Sneak Peek After Vacation

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The past few weeks have been pretty choppy. I can't wait to have a few uninterrupted weeks to continue our learning! We have a lot to cover before our holiday break! Here is a peek at our next few weeks. 

Literacy: Reading

Continue Character Study:
-How do characters change throughout the story?
-What can I learn from my character?
-What character traits describe the character?
-Why does the character act a certain way?  Thoughts backed up by "evidence" from the text: Example: Lily was jealous because.....

Comprehension Strategy: 
-Making predictions: Making predictions before & during reading.
-Confirming/denying predictions using the text.
-Using evidence in story to help us "back up" our predictions.

Recording:
-Utilizing sticky notes to track our thinking: Recording our work to help in comprehension and book talk.

Conferencing: Introducing conference & strategy groups around the areas of Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency & Expanding Vocabulary. (CAFE) Look for more info. this week in your child's APE book!

Writing
-Assessment on personal narratives/small moment stories for writing sample.
-Begin Realistic Fiction- Story using made up characters but could happen in real life. Character development & story plot: characters, setting, problem, solution.
- Continue writing process: Plan, Write, Revise, Edit, Publish & establish daily writing goals/focus.


Science
-Exploring Balance and Motion unit
-Bats: Good luck symbol in China. Are bats birds? Compare & contrast. Non-Fiction book clubs around bats: Informal exploration of parts of non-fiction.
-Begin scientist of the week! Children will each have the opportunity to prepare and conduct an experiment for classmates. Your child will be informed a week ahead when they are chosen to be the scientist of the week and will prepare the experiment at home!

Social Studies: China
-Counting & brush painting
-Learning about the culture & people of China. Exploring our guiding questions.
-Fact fluency & small group reader's theater.
-China show TBA at the end of unit.