Week of November 23
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
We were so pleased to meet with you during the Parent/Teacher Conferences last Wednesday. It is always very informative to have the input of our students’ parents.
The science quiz on balancing will take place on December 2. A study guide will be sent home this week to help your child prepare.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, students will continue to write journal entries about how their family celebrates this holiday and use this information for their writing project in class. Please share stories, experiences and traditions with your child.
Words cannot express how thankful we are to have the support of our parents who are so caring and are working arduously at home with the children to ensure that they are successful in school. This really makes our job enjoyable.
Have a happy Thanksgiving filled with love and peace!
Language Arts:
Independent Reading (35-40 minutes at the beginning of each day)
Teachers provide guided reading lessons and/or reading conferences during this time.
Differentiated Instruction:
- Guided Writing
- Guided Reading
- Phonics: Recognizing words with vowels and r
- Students play “Word Grid” game.
- Students from a table grouping are selected each day to read from their journals.
Day 1:
Independent Reading
Morning meeting/morning message
Interactive Read Aloud: Making Connections
Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say.
- Guide students to reflect upon Mr. Hoang’s presentation to make connections about difficult situations that immigrants have to experience.
Writing for Readers
(Lucy Calkins and Natalie Louis)
Teaching Skills and Strategies - Inspiring Students to Write for Readers:
- In this first session, teachers will aim to convey the big picture of this new unit. Specifically, students will be inspired to work harder and in new ways so that others can read their writing.
- Teachers model verbally a personal narrative about Thanksgiving celebrations and demonstrate how to create an outline for writing the narrative.
- Students share knee-to-knee Thanksgiving celebrations.
- Each student writes an outline for his/her personal narrative. The outline includes the following:
1. Preparation for the Thanksgiving celebration
2. The day of Thanksgiving
3. Why is the celebration important to their family?
Day 2:
Independent Reading
Morning meeting/morning message
Interactive Read Aloud: Making Connections
The Pilgrims and Me by Judy Donnelly (p.1-15)
- Teachers guide students to make connections between personal experiences and the anchor text.
Writing for Readers (Lucy Calkins and Natalie Louis)
Teaching Skills and Strategies - Inspiring Students to Write for Readers:
- In this session, teachers will aim to convey the big picture of this new unit. Specifically, students will be inspired to work harder and in new ways so that others can read their writing.
- Teachers think out-loud of examples of introductions to the personal narratives on celebrations.
- Teachers and students review lists of engaging leads/openings to the narratives.
- Students share knee-to-knee how they would write an introduction, and they begin writing their introductions.
Day 3:
Independent Reading
Morning meeting/morning message
Interactive Read Aloud: Making Connections
The Pilgrims and Me by Judy Donnelly (p.15-30)
- Teachers guide students to make connections between personal experiences and the anchor text.
Writing for Readers (Lucy Calkins and Natalie Louis)
Teaching Skills and Strategies - Stretching and Writing Words:
- In this session, children will be encouraged to hear and record more sounds in the words they write.
- Teachers think out-loud paragraphs on preparation for Thanksgiving.
- Students share knee-to-knee the first body paragraph about how their families prepare for Thanksgiving.
- Students begin writing the body paragraph.
- Each day a small group students share their work in progress.
Interactive read aloud:
The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
Math:
4.1 Change-to-More Number Stories
Objective: To guide students as they solve change-to-more number stories
- Mental Math and Reflexes/Math Message
- Math Message Follow-Up (Whole-Class Activity)
- Introducing the Change Diagram (Whole-Class Discussion)
- Solving Change-to-More Number Stories (Partner Activity)
Differentiated Instruction: Under teachers’ guidance, students work in assigned pairs using the number grid and base-10 blocks to solve number stories.
Enrichment: Students create Change-to-More number stories for classmates to solve.
4.2 Parts-and-Total Number Stories
Objective: To guide students as they solve parts-and-total number stories
- Mental Math and Reflexes/Math Message
- Math Message Follow-Up (Whole-Class Activity)
- Finding the Cost of Two or More Items (Partner Activity)
Differentiated Instruction:
Enrichment: Students solve Part-and-Total number stories using parts greater than 1 dollar.
4.3 Exploring Temperature, Money, Shapes and Sums (Day 1)
Objective: To guide students as they explore reading temperatures on a thermometer, practice finding the total value of a group of coins, and develop readiness for classifying geometric shapes
- Mental Math and Reflexes/Math Message
- Math Message Follow-Up (Whole-Class Activity)
- Playing Addition Spin (Partner Activity)
- Exploration A: Exploring temperature using a thermometer
- Exploration B: Coin booklets using groups of coins and the total value and dollar and cent notations
- Exploration C: Students classify geometric shapes according to attributes size, color and shape.
Social Studies:
Presentation:
Mr. Hoang continues his presentation about immigrating to the U.S.
Science:
Lesson 2: Building Structures that Balance (Day 1)
- Students build structures that balance using a beam, fulcrum, and Unifix Cubes and base ten blocks to explore how the amount of weight and position of weight affect balance.
- Students read Julie’s Balancing Act.
- Students write about the exploration: Exploring the balancing beam.
Thank you for your support.
Anh Tuan Hoang, LuAnn Lawson