This week in Wonders, the children will be learning about different features of animal habitats. We have spent a great amount of time on this in our Science learning already, and I am sure the students will enjoy being experts in their field. We will focus on the soft c and g sounds this week. Anytime the letters c or g are followed by an I, e, or y they make their soft sound. The soft c sound is /s/ and the soft g sound is /j/. Our spelling words will focus on this pattern for the week. As well, we will continue to work on main ideas and details. The students are progressing nicely in this area; it is exciting to see! As well, we will continue to learn about suffixes on words, and how the change the meaning of the word.
In Math this week, we will begin to study the relationship between addition and subtraction. Students will review fact families, and begin to learn strategies to help them become more fluent in their subtraction facts. I will send home their logins for connected this week. They can access the math games we use in school. It would be wonderful if they could logon and practice a game for about ten minutes per evening, to continue to build their automaticity with math facts. The additional exposure and practice will help them more quickly recall the facts.
We will begin to look at maps and mapping skills this week. We will learn about the seven continents, and work to zoom in on where our town is located on a map. We will work over the next few weeks to learn about map features, such as a cardinal rose, map keys, and following map directions. This will culminate with the students building a map of their own!
In writing this week, we will work on using temporal words (first, next, then, finally). These are important words that help transition a reader from one important ideas to the next within a story. We will become masters with these words before moving on to find alternative ways to write these words (such as- shortly after that, a bit later, etc.). Students will then begin to plan a piece of writing that includes these words.
December 9th- No School
December 23rd- Early Release