Week of September 28- October 2, 2015

ELA

     This week we are reading about the arts.  Our anchor text José Born to Dance, is a biography.  We will be discussing biographies and autobiographies throughout the week.  These terms will also be added to our vocabulary words (listed below). 

          Our companion text this week is a collection of poetry about the art of dance.  We will be reading “The Song of the Night” and “Lines Written for Gene Kelly to Dance To.” As poetry is the perfect vessel to reinforce fluency, we will practice reading these poems aloud.  Our goal will be to  perfect our phrasing and analyze the best delivery methods emphasizing meaning and intonation for effect.

          Our grammar challenge for the week will be identifying and working with  pronouns.  This should be review as it was covered last year and in previous years.  Ask your child what they know about pronouns.  What are they?  When do we use them?  Remember, a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.  Common pronouns include I, she, her, him, he, us, we, they, their, it, etc. 

Vocabulary words:  debut, stubborn, permission, hauling, mournful, towered, triumph, discouraged, toured, border.  Additional:  biography, autobiography, simile, metaphor

Spelling words:  sentence, picture, among, English, it’s, its (Level 4 Core Words); learn, dirty, worn, sore, thirst, burn, record, cure, board, course, worth, early, return, pure, world, search, thirteen, worse, sport, current, curious.  Bonus:  thorough, earnest, portion, foreign

Homework this week:
Monday-  Readers' Notebook page 6 (Targeting Vocabulary); 3x each misspelled spelling
Tuesday-  Readers' Notebook pages 112 & 113; Spelling-  Write a paragraph using as many words as 

possible (underline the spelling words.)
Wednesday-  Readers' Notebook pages 114 & 118; Rebecca Sitton "Parent Page"; Review RN pages on pronouns for Thursday's Grammar Test
Thursday- Readers' Notebook pages 119 & 120 (if not finished in class); Review notes/story for
Reading Comprehension/Vocabulary Test; Study spelling
Friday-     Select book for 1st book project- bring in on Monday

MATHEMATICS

          Last week’s (first) math test of the year went very well.  From the grades on the test we can see that students actually know more than they think they do.  It’s time to build up some confidence.  Remember when we are hesitant about what we know, we take much longer than we need to and we can make careless mistakes.  Confidence builds speed and accuracy.  We will be continuing to practice our fast facts and double digits activities to build that confidence we need to make us more secure moving forward.

          Our lessons will build off our work with place value and move on to order of operations and working with exponents.  Remember that successfully performing multi-digit operations will continue to be one of our goals also.   Please contact me if you see your child struggling with this.  

Homework this week:
Monday- Double Digits Multiplication; completion of Fast Facts (as needed)
Tuesday- Practice book pages 7 & 8
Wednesday- Double Digits Multiplication; completion of Fast Facts (as needed)
Thursday- Practice book pages 9 & 10; Study for test (exponents)
Friday-  Practice fast facts; make flash cards of problem facts