Mrs.

Clarks
Newsletter
st

Classroom News

Important Dates

October 28th: Pumpkin

Patch!
October 30th: School
Store
October 31st:
Halloween! Parade
begins at 1:30
November 3rd: BOOK
IT Calendar Due

Halloween: Children will change

into their costumes during lunch.
You have the option to bring your
child home for lunch to change
them, but a note MUST be sent in
prior to Friday. Lunch is 11:2812:13. Our party will be from
12:15-1:15 and the parade begins
at 1:20.

Week of October 27th, 2014

The students enjoyed the Teachers Pets by Dayle Ann Dodds. As we read, we thought about
the different story elements and how they help us to retell the story. This included the characters, setting,
and the beginning, middle and end of the story. This is called the plot of the story. Ask your child to retell the
story including the characters, setting, and using the beginning, middle, end to help guide him/her. This
week, we are reviewing all of the great reading strategies we have learned so far and applying them with
different literature. Here is a recap of the strategies we have worked on:

Sequence of events
Comparing & Contrasting
Inferring Authors Purpose
Identifying story elements
Identifying cause and effect relationships

In writing, students are publishing their personal narratives! They are so proud of
the work they have done. As they revise their work and prepare it for display, they are
also reflecting on their work as a writer. They will be discussing with their peers what
they feel they improved on as a writer and what they feel they still need to work on. Selfassessment is such an important way for students to be accountable for their learning!
Following our narrative unit, we will begin informational writing.
In math, we will be continuing Chapter 3 on subtraction. In addition to regrouping
three digit problems in the ones and tens, we are continuing to build number sense each
day with daily practice with math manipulatives. It is wonderful to students to have
automaticity of math facts and be able to solve a subtraction/addition problem because
they are familiar with the process. However, true math fluency involves a deeper
understanding of why they are regrouping. Our goal is for students to be able to
demonstrate their understanding of the subtraction process through use of base ten
blocks and verbal explanation. After completing a problem, ask your child to show you
by drawing hundreds, tens and ones and explaining why they needed or didnt need to
regroup.
In Social Studies, we are finishing up Unit 2 by completing an end of unit
project. Students will be applying their knowledge to concepts learned in Unit 2 to create
their own world region. They will have to decide what type of landforms, plant/animal life,
and climate their region has according to where it is located in relation to the equator and
the poles. In addition, students will be showing the characteristics of their world region
by creating their own map key. Lastly, they will be describing their world region in
paragraph form. This unit assessment will be scored using a rubric and will count
towards their final grade. Following the end-of-unit project, we will begin Science! We
will begin our studies in life science and focus on Penguins!

Mrs.Clarks Email: marilyn.clark@edison.k12.nj.us Phone: (732) 650-5280

There will be no new spelling words this week.