Ms. Hahn’s Newsletter
February 19, 2017
Reading
We have almost finished reading The Last Voyage of the Griffon by Wendy Caszatt-Allen. The students asked questions while they read, learned new vocabulary words, visualized what they read, and summarized chapters. The students will finish this book next week.
I read Jumanji and Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg. The students helped brainstorm how the books were similar and some of the differences. Then they wrote paragraphs about the based on the class list. Next week the students will be learning how to understand characters in a book and how they affect the plot.
Math
The math focus has changed to fractions. The students have learned to identify fractions and how to decompose fractions. Next week the children will learn how to compare fractions and continue to decompose them. Ask your child to show you how to decompose ⅘ into unit fractions using number bonds.
Social Studies
The students are enjoying social studies. They are divided into 4 different wagon trains and pretending to travel to Oregon. Before they left for the trip, students had to decide on what to bring on their wagons. Along the way students are given different scenarios that may have happened on a real wagon train. The students will continue to role play traveling in a wagon train next week.
Writing
Our new writing genre is persuasive writing. The students wrote a speech to convince Mr. Zamiar that we need more recess. They have also written other speeches that tried to persuade people to change something and to convince someone that a person or place is noteworthy. We will be continuing to work on persuasive writing in the coming weeks. Next week the students will be picking one topic to work on for many writing sessions.
Spelling
The students will be typing 13 spelling sentences on the computer. On Friday the students started typing their sentences on Google docs. Each student has the password and login information in the front of their assignment notebooks for Google. The children will have some class time to work on typing. I encourage the students to include a lot of details in their sentences and have interesting beginnings to their sentences.
Other Information
- Please remind your child to bring a water bottle to school daily.
- All students need a napkin for lunch and snack.
Valentine’s Day Party
I would like to thank all parents who helped with our Valentine’s Day party. The students really enjoyed the party. I would also like to thank those who sent in cards and gifts for Valentine’s Day.
Upcoming Dates
Feb. 20- No school, President’s Day
Feb. 22- Early Release
Feb. 23- Waukegan Library field trip
March 7- Green Assembly
March 8- Early Release, Student Led Conferences
March 9- Early Release, Students Led Conferences