Important Dates & Reminders

• No School March 5th; Presidential Primary 
• No School March 25th - April 2nd; Spring Break and end of the quarter 

What are we learning?

Language Arts

• Reading: We are finishing up our Interpreting Stories unit. Students have been thinking about the relationships between characters as well as how to summarize the important parts of a story. We will be starting a Critical Literacy unit, during which students will be challenged to think about other people’s perspectives and whose voices are represented (or not represented) in the texts they read. 
• Writing: We are writing realistic fiction stories with real-world problems and characters who learn lessons as they try to solve these problems. Our next unit will be Persuasive Letters, during which students will write letters to express their opinions and aim to create positive changes in their lives and the world. 
• Phonics: We are learning about the endings -s and -es, then our focus during the month of March will be on vowel teams (two or more letters that work together to make a vowel sound) such as ea, ee, ay, and ai. 

Math

• We are finishing our Fractions unit, during which students have been learning about halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and eighths. Students have learned to write fractions and use models like number lines to show a fraction. This week, students are learning to compare fractions (e.g., a half is larger than a sixth). 
• Our next unit is two-digit addition and subtraction. Students will learn to use efficient strategies to add and subtract larger numbers. Students will learn to compose and decompose (regroup) tens as part of this work. 

Science

• We are continuing our Matter and Forces unit. Students are learning about matter (anything that takes up space) and the states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). Next, we will be learning about forces and motion and how they impact matter. 

Social Studies

• Our next unit will be on European exploration of the Americas and its impact on the indigenous people who were living on the land at the time. 

Questions to ask your child at home.

• What story has your class been reading during read-aloud this week? Retell or summarize the important parts in order.
• What problem is your character facing in your realistic fiction story? How do they try to solve the problem? What lesson do they learn? 
• How many equal parts is this _____ (apple, pizza, cake, etc.) broken into? What fraction did you eat? 
• Give your child a 2-digit addition or subtraction problem and have them explain their strategy for solving it. 
• Can you name examples of solids, liquids, and gasses?