal this year's book

September 30 School Picture Day

October 1 VIP/Book Talk: George

Weekly Reflection: September 6

Reporters: Lauren and Anthony
Photographer: Matt

We worked with rocks this week. We hit them with a granite grinder. 

The pumice (left) broke off more easily than the sandstone (right).

This week in class...

This week in science we learned about abrasion. Abrasion is when two rocks grind together. We did a lab and experimented with grinding two rocks together.

In reading, we read Tea with Milk and The Bicycle Man  and we learned how to write  about books we read in our Reader's Notebook.

Newsletter: September 4-17

Literacy

Reading Workshop: Getting to Know Ourselves as Readers
The Launch Unit of Schoolwide allows us to establish routines for our reading workshop this year. Mini lessons focus on helping to get to know ourselves as readers. Strategies and skills are modeled through read aloud and students are given a chance to practice those strategies and skills independently. I will be using the next three weeks to assess the students' reading levels through benchmarking. This information will be used to form reading groups for the first part of the year.

September Genre of the Month: Reference Nonfiction
On Thursday, students will have the opportunity to select a reference nonfiction book from the library as part of our Forty Book Challenge. During the month of September, they are asked to read their selected book and complete a brief summary/reader's response in their Reader's Notebook. All entries should be completed in their Reader's Notebook and turned in to Mrs. Cioni no later than September 30.

Writer's Workshop: The Writing Community
The first unit in Becoming a Writer focuses on developing a writing community within our classroom. During mini lessons, students are exposed to examples of good writing through read alouds and many are inspired to write stories in a similar way. As we read and discuss our read alouds, we have started lists of things to write about in our Ideas Notebook. Many students have already begun working on their first piece!

Math

Unit 1: Working with Whole Numbers
Students are learning about numbers to 100,000, comparing large numbers, and reviewing addition and subtraction of multi-digit numbers. There is a tentative test scheduled for Tuesday, September 10.

Unit 2: Estimation and Number Theory
In this unit, students will be learning about factors and multiples. They will learn to estimate products and quotients, and how to multiply multi-digit numbers using models.

Advanced Math

Unit 1: Whole Numbers
Students in Advanced Math have been learning about place value to the ten millions, rounding and estimating with large numbers, and comparing large numbers. There is a test scheduled for Friday, September 6.

Unit 2: Whole Number Multiplication and Division
In this unit, students will be learning to use rules and strategies to multiply and divide multi-digit numbers. Students will also learn to use order of operations to evaluate numeric expressions.

Science: Our Geosphere

Our science unit begins by exploring ways in which the Earth's landscape can change. This week, students are investigating how abrasion weathers rocks. Next week, they will be further developing their definitions of the terms abrasion, weathering, erosion, and deposition through experiments with glaciers in the classroom. In the final lesson of this cluster, students will continue to learn about these processes with river table investigations. There will be a quiz on the first four lessons of the unit on Thursday, September 19.

Upcoming Events...

September 2 No School: Labor Day

September 4 Final day to place orders through Scholastic

September 6 Back to School Bash 6:30 PM

September 10 VIP/Book Talk: Mrs. Cioni

September 11 Music for Youth Assembly

September 16 Happy Birthday, Patrick!

September 17 VIP/Book Talk: Patrick