McFarland-Mayberry-Begley Bulletin

for the week of October 19th

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Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, October 26th - Reading logs due / first day of swimming*

Tuesday, October 27th - Study link due / Newspaper and Chorus after school

Wednesday, October 28th - Swim stuff for P.E.! / Conferences start

Thursday, October 29th -  Spelling due /  Color Guard 3:00-4:00pm / PumpkinFest

Friday, October 30th - Home link due

*Please help your child be prepared for each swim class.  Your child’s swim bag should include: swim cap for hair longer than 3 inches, swim suit, goggles, towel, hair brush or comb.  

Academic Updates:

Reading Workshop

We are all about feelings in reading workshop right now!  Studying characters’ actions, how they speak, what they’re thinking...to infer how they are feeling.  The kids have taped two charts of emotions words into their reading notebooks to find “just the right word” to describe how characters are feeling.  We talked about the fact that if we can do this kind of thinking with characters in our books, then we can do it in our own lives.  Thus, reading can make us more sensitive to others, more empathetic -- reading can make us better people!

Writing Workshop

Ask your child,  “What are some ways to make sure your thesis statement (a.k.a., “big idea” and “claim”) is a strong one?”  Our writers have practiced revising a number of so-so thesis statements to turn them into strong ones!  Kids worked with their new writing partners, chatting and trying out alternate word choice, choosing ideas on which to focus, and trying to think ahead to imagine writing a whole essay about certain ideas.  Next week, we will write a class essay to practice a number of the major concepts for the opinion writing unit.  And, a confession...I may have told your child that s/he will learn a number of skills that might help them make a case for special holiday gifts.  So...sorry about that in advance.

Math

This week we jumped in with the second unit in Everyday Math 4. Students discovered how to determine square numbers through the use of arrays, they learned how to use a formula to calculate the area of a rectangle and how to find all the factors for a given product. It was a very busy week!

    I am sharing a photo of the chart we are using in class. This chart features different  strategies students can use when trying to figure out the product for unknown multiplication facts. When your child is working on homework and struggles with a fact they don’t know these strategies will be great ones to reinforce. The second photo is a list of the goals for this unit.

Spelling

This week students learned about the various patterns for the /j/ sound (j, ge, dge, gi, and gy).  We also learned the meaning of 4 common prefixes (re, un, mis, and pre) and brainstormed base words we could add those prefixes to.

Theme

This week was all about our play, Geology Rocks.  Thank you to all who came and helped out!  The kids did a phenomenal job.

    Next week students will take a geology quiz.  On Thursday, I taught students some study techniques and how to make a study tool (flashcards) to assist them.  We will play review games Monday and Tuesday before taking the quiz on Wednesday.  A tip I’ve given the kids is to study a little bit each day, instead of trying to cram it all in Tuesday night.  This is a great time to help our kids build a strong foundation of study habits.