Your child should have brought home his/her moon journal last night and completed the first journal entry. Students will continue to bring home their journals each night, to write down an observation. I encourage students to have fun and be creative with their entries; art is encouraged, as long as students also add some sort of written description to their entry. Students will bring home a rubric with their journal today, explaining what is expected of each entry. Because we will be adding to our journals in class as well, it is important that students bring the journal back and forth from home and school each day. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Math homework?
With the addition of Moon Journals to the homework list, you will notice that math study links have been dropped from the list. This is because I try to keep the amount of homework students are doing to 40 minutes a night, and I don't want too many items to be on their homework to do list. For the next month, students will practice their observation and writing skills at home, rather than their math skills. However, I know that some students benefit from the extra time and attention they can devote to studying math at home each night. If you would like for your child to have the math study links to work on at home, please let me know and I will send home a packet with the study links. Students do NOT need to turn them in to me, but you can have them at home for practice if you'd like. Additionally, I will make a note on the Daily Homework page which study link would go with that day's lesson, so you can keep track of which study links your child can work on. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
How you can help...
Even though I'm dropping study links from the homework list, continuing to spend a bit of time practicing multiplication facts at home would greatly help students. If you find your child is still struggling to quickly get the answer to basic multiplication problems, a bit of practice can be invaluable. An easy way to practice is to have the student choose a fact table (like the "3"s), and write out the multiplication problems and answers three times. If the student says the problems and answers out loud while writing, that can make that practice even more effective. Remember, I have copies of flash cards available if that is a way you would like your child to practice.
Next week:
In Reading, we will continue to explore cause/effect and pacing in our reading.
In Writing, we will begin to look at word choice. Encourage your child to use interesting words in his/her Moon Journal.
In Math, we will be learning how to multiply with multidigit factors.
In Science, we will be working on a compare/contrast planet project.