Dear Parents, 

     Last week in math we started Unit 10, “Decimals and Place Value.”  This week we will review estimation and dollars-and-cents notation.  We will discuss different names for a dollar, dime and a penny.  The students will also learn how to enter money amounts into a calculator and interpret calculator displays.  On Thursday, we will use calculators to solve problems with money.  This week we will also learn a fun game based called “Pick-A-Coin” that is full of strategy and decisions!

     Last week we started our fifth writing unit: Authors as Mentors.  The students received “tiny notebooks.”  They will use these notebooks to record ‘tiny’ ideas for future stories.  This week we will continue to discuss the focus of our stories.  We will look at books written by Angela Johnson and discover two new writing devices: ellipses (dot, dot, dot) and comeback lines. The students will be encouraged to use these writing techniques in some of their stories.

     In science, the students used their Equal Arm Balances to find the weight of our 6 objects: a ball, cup, cylinder, spoon, wooden block and metal cube.  This week the students will make bar graphs to show the weight of these objects.