Our return to school has been a happy one with lots of greetings and joy in
seeing our friends. We are getting right back to our academic routine with a
new selection for reading, activities to increase comprehension skills,
multiplication practice and measurement. We will be writing about our
stories, looking at informational text and learning about author's purpose.
To help your child understand author's purpose, discuss why different reading
materials are written. The three basic purposes we will touch on are to
inform or teach, to entertain or to persuade. While many reading materials
entertain even while persuading or informing, we will talk about the primary
purpose for different selections. You can talk about the things you read and
the purpose for the writing. Also, think about details that help get the
point across and how the author's perspective comes through in different
statements and details. This can be a difficult concept, like main idea, and
discussing these literary elements with your child can be very helpful.
The children will be completing a book report this month that should be lots
of fun and deliciously interesting. Look for this project in their homework
materials this week.
We will be learning about multiplication and practicing facts, but also will
be starting measurement and certain aspects of geometry, particularly
perimeter and area. We will use the formulas, s+s+s+s=perimeter, and for a
square 4xs=perimeter. For area, will be learning that length times width of
regular figures equals area. We will also count square units to find area of
irregular units. These concepts are aided by our multiplication unit, as
arrays (representations of multiplication facts on a grid) also show area.
We will use grid representations for perimeter as well, until the formulas
are learned.
In writing, we will write about our hopes for the New Year this week. The
children will also be completing a top hat book report in class to honor the
celebration of a New Year's beginning.
