Friday, April 28
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Cultural Fair Project and Reminder
In your child’s folder, you will find a template for a “Where I Am From” poem as well as a few examples of this poem. This is a great template for a family culture poem. If you would like to work on this poem with your child to describe your family, I will type it up and create a display for the Cultural Fair. Please return it by Tuesday, May 2. The poem asks you to fill in the blanks with family stories, foods, traits, etc. We wrote one about our class as an example, so hopefully your child can help you understand it.
Reminder: the Cultural Fair is Thursday, May 4 from 6-7:30.
Work to Look For
Also in your child’s folder, you will find a math test and the book project assessment. The math test was difficult for some students in part because of language and fully understanding what the problem was asking. I will be sure to review the confusing questions over the next few weeks. If you would like the test to go into your child’s portfolio, please sign it and send it back. The book projects were great! Thanks for helping to make sure that the students completed creative, thoughtful projects. The other students have really enjoyed looking at them and getting ideas for what to read.
American Revolution
My apologies if your child came home complaining about taxes! On Wednesday, I “taxed” the students for school supplies to help them understand the frustration of the colonists with British taxation. I was surprised by how frustrated some students actually became! We have learned about the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and how the colonists began to organize themselves into the continental congress and minutemen (not unlike the students on Wednesday). You could do some research with your child about the Revolution to learn more.
Reading
The unit we started this week is on Wondering and Questioning with nonfiction. After your child finishes reading each night, ask him/ her what they were wondering as they were reading.
Math
We will wrap up our geometry unit next week and take the test on Wednesday. This week we focused on area and perimeter, including algebra problems with these concepts! The students have persevered through challenging math problems well. MCAS Reminder: the math MCAS is May 10 and 11. We have started reviewing earlier concepts and will do more intensive review starting next week. At home, you can practice math facts and look at measurement examples on packaging to review liters, grams, ounces, pounds, etc. Instead of spelling homework next week, there will be extra math for review.
Have a great weekend,
Jessica Harwood