Second Quarter Update December 2, 2011

Reading: We continue to work on using strategies to help us understand the texts we are reading. We most recently completed a study of fictional text. We examined the elements of character, setting, problem (conflict) and solution, as well as the important events that led up to the solution, in sequence. We continue to practice our fluency and strategies for figuring out unknown words, including inferring the meaning of words based on the surrounding text. We also revisited metacognition (our thinking about our thinking) and practiced rereading when something doesnt make sense or when our minds are not engaged in the text. Writing: While examining the elements of fictional text in reading, we are using fictional texts as exemplars for our own narrative writing. We have improved our leads in order to hook the reader and rated how engaging our story events are and revised them based on our readers feedback. We have also practiced a variety of revision techniques. We continue to study and apply the conventions of capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and spelling. While our families were enjoying an extended Thanksgiving break, we had the opportunity to explore our global studies focus. We are very excited to be beginning our journey toward increasing our focus in
o Leadership

o Citizenship o Technology o Human connectedness (relationships) o Multicultural awareness (cultural proficiency).

Math: We will continue our understanding of Graphs and Data. We can interpret, analyze and examine 2 sets of data. We can also develop and revise relevant questions to collect a wide range of data. We can find the range, mean, median and mode within a given set of data. We also worked with probability, bar graphs, pie charts, line plots and likelihood lines. We are working with a number of different multiplication strategies within our Multiple Towers and Division Stories Unit. We are working with multiplying 2 digit & 3 digit numbers and larger. Some of the Strategies we are using include box method, lattice, tradition algorithm and the break-apart method. We are also exploring division with remainders within story problems. Science: During our Magnetism and Electricity Unit we explored open and closed circuits while supporting and gathering evidence of nonfiction text features in non-fiction writing. Visit our class blog at kidblog.org to view our visuals and experiments. This was a great platform to showcase evidence of our learning. We will be investigating the Land of Colorado, Geology, Rocks and Minerals and the Science of the Earth during the month of December

Social Studies: We have reviewed and focused on the following skills: Latitude, Longitude, Compass Rose and Map Mastery.

We have begun a very exciting project Celebrations Around the

World. We will be examining the holidays of Ramadan, Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas in Germany, Russia and Mexico. We will be showcasing our research in a digital interactive poster called Glogster. During this unit, we will be learning about the concept of cause/effect, determining the important elements of the holiday, comparing/contrasting these celebrations with holidays in our own culture, all while defining the elements of culture. We look forward to sharing our work with our parents during our Winter Celebration (invitation to come).

After studying the elements of culture, we will be examining through literature and discussion, the traits of a global citizen. We will be using our inferring skills and applying our understanding in a visual representation of global citizenship.

We want to personally thank our families for the support for our school food drive. We gathered over 300 cans in 4C and feel very good about sharing with those in our community in need.