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3-Smith Weekly Newsletter
November 15, 2013
Our Special Classes:
Monday - P.E.
Tuesday - Computer Lab
Wednesday - Art
Thursday - Music
Friday - Library
We have lunch from 11:55 - 12:25 and recess
follows from 12:25 - 12:45.
When studying Spelling this week, we
worked on words r-controlled vowels. They have
the ‘ur’ sound, and may be spelled with a ir, or, ur,
ear, or er.
In Reading class we studied the story
"Inchworm’s Tale" which is a Native American
Folktale and “ Martina the Beautiful Cockroach”
which is a Cuban Folktale. These stories are in
the genre of Folktale. A Folktale is a short story
passed from parents to children in a culture.
They usually have a message or teaches a lesson.
We learned that even small animals can solve big
problems. We learned that using colorful words
and details help you visualize, or form pictures, in
your mind. We have also been working a lot on
Problem and Solution. The problem is something
that needs to change or be solved, and the
solution is how the characters fix the problem.
Our final strategy this week was Synonyms.
These are words that have the same meaning. In
our readings we sometimes use synonyms as the
context clues for words we do not know.
In our Cougar CLUB time, we worked on
Folktales and synonyms. For their Weekly Skill
they read Folktales with a partner. When
students collaborate, they get the chance to
work together and see each other’s point of view.
They get the chance to help each other when
needed.
In English class we first reviewed the
subject and predicate parts of sentences. We
then learned that the predicate contains a verb.
A verb is a word that tells what the subject does
or is. Most of our verbs are action verbs which
shows action. After verbs, we learned about using
quotation marks. We use quotation marks to show
that someone is speaking. These marks come at
the beginning and end of a person’s exact words.
During Math this week, we started working
on fractions of a group. We used fractions to
describe parts of a set of items. We call the top
number of a fraction the numerator and it shows
the number of items that are described. The
bottom number of a fraction is called the
denominator and it shows the number of items in
the set. Next, we worked on Probability. We
described events as “more likely” and “less likely”
and explained why. For example; In a bag of 2 blue
marbles and 5 white marbles, if you reached in and
grabbed 1 without looking, which color are you more
likely to pull out? (See if your child can tell you!)
We had a Power-Up test and a Cumulative Test
over Lessons 41 through 45. We spent Friday’s
class going over this test. (Please have your child
tell you how to do any problems that they missed,
to see if they now understand it.) On Thursday,
we worked on mixed numbers like 3 1/2 and 2 3/4.
Mixed numbers are a whole number plus a fraction.
We are working in our Social Studies book in
chapter 3 on Our Physical Geography. This chapter
talks about finding a community’s location on a map
or globe. We used vocabulary words such as
hemisphere, equator, longitude, latitude, mountain
range, valley, plateau, etc. Climate and weather are
also physical features.
Thanksgiving is just around the
corner!!
Have a Great Weekend!