Dear Parents,                                 April 23, 2012

Our reading strategy this week is evaluating.  The comprehension skill that will help us with evaluating is story structure.  Knowing the setting, the characters, the problem, and solution in the story and being able to sequence the events will help us evaluate the story. Our phonics focus this week is on base words and the endings –es, -ies.  These endings have the /ez/ sound as in reaches and bunnies.  We are also working with the prefixes un- (not) and re- (again).  Our grammar focus is on the proper usage of the words was and were.  We will not have a spelling unit this week as we will be focusing on the speech contest and wrapping up our first Writers Workshop!

We will be starting a new chapter in math on geometry, fractions and probability. This week we will just be beginning the chapter, which will focus on position words and plane shapes. Practice using words such as above, below, right, left, near, far and between to describe where something can be found.  In religion we will spend our time learning that Jesus Sends us the Spirit. We will take a break from our discussion of matter in science to review plant parts and prepare ourselves for our field trip on Wednesday! The students are very excited! In social studies we continue to study Our World Near and Far, in particular learning that people everywhere are linked.

The Speech Contest has arrived! Students will be given the opportunity to volunteer to say their poem first. However, depending on the students, sticks will be pulled after the initial round of volunteers. Please make sure that your student is ready on Monday! The students must introduce themselves, state the name of their poem and the author before they begin their poem in front of our class. Please practice this with your student. As a reminder one prop or costume piece may be used. If your student already brought this in then it is safe and sound in the classroom.

Announcements for the week:

• Please remind your student to bring their library book on Tuesday so that they may check out another one.
• Water bottle sales continue on Tuesday and Thursday for $1.
• Wednesday is our Class Field Trip to the Ventura Farmers Market!
• Friday is the Jog-A-Thon (students wear PE uniforms) and a noon dismissal!

Have a wonderful week!

Miss. Manning