Update from Ms. Luria March 6

Dear Families,

NEEDED: Volunteers for our Tuesday field trip. Walking Field Trip to Library: 
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Sign up to walk with us at 11 am http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4BAFAA2BA5FB6-walkingNote: Your child will need a sack lunch Tuesday!

Friday March 14th Expert Speeches are due

Monday March 17th - Students 1-14 will do expert speeches between 9:45 and 11:22
Tuesday March 18th, Students 15 - 28 will do expert speeches between 9:45 - 11:22

Wednesday March 19th - 3:30 - 5:30 Student led Conferences after school - plan to come for 20 minutes sometime today
Wednesday March 19th - 5:45 - 6:45 Math OAKS information for parents

Thursday March 20th - 3:30 - 5:30 Student led conferences - you will receive an email if you are to come on Thursday
Thursday March 20th - 5:45 - 6:45 Reading OAKS information for parents

We are hard at work on our bridges unit. Students are learning about beam bridges and testing them with pennies, learning about the history or Portland and our bridges. Students are in three different groups, so they receive the lessons in different orders. 

I have quite a few pictures that I'll be putting up in the classroom in the next few weeks!
In reading, we continue to work on our novel groups as well as non-fiction reading. The Bunnicula group finished their book, and January Joker will be finishing tomorrow. Ask your child about what book they are reading. 

In non-fiction reading we are looking for proof. For example, if your child reads something and says that a person in an article is brave, you could ask, where does the person show that s/he is brave. Can you read the sentences that showed that? What made you think that? 

In math, we continue to explore fractions. We are using geoboards to make fractions. We are also exploring fractions of a whole. Ask your child questions as you are cooking about fractions. Need 3/4 of a cup of rice, how could I measure that using 1/8th cups? What if I just had a 1/2 cup an an 1/8 cup? 

You can also ask questions about fractions of a whole. If I am going to use 1/3 of the bananas for lunches today and we have 9 bananas, how many are we going to use? It is really helpful if you can show your child how you think and use fractions in real life.

In spelling, we continue to work on our spelling rules, dictations and high frequency words. The students took a mid-year check in test. They did a wonderful job and the minimum improvement was 15 words on the test! Many students doubled or tripled their spelling scores.

Finally, please check out some of the student writing on the blog.  Your kids would love to share with you some of their writing and read some feedback too! 

Have a wonderful week,
Sacha