WEEKLY UPDATE

Families, please enjoy an update below of our work in each subject.

Reading:  We completed our DRA work this week and I will be analyzing each student's performance on this written reading assessment.  Through the rest of September our reading work will focus on nonfiction reading from our social studies textbook, focusing on geography themes to enhance our Where in the World project.  When students finish our daily work on nonfiction features, they will be reading their book share books.

Writing:  Next week in writing, we will complete our I AM poems and craft them into iMovies to share digitally.  We will also be writing about our islands a fair amount during social studies time.

Math:  Our work has turned to rounding, estimating, and mental math applied to the addition and subtraction of decimals.  This work will be integrated into our field experiences and science experiments as much as possible.  Throughout the year, we will focus on tow main parts of mathematics: application and communication, especially as they relate to multistep problems.

Social Studies:  For the rest of September, we will be writing about the geography, resources, culture, and economy of our islands.  We will be creating our Travel Brochures in preparation for our Travel Show on Oct. 1.

Science:  We completed our first experiment this week and I will be giving feedback to kids next week.  Observations have been a focus of science while we are on our field experiences.  Next week, we will continue our observations in the field and we will also prepare our next experiment, focused on Grant School outdoor ecology.

Ipads:  We introduced iPads this week to the delight of the kids.  So far, we have only downloaded a few apps but we have not used the devices in our learning routines yet.  Hopefully, we will start next week with using iMovie in writing, Google Docs in social studies and science too.

This week I will be updating photos for our field experiences this week.  Our observations connect us more to the community but will also shape our community project and learning focus for the year.