Foundational Skills/Phonics: Last week students learned about compound words, synonyms, antonyms, and multiple-meaning words. This week students will learn about homophones, prefixes dis, un, non, & re. Students will also learn to read and spell words with -aw (such as saw, crawl, straw, etc.)

Reading:  This week we will continue the informational text, “United States Citizenship.”

Summary of “United States Citizenship”: The history of citizenship in the United States is long and complicated. Today, U.S. citizens enjoy many rights and have some important responsibilities.

While reading this text, we will work on different comprehension skills each day.

Our comprehension skills this week:

• Stopping to clarify when we are confused.
• Vocabulary
• Main Idea & Details
• Compare & Contrast
• Author’s Purpose & Point of View

DISCUSS with your child why voting is both a right and a responsibility.

Writing: Your child will edit their letter with a partner and begin the final draft. Then students will learn how to address an envelope. I hope to have most students’ letters ready to mail by Friday, March 21. If you have not returned the page with the address of the person your child is writing to, please do soon as soon as possible.

Foundational Skills/Phonics: Students will learn to read and spell the patterns -ow (cow, wow, brow, etc.) and -ou (out, cloud, south, etc.).

Reading:  This week we will finish the fantasy text, “Winston and George.”

Summary of Winston & George: Winston the crocodile and George the crocodile bird are friends and partners; however, George has a bad habit of playing pranks. One day George plays a trick that puts his friend—and their friendship—at serious risk.

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.

Our comprehension skills this week:

• Cause & Effect
• Make inferences
• Identify story elements

DISCUSS with your child some characteristics of a good friendship and partnership.

Writing: Your child will learn the parts of a friendly letter and begin writing a personal letter to a friend or relative. He or she will focus on using language that is appropriate for the audience and purpose of the letter.

Foundational Skills/Phonics: Students will continue to learn to read and spell words with long vowels this week. Students will learn the long o pattern -oa (oak, boat, croak, etc.). Then students will learn the long u pattern (few, blew, knew, etc.). At the end of the week, students will learn the heart word, “where.” 

Reading:  This week we will finish the text informational text, “Where’s the Honey, Honey?” and begin another informational text, “Busy Bees.” 

Busy Bees Summary: Bees are hard-working insects that are found all over the world. Their jobs include pollinating plants, making honey, and doing all of the chores required to maintain a hive. 

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.  

Our comprehension skills this week:  

• Author’s Purpose 

• Clarifying 

• Summarizing 

• Classifying and Categorizing 

DISCUSS with your child the similarities between the ways bees living in a hive work together and the ways family members living in the same house work together. 

Writing: Your child will publish their action tale by typing it up.  

Grammar: Your child will also learn about contractions again. A contraction is a shortened form of two words, in which an apostrophe takes the place of some letters. Examples include “can’t,” “we’ve,” and “I’ll.” Ask your child to name several contractions, and then to identify the two words that form each contraction.   

Foundational Skills/Phonics: This week, students will learn to read and spell words with long vowels. Students will learn the long i pattern -y (my, by, dry, etc.). Then students will learn the long o pattern –ow (snow, flow, etc.). At the end of the week, students will learn the heart word, “there.”

Reading:  This week our focal text is the Informational text, “Where’s the Honey, Honey?”

Summary: In eastern Africa, the honeyguide bird and Boran people cooperate to find and harvest beehives. Signaling with whistles and tail feathers, the honeyguide leads the way to a hive packed with food. Essential Questions: Why do honeyguides and people work together? Why is this partnership important?

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.

Our comprehension skills this week:

• Sequencing
• Asking and Answering Questions
• Author’s Purpose
• Main Idea & Details

DISCUSS with your child some other partnerships that benefit both people and animals.

Writing: Your child will self-edit and partner edit the draft of their action tale.

ASK your child to tell you about their action tale including the story’s main character, setting, and important events.

Grammar: Your child will also learn about contractions. A contraction is a shortened form of two words, in which an apostrophe takes the place of some letters. Examples include “can’t,” “we’ve,” and “I’ll.” Ask your child to name several contractions, and then identify the two words that form each contraction.  

Foundational Skills/Phonics: Students will learn to read and spell words with soft c and g this week. Soft C sounds like a /s/ and Soft G sounds like /j/.

Examples of soft C include: “ice,” “cell,” or “cider.” Examples of Soft G include: “gem,” “germ,” or “age.”

Reading:  This week our focal text is the informational text, “Flower Power.”

Summary: From seed to blossom to seed again, a flower grows and makes new flowers. In addition to adding beauty to the world, flowers provide oxygen and food that people and animals need.

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.

Our comprehension skills this week:

• Clarifying
• Visualizing
• Vocabulary

DISCUSS with your child some of the ways flowers are useful to people and animals.

Writing: Your child will finish writing the draft of the action tale.

ASK your child to tell you about their action tale including the story’s main character, setting, and important events.

Grammar: Your child will also learn about adverbs. Adverbs describe a verb by telling how (slowly), when (soon), or where (nearby) an action occurs.

Foundational Skills/Phonics: Students will continue to learn about vowel pairs. This week we will read and spell words with the long ‘e’ sound spelled with -ie such as "field,” and “brief.” Then students will learn about syllable pattern in which -y makes the long e sound at the end of 2-syllable words. Examples of this include: “candy,” and “empty.” Then we will move on to the vowel pair -ey, reading and spelling words such as “key,” and “valley.”

Reading:  This week our focal text is “Langston Times.”

Summary: A fictional article in The Langston Times newspaper reports on the opening of Langston Elementary School. Various members of the school and local community comment on the benefits of the new building.

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.

Our literacy skills this week:

• Fact or Opinion
• Make connections
• Compare and Contrast
• Genre & Text Features

DISCUSS with your child the similarities and differences between this selection and the selection they read last week, Victor’s Journal.

Writing: This week students will be taking a writing assessment so that I can assess their paragraph writing skills. Students will also finish the final draft of their informational paragraphs.

Grammar: Your child will learn that colons are used to introduce a list or separate the hour and minutes when writing a time of day, and that commas are used to separate the items in a series.

Foundational Skills/Phonics:  Students will continue to learn about vowel pairs. This week we will spell words with -ee, such as “need,” “street,” and “three.” Then we will move on to the vowel pair -ea, reading and spelling words such as “beach,” “team,” and “leaf.” Near the end of the week, we will learn the vowel pair -ai that makes the long a sound in words such as, “rain,” “mail,” and “wait.”

Reading:  This week our focal text is “My Community and Me.”

Summary: Just like adults, children have a variety of roles and responsibilities. They make important contributions to their families, schools, and communities.

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.

• Make Connections
• Classify and categorize
• Main Idea and details
• Author’s Purpose
• Vocabulary

Writing: Students are writing an informational paragraph about a career that they have knowledge of. This week, your child will revise and edit his or her informative writing paragraph, and work on publishing. 

Foundational Skills/Phonics:  Students will continue to learn to read and spell "magic e" words with a long u and a silent E (such as "cute," and "tube"). Students will then learn about the “vowel-consonant-e” syllable, in order to read multisyllabic words such as, “reptile,” “costume,” and “pancake.”

Reading:  This week our focal text is “In My Backyard.”

Summary: A child vividly imagines the history of his or her backyard, picturing the people and animals that had inhabited that space. The journey extends backward in time, ranging from recent history to long-ago eras that include the Ice and Stone Ages.

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.

• Author’s Purpose
• Predicting
• Sequencing
• Inferring

Writing: At the end of last week, students began to brainstorm a topic for a new informational paragraph. This week, we will use those ideas to plan a new informational paragraph. Students are writing about a career that they have knowledge of.

Foundational Skills/Phonics:  Students will continue to learn to read and spell "magic e" words with a long i and a silent E (such as "hike," and "five"), and long o and silent E (such as “cone” and “rope”). 

Reading:  This week our focal text is “All About Earthquakes.”  

Summary: Earthquakes happen when Earth’s plates shift and rub against each other. Whether they occur on land or underwater, earthquakes can have a major effect on man-made and natural structures.  

While reading this text we will work on a different comprehension skill each day.  

• Vocabulary 

• Asking Questions 

• Main Idea and Details 

• Author’s Purpose 

Writing: This week students will continue to work on their informative paragraphs. Students will finish publishing (typing) their paragraphs. We will begin pre-writing for a new paragraph. This time students will be choosing a career to write about.  

Foundational Skills/Phonics: We will learn to read and spell words with –ir, -ur, and -ear (such as “bird,” “turn,” and “learn.”)

Reading: This week our focal texts are “River of Ice,” and “What Makes the Earth Shake?” With these texts we will be focusing on a different comprehension skill each day.

Our comprehension skills this week:

• Main Idea and Details
• Text Features
• Author’s Purpose
• Clarifying
• Visualizing

Writing:  This week students will continue to work on their informative paragraphs. Students will finish drafting and begin to revise and edit their work.