TIME FLIES!

August is nearly over . . . . Time flies when we are learning! I am enjoying the time I spend with your children. They are showing a great deal of enthusiasm about learning and they’re doing a good job of following through with homework. Your support is appreciated. Thank you, too, for supporting our “Leader in Me” initiative and sending the forms back to school describing how your children are practicing the “Habits” at home.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

LABOR DAY – NO SCHOOL –SEPTEMBER 1
SCHOOL PICTURE DAY -- SEPTEMBER 9

So, what are we learning at 306 Listening Lane?

MATH: Students have shown a good understanding of place value and rounding numbers. We will be adding and subtracting some very large numbers next week. Our classroom “Number Talks” are helping students with basic facts while they exercise their mental math skills. This should transfer to more accurate computation with large numbers.

READING: Next week we will discuss story elements and focus on reading skills to help improve our overall comprehension. We will also be learning about asking questions during reading and making predictions. The students will also apply these reading skills as they read independently each day. Reading homework will reinforce reading skills. Having your child read each day’s passage aloud to you will help improve fluency.

What strategies can I use to help me better understand what I am reading?                    *Identifying main idea: determine what the passage is mainly about                                *Recognizing details: notice how the author supports the main idea with examples and descriptions                                                                                                                               *Understanding author's purpose: what was the reason the author wrote the passage? *Visualizing: make pictures or play a movie in your mind as you read                                  *Inferring: read “between the lines” – what can you assume?                                        *Questioning: what questions come to mind as you read the passage? What do you wonder?                                                                                                                                         *Connecting: relate characters, events, or information to yourself, another text, or the world                                                                                                                                                  *Predicting: what do you think will happen next?
PRACTICE “PREDICTING” AT THIS WEBSITE:
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/makingpredictionsp.cfm

WRITING: We will begin discussing the elements of good writing and comparing our list to the 6+1 Traits of Good Writing. Next week we will review the writing process with an emphasis on prewriting and brainstorming great ideas. We will work at the art of writing.
This week teachers were informed that in Cobb County, Writing Craft will now account for 70% of the overall English Language Arts grade (previously, Writing was 50% of ELA). Spelling, grammar, and other word work will be 30% of the ELA grade.

SCIENCE: Water, water everywhere! Three fourths of our planet is covered with water but 97% of it is in the oceans. Most of the other 3% is frozen in glaciers. But we still have plenty to drink. In fact, did you know we drink the same water the dinosaurs drank? We currently have all of the water we have ever had on the earth. The water cycle is how water travels through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. As the sun evaporates water (turning from liquid to gas) from lakes, rivers, and oceans, it condenses (gas changes to a liquid) toform clouds. Once the clouds are heavy, precipitation (water falls to return to  the ground) occurs. This process happens over and over. Our water continues to move through the same pattern over and over again.
This week we created our own water cycle models in the Science Lab. We appreciate Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Hernandez volunteering to assist us.
Next week we will learn about the role the weather cycle plays in our weather.

FIRE SAFETY: We welcomed a Cobb County firefighter to our classroom as we began to learn about safety and the importance of having a home escape plan. We took home our Fire Safety workbooks to draw a floor plan of our home (just the floor where we sleep) and a primary and a secondary escape route. We can really use parent help with this! We will have Fire Safety homework next week and will take a field trip to Safety Village on Friday. If your child plans to bring a lunch from home, please be sure that all packaging is disposable.

 

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING!