Hello! First off, we have started something new for reading comprehension. We are all working on informational texts right now, and a great strategy to use is something I call a Close Read, because you have to read it closely. We read the book, or section of the book four times. The first time, read the whole way through without stopping, and just decide what the main idea is. The second time, read the whole thing again, but stop and write down any questions you have about the topic. The third time, you read the pictures. The fourth time, you skim read the book and write an inference. Here is a picture of the format we use to keep track of all of this comprehension.

Everyone should know how to draw and fill in this chart. This is a perfect way to see if your child is understanding what they are reading.

Now business as usual…

Math: We are working on multiplying, factors, and story problems this week.

Science: We are working on energy transfer. We did a very cool energy transfer experiment yesterday where we predicted what color paper would make an ice cube melt the fastest.

Social Studies: This was a very exciting part of the day. Everyone had so much information in their schema. We are talking about immigration, and we found out some of our classmates immigrated, and many of our parents and grandparents immigrated. We will be talking more in depth about push and pull factors, too.

Language Arts: As I said at the beginning, we are working on informational reading. We are also writing informational essays. We will be writing an informational essay about push and pull factors soon, too!