Dates

February 27 - 5th Gr Music, Strings, Honors Orch Concert (6:30pm)
February 28 - 2nd Trimester Progress Reports Available Online
March 2 - Parkway Science Fair / STEM Fest SW Middle (4-8pm)
March 3 - Parkway Science Fair / STEM Fest SW Middle (10am-4pm)
March 5 - Read Across America Week BEGINS
March 6 - Dr. Seuss Night & 1st Gr Music Concert (6:15-7:45pm)
March 7 - Late Start Day (11:05) (Drop off Begins at 10:45)
March 9 - Skate Night at Skateport Plaza (5-7pm)
March 12 - Winter Book Fair BEGINS
March 14 - Board of Education Meeting @ Central Middle (7pm)
March 15 - Parent Teacher Conferences (4:30-8:30 pm)
March 15 - Winter Book Fair ENDS at 8pm
March 19 - Chick-fil-a Fundraiser (5-8pm)
March 20 - All District Orchestra Concert @ Queeny Park (7:30pm)
March 21 - Talent Show
March 22 - Spring Picture Day

ABCDE Letter Days for the WEEK
(Mon = C) (Tues = D) (Wed = E) (Thurs = A) (Fri = B)

New Reading Unit - This Week!

This unit is designed to rally students to take charge of their jobs as readers and propel themselves into harder texts.  It sets children up to be able to read increasingly complex text with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension, all of which require the development of great problem-solving skills. In this unit, we help students realize that they have the strategies to be in charge of their own reading, and have the tools they need to help themselves when that job gets tough. This way they can move past the initial impulse to say “Help me,” when meaning breaks down. This unit moves through four parts: strengthening readers’ abilities to monitor their reading and take action when they encounter problems, developing efficient strategies for word solving, maintaining comprehension in longer texts, and putting it all together with fluency.

The texts the students are tackling now in their independent and instructional books are much more complex than they were even a few short months ago. The demand on taking the known strategies to the next level and applying what they've learned about spelling patterns has increased.

In addition to stressing strategies to solve longer words, we are also going to do some more vocabulary specific work. Many students can read with ease and fluency, but have no idea the meaning of some of the words they read! Since we read for meaning, to understand, and learn, vocabulary strategies are important as well!

Essential Questions for this unit:


What do readers do when they make mistakes?
What do readers do when they come to a word they don't know?
What do readers do when their reading doesn’t make sense?
Why is reading with fluency important?

New Writing Unit - Next Week!

Beginning on Monday 2-26 we will begin learning how to write persuasive pieces and working on writing book reviews. This unit aims to bring opinion writing to first-graders. We will begin by learning the difference between a fact and an opinion. This concept was touched upon during our non-fiction unit, but many students still need more practice identifying the difference.Students will learn that writing can give them a way to make and defend important decisions.  Eventually, children will use their skills at writing to make and defend judgments to write book reviews. In the past we have recorded student book reviews for viewing!

Essential Questions

Writing:

-How can I study published songs and poems in order to notice what other writers do? How can I try some of those things in my own writing?
-How can I write lots of songs and poems—writing about things that matter to me?
-How can I show my thoughts and feelings in my poems?
-How can I make my songs and poems longer and then get them ready for publication?

Math:

-How does creating models help us make sense of problems?
-How can understanding place value help me solve problems?
-How can I communicate my math thinking?

Reading:

-What makes a story?

-How do readers use story elements to stay engaged with the text?

-How do changes in story elements influence the story?

Social Studies:

-What makes a good leader?

-What do symbols tell us about our country?

Dates

February 20 - Safe Surf Presentation in Library (7-8pm)
February 21 - Board of Education Meeting @ Central Middle (7pm)
February 22 - Parkway Science Fair Registration DUE
February 23 - 5th Grade Field Trip
February 27 - 5th Gr Music, Strings, Honors Orch Concert (6:30pm)
February 28 - 2nd Trimester Progress Reports Available Online
March 2 - Parkway Science Fair / STEM Fest SW Middle (4-8pm)
March 3 - Parkway Science Fair / STEM Fest SW Middle (10am-4pm)
March 5 - Read Across America Week BEGINS
March 6 - Dr. Seuss Night & 1st Gr Music Concert (6:15-7:30pm)
March 7 - Late Start Day (11:05) (Drop off Begins at 10:45)
March 9 - Skate Night at Skateport Plaza (5-7pm)
March 12 - Winter Book Fair BEGINS
March 14 - Board of Education Meeting @ Central Middle (7pm)
March 15 - Parent Teacher Conferences (4:30-8:30 pm)
March 15 - Winter Book Fair ENDS at 8pm
March 19 - Chick-fil-a Fundraiser (5-8pm)

ABCDE Letter Days for the WEEK
(Mon = No School) (Tues = D) (Wed = E) (Thurs = A) (Fri = B)

Social Studies - This is Our Country

Last week we began a new social studies unit - This is our Country. During this unit we will study various American symbols: the flag, eagle, presidential seal, liberty bell, and more. Students will be creating a book of facts they learn about different American symbols. We also learn about some famous Americans and learn about President's Day. During this unit we also incorporate the concept of "leadership" and what that looks like through studying various leaders. This ties in nicely with our Leader in Me initiative! :)

Math

This week we are finishing our place value unit (assessing tomorrow) and then beginning our next unit which is Addition and Subtraction 2. We will be using ALL that we have learned this year and especially the understanding of place value from our last unit.

This unit focuses on adding a 2-digit number to a 1-digit or 2-digit number with the sum less than 100, and subtracting multiples of 10 less than 100.  Students find answers using concrete models, drawings, properties of operations, the relationship between addition and subtraction, and strategies based on place value.  Written methods are related to strategies, with an expectation that students can explain the reasoning used. An understanding of place value concepts is essential for using various addition and subtraction strategies.

Dates

February 12 - Project Parkway @ Central High (6:30-8pm)
February 13 - Spirit of Excellence @UMSL (6:30-7:30pm)
February 15 - End of Trimester
February 15 - Elem. Summer School Registration opens at 11:00 am
February 16 - NO SCHOOL - Records Day
February 19 - NO SCHOOL - Presidents Day
February 20 - Safe Surf Presentation in Library (7-8pm)
February 22 - Parkway Science Fair Registration DUE
February 23 - 5th Grade Field Trip
February 27 - 5th Gr Music, Strings, Honors Orch Concert (6:30pm)
February 28 - 2nd Trimester Progress Reports Available Online
March 2 - Parkway Science Fair / STEM Fest SW Middle (4-8pm)
March 3 - Parkway Science Fair / STEM Fest SW Middle (10am-4pm)
March 5 - Read Across America Week BEGINS
March 6 - Dr. Seuss Night & 1st Gr Music Concert (6:15-7:30pm)
March 7 - Late Start Day (11:05) (Drop off Begins at 10:45)
March 12 - Winter Book Fair BEGINS

ABCDE Letter Days for the WEEK
(Mon = E) (Tues = A) (Wed = B) (Thurs = C) (Fri = No School)

Reading - Characters

This week our focus has been on getting to know our characters that we read about! We pay attention to what characters do, say, how they feel and how they act. We also talked about how they may change. One thing we did was analyze character traits. Here is a list we have been using:

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson807/traits-list.pdf

This list would be awesome to refer to as you are reading with your child at home! I even talk about character traits with my little guy. :)