Week 11: Long Division, Realistic Fiction, and Weather and Erosion

Welcome to week 11!  Remember that this is a short week.  We have no school on Thursday the 11th for Veteran's Day. 

This week in math we will be continuing our work in long division.  In particular, this week we will be looking closely at understanding factors, prime and composite numbers, and drawing pictures to get a stronger understanding for an equation.  This is the final week of this first division chapter.  The kids have done exceptionally well.  We have had a high degree of success and are seeing a great deal of confidence in their work. 

In science we will be nearing the conclusion of our erosion and weathering unit.  This week we will complete a third erosion investigation, begin looking at the results or erosion and weathering on our planet, and looking at how other cultures use earth materials. 

We will be continuing the same thread in reading as we did last week.  Here is last weeks description if you would like to read it again (or for the first time)

In reading this week we are going to continue our work in our book groups.  Students are continuing to focus on predicting, questioning and summarizing. However, we are also asking students to answer comprehension strategies. After reading through, and grading, their packets this weekend, we are going to put a big emphasis on how to answer a question.  Students are asked to write in complete sentences. Please look over your student's reading comprehension packet with them to help them understand my notes to them on how they can improve their work.
One way to ensure their answer is in complete sentences is to use the question to start the answer. An example of this would be:  Why did Mrs. Therriault ask me to do this assignment? One way to start this answer would be: Mrs. Therriault asked me to do this assignment because...
Students are also being asked to provide evidence from the story to support their answer. In this case, we are looking for students to use details to explain their answer, use quotes to prove their answer or describe the events of the story in detail. These are all ways students can "use evidence". Saying, "because it said so in the book" will not count as evidence.

Please let us know if you have any questions or conerns,

Allyn and Alaina