Dear 2BR Families,
Thank you for sending in pictures with your child for the upcoming Slice of Life Personal Narrative writing unit. Your pictures will be returned at the end of January.
You will notice that I forgot to have the students bring their reading books home over the weekend. We will have the assessment on The Secret Life of Trees this Monday. Since the children do not have their books at home for practice, we will spend extra time reviewing prior to the test.
Please continue to encourage your child to read daily, and enter his/her minutes on the May Watts Reads link (see tab above). Your child can read right through winter break! This month's end date for reading incentives is December 31st.
Reminder: December is the month when letters are sent home from schools to parents of Grade 1-5 students recommended to participate in testing for the Project Arrow Program. For more information about this program please read below and access the district website.
Project Arrow and Math Acceleration Testing Notification
District 204 offers a variety of academic programming to meet the needs of our students. Although assessment occurs throughout the school year for all students, some programs require additional data in order to determine appropriate placement. The Identification Timeline (http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/Gifted) provides general information regarding identification for the Project Arrow Gifted/Talented Program and the Accelerated Mathematics Program. Letters with specific testing details will be mailed to parents of students for whom further evaluation is recommended. Additional information about either of these programs can be found on the District website or by contacting your child’s classroom teacher or school’s Student Services Coordinator.
Reading:
This week, your Child has read The Secret Life of Trees by Chiara Chevallier. This nonfiction selection discusses the life cycle of a tree and explains that trees can be home to many different animals, including birds and insects. This selection also discusses the two main types of trees - broad-leaved trees and conifers--and explores trees that grow in tropical climates. Please encourage your child to read The Secret Life of Trees over the weekend.
Focus Skill: Fact or Fiction
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Focus Skills_Fact-Fiction]
Vocabulary Power precedes the story:
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Vocabulary_The Secret Life of Trees]
discover - find out; learn for the first time
energy - the power to do things
forecast - predict
shed - throw off
source - a pace from which something comes
Grammar: Verb Endings
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Grammar_Verb Endings]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Grammar_Verb_Helping_Contraction]
[Link: Right-hand column_Grammar_Verbs Helping]
Math:
This week we will begin our unit 5: 3-D and 2-D Shapes
The four main areas of focus are:
- to develop the concepts of point and line segment,
- to identify, name and classify polygons,
- to observe similarities and differences among 3-dimensional shapes, and
- to explore symmetry.
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_math_Geometry_(scroll down to the geometry section]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_math_Shapes 2-D and 3-D]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_math_Quadrilateral Sort]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_math_Symmetry 1 and Symmetry 2]
For continued practice, we will also revisit the partial-sums algorithm
[Partial-Sums video example: Right-hand column_Math_Partial Sums Addition]
Science:
Health and Nutrition Unit
For the next several weeks we will continue our lessons about healthy eating with the Royal Food Family and Little D the dragon. To grow and be healthy we need to eat foods from all five food groups. We will be discussing each of the 5 food groups during the next several weeks.
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Science_Nutrition Blast-Off Game]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Science_Nutrition Explorations]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Science_Nutrition Explore the Food Pyramid]
[Interactive Link: Right-hand column_Science_Nutrition Food Guide Plate]
