Week 29 March 26-30

Your child will be constructing and decorating a California mission model. We will supply the basic items necessary to complete this project. Some students like to personalize their mission. Your child may bring in some special materials he/she would like. We encourage students not to buy items, but to look for things around the house and nature. Items can include the following:

• Blue colored toothpaste (for water)
• Salt Dough(recipe below)
• Small pebbles or stones
• Small plant stems
• Small bells (from bird toys or cat collars)
• Small animal or people figurines

 Items should be sent in a small brown bag with your child’s name on the outside.

Salt Dough

 1 cup salt

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup luke-warm water 

In a large bowl mix salt and flour. Gradually stir in water (you might not need it all). Mix well until it forms a play dough consistency. With your hands form a ball with your dough and kneed it for at least 5 minutes. The longer you kneed your dough the smoother it will be. Store the salt dough in a air tight container.

Note: food coloring can be mixed in the water before you add it into the other ingredients. Green or brown colorings will be useful for this project.

Reading Selection: Lou Gehrig – The Luckiest Man   A son of poor immigrants, Gehrig became one of the greatest Yankees ever. He held the record of most consecutive games. When ALS struck, Gehrig left the team and faced his illness with dignity and courage.

Genre: Biography

Purposes

• Strategy focus: evaluate
• Comprehension skill: fact and opinion

Math: We are working on Topic 12  Operations with Decimals.. This week students will be identifying mixed numbers and decimals on a number line, rounding decimals, and adding and subtracting decimals..

Word Work: A good way to read a long, unfamiliar word is to divide it into syllables. This week we are studying words with the vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) pattern. These words can be divided between the first vowel and the consonant. The first vowel in these words has the long vowel sound. If the words are divided after the consonant, but before the second vowel, the word has a short vowel sound for the first vowel.

Spelling Words: pilot, depend, visit, human, seven, chosen, paper, reason, become, parent, never, modern, tiny, tuna, event, fever, moment, prison, basic, open.

Test will be Wednesday, March 28.

Grammar:  Singular and Plural Possessive Pronouns – Students will learn that a possessive pronoun may be used in place of possessive noun to show ownership. These possessive pronouns appear before nouns: my, your, her, his, its, our, their. These possessive pronouns stand alone: mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, theirs.

Writing: We are writing multiple paragraph personal narratives and stories incorporating dialogue, and the 5 senses.