This week in Literacy we’ll focus daily on building fluency. Students will practice choral reading together as a class and whisper reading independently on other days to improve accuracy, expression, and pacing.

We’re also starting a new module, “Making a Difference.” To launch the unit we’ll introduce the topic, watch the Get Curious video, and review the module’s knowledge map. Instruction and activities this week include:

• Phonics/spelling: long O words — golden, snow, toast, scold, oat, load, row, soap, foam, blow
• Vocabulary & word study: compound words
• Shared reading: Let’s Build a Park — author’s purpose focus
• Read-aloud & comprehension: Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table — quiz, text structure, and point of view
• Grammar: past-tense verbs practice

This week in literacy we will:

• Read the story T.J. The Siberian Tiger Cub and complete a short reading quiz to check comprehension.
• Write a response focused on cause and effect based on events in the story.
• Practice opinion writing: students will learn how to state an opinion and support it with reasons.
• Review common vs. proper nouns with quick, hands‑on activities.
• Study the suffix -ly to form adverbs and practice using them in sentences.
• Work on using the verbs be and have correctly in both speaking and writing.

How you can help at home:

• Ask your child to retell the main events of T.J. and identify one cause and one effect.
• Have them tell you an opinion about the story and give two reasons.
• Point out nouns and proper nouns in books you read together, and listen for words that end in -ly.
• Practice short sentences using “is/are” and “has/have.”

Hello families — this week we begin Module 6: Animal Behaviors. Here's what your child will be doing:

• Reading: Two texts — Frozen Alive and This Is Your Life Cycle.

  • Focus: identifying text and graphic features, determining main idea and supporting details, and finding text evidence to support answers.
  • Assessment: a quiz on This Is Your Life Cycle later this week.

• Phonics & Spelling: Practice with ar, or, and ore word patterns.

  • Spelling test on Friday. Daily activities will build toward the test.

• Writing: Daily 9-minute writing sessions to build composition skills and stamina.

  • We’ll begin an opinion writing unit on deforestation, starting with a class debate to generate ideas.

• Grammar: Lessons on the difference between

  • your vs. you’re
  • theirvs. there vs. they’re

• Monday: A guest will visit to talk about the stock show. Afterward we’ll focus on sequencing stories.
• Daily: Students will write for 7 minutes straight each day to build writing stamina.
• This week’s reading: We will finish the story Brother at Bat and then take a quiz. Students will also practice sequencing the events from the story.
• Grammar: We’ll learn about different verb tenses later in the week.
• Friday: A fun holiday activity featuring descriptive writing.

This week in literacy:

• Vocabulary: We’ll review synonyms and antonyms.
• Grammar: Students will practice using quotation marks, capitalization, and punctuation with quotes.
• Conventions: We’ll study common abbreviations.
• Reading: Read "Two Bear Cubs" and take the quiz — we’ll use the story to explore elements of drama, theme, and other literary elements.
• Phonics: Practice the /aw/ vowel sound.
• Writing: Students will work on descriptive writing.

At home you can help by asking your child to tell you the meaning of new words, read aloud passages from "Two Bear Cubs," and practice writing a few descriptive sentences about a person, place, or object

This week in Language Arts, we are exploring new vocabulary from our stories The Traveling Trio and Gigi and the Wishing Ring. Students are practicing summarizing the stories and identifying their themes. We will also take a quiz on both stories and delve into the elements of drama.

In spelling, we have a test on Friday featuring 10 words with consonant digraphs. Our writing focus continues on descriptive writing, along with suffixes -er and -or, the rule for changing y to i in certain words, and both irregular and regular plural nouns.

This week in Language Arts, students will focus on descriptive writing and practicing RACE responses to improve how they answer questions. We will take an online module assessment that can read the stories and questions aloud to support your child if needed. We will also review adjectives to strengthen their descriptive skills.

Additionally, students will be introduced to a new module called Stories on Stage. This unit explores the parts of a play, including reader’s theatre, and the important elements involved. Over the next three weeks, your child will practice and prepare for a reader’s theatre performance at the end of the module.

This week, students will finish typing their narratives and focus on several key skills: using commas in a series, learning new vocabulary from the story Why the Statue of Liberty is Green, and taking a quiz on the story. We will also explore abstract and concrete nouns, find the central idea, study conjunctions and pronouns, examine literary elements and author’s purpose, and learn about the prefix "im." Additionally, students are working on their descriptive essays.

How You Can Support at Home

Encourage your child to read for at least 20 minutes every night. Their descriptive essay will be about "The Best Place on Earth," such as grandma’s house, the zoo, or their own home. Talk with them about what place they want to write about and ask them to describe it using adjectives. This conversation will help them develop rich, vivid descriptions for their essay.

This week in class, we will be focusing on a Common Writing Assessment where students will write an informative essay. We’re also learning new vocabulary words and wrapping up our personal narratives. In grammar, we’re practicing commas in a series to help with writing clarity. For phonics, we’re focusing on the letter sounds j, k, and kw. During reading, we will explore the story The Flag Maker and complete a quiz to check comprehension, including multiple-meaning words. Additionally, I will be conducting progress monitoring for DIBELS to support your child’s reading growth.

This week in class, we are diving into exciting Reading Adventures with the stories Words and Upside Down Boy, followed by a quiz to check understanding. Students will be exploring new vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, and analyzing the narrative introductions and first paragraphs. We are also focusing on phonics with Long i words.

In poetry, your children will learn about key elements like stanza, rhythm, and rhyme. We’ll introduce fresh figurative language concepts including alliteration, personification, and imagery to make reading more vivid and fun.

Additionally, we’re beginning to build skills in letter writing by working step-by-step on parts of a letter. The students will start drafting a persuasive letter to you about the one pet they really want!

At home, please have conversations with your child about their writing. Ask them what they are working on for their personal narratives—it’s a great way to support their learning and creativity.

This week in class, we are focusing on several important skills to help your child grow as a reader and writer! We will be doing DIBELS assessments, which are quick tests that help us understand each student's reading progress and identify areas where they may need extra support.

In writing, students are working on personal narratives with a clear beginning, middle, and end. At home, you can support this by asking your child about their writing topic. The prompt is: What is your most memorable day? Encouraging them to talk about their story will strengthen their ideas and storytelling skills.

In reading, we will explore the story Scaredy Squirrel to practice making inferences, understanding point of view, and identifying the theme.

For grammar, we are learning about the prefix non-, as well as simple and compound sentences. In spelling, we focus on long a and long e vowel teams (such as ai, ae, ay, and ee). Lastly, we are practicing using context clues to figure out the meanings of new words.

Thank you for your support at home—it makes a big difference!