From the Desk of Mrs. Larned...

Beginning the second week of school, homework began getting sent home with your student each afternoon (*Monday-Thursday). Many students have done a great job of getting their daily homework placed into their yellow folder and completed at home, before returning it the next morning. Thank you so much for your help with ensuring that work is getting done and returned on a regular basis! I do realize that life gets very busy and it may be tricky to find the opportunity to squeeze in extra study time. Although, establishing this foundation of responsibility now will most definitely help to set your student up for success in years to come as they enter middle school and high school. Not to mention, it will help to reinforce the skills being taught in our classroom each week. 🙂

We are currently in the midst of our first Math module of the school year. The first part of our unit has focused primarily on becoming familiar with the concept of area (pertaining to given shapes), as well as identifying the multiples and factor pairs of specific numbers. If you get a moment, ask your student to see if they can explain how to find the area of a rectangle.

Over the past several weeks, we have been reading various texts pertaining to natural disasters, including how people react to/prepare for them. In addition to these reading lessons, we have also been working to build our reading stamina and strengthen our predicting, inferring, and overall comprehension skills. Each day, students also have the opportunity to participate in a silent reading period, individualized IXL Language Arts activity, and participate in a small group Reading lesson.

In the area of writing, we have begun generating possible ideas for personal narrative stories and are heading into the initial stages of drafting our own personal narratives using a small, "seed" moment/memory from our lives. I am looking forward to seeing all of the students' creativity, effort, and ideas come together in their writings!

Our first Science unit of the school year has focused on the study of rocks. So far, we have been learning about patterns of Earth's features and how volcanoes form (in addition to why some explode, while others lay dormant). Other interesting topics within our unit include weathering and erosion, natural hazards, and the creation of fossils. I have loved watching the students' excitement as we dive into each of our daily science activities!

This year, I’ll be using ClassDojo to share fun moments from the classroom and keep you up-to-date with info and events. You can use the QR code below to get signed up, if you haven't already. See you on the ClassDojo app! 🙂