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!

This week in Language Arts, we will be reading the realistic fiction story Stink and the Freaky Frog Freakout. Students will explore figurative language, focusing on similes and idioms, and learn about key literary elements. As we read, we will discuss these elements together and complete a graphic organizer to deepen understanding.

Students will also practice their reading comprehension by answering short response questions and taking a 5-question multiple-choice quiz on the story.

Please note, on Tuesday we will be conducting MAPS testing in Literacy.

Finally, we will begin working on personal narratives, with the writing prompt: "What is the most memorable day you've had?" This will help students express their experiences through storytelling.

Monday: We will be in our advocacies all day going over rules and routines for our classes 

Tuesday: We will do a soft switch, this will look like practicing what it looks like going to our classes, learning routines in our core content classes, and looking at what we will be doing and learning during the school year.  

Wednesday: start content, starting our first module in HMH What a Character, going over vocabulary, context clues and how we can use them to figure out unknown words, literary elements, and point of view. 

Thursday: Read Marisol McDonald doesn't match, talk about point of view in the story and literary elements, parts of a sentence (subject and predicate), and talk about parts of writing and what needs to be in writing.  

Friday: Review things we have learned this week and practice them more, show them how to get onto HMH online and how they will take their exit tickets for our readings in class, and introduce types pf sentences