September Newsletter

The following is information on what we are learning in school for the next month in each subject:

1. Math- We are finding the place value of numbers up to the one millions, comparing and rounding numbers up to the one millions, and adding and subtracting numbers up to the thousands. Unit 1 test will be taken later this month and then we will started Unit 2, which is multiplying numbers up to 2 by 2 digits.

We are also taking timed tests every day to see what each student needs to work on for math facts. Each timed test lasts 1 minute and students are expected to finish 25 problems in the time with 2 or less errors.

2. Reading- We are learning how to pick "good-fit" books by using the following acronym: I PICK

I choose a book.

Purpose- Why am I reading the book?

Interest- Does the book interest me?

Comprehend- Do I understand the book?

Know- Do I know most of the words?

We are also learning and practicing behaviors of reading to ourselves (the behaviors are listed on the left side of this blog). We are practicing for up to 10 minutes at a time right now, but will get up to 30 minutes. We will be reading to ourselves while reading groups are being done.

Later this month we will be learning about the behaviors of reading to someone. We will be reading to someone while reading groups are being done.

We have begun our reading challenge of reading 40 books this year. Each student will try to read 40 books by the end of the school year. We are keeping track of what books we read by writing them down in our reading log at school. The books need to be at least 100 pages and if they are over 300 pages, they can count as 2 books.

3. Writing- We are learning the writing process by writing a paragraph about the most favorite thing we did this summer. We are also learning about the "Ideas" trait of writing. We are practicing choosing good ideas to write about. For grammar, we are talking about when nouns need to be capitalized.

4. Social Studies- Our first unit of social studies is on the geography of Utah. We are learning how to read maps, and find rivers, lakes, mountains, and cities of Utah. We will also learn what the 3 regions of Utah are and where they are found, and create a salt dough map of Utah.

5. Science- Our first unit of science will be on the water cycle. We will learn the parts of the water cycle by doing lots of experiments.