Week 2 in 4 Awesome A

We welcomed a new student to our room. Tyler is from Appleton. He and his dad are living with relatives in the area. Tyler is quickly learning the routines of his new school.

We have been motoring along with our academics. In MATH we are struggling to learn multiplication facts, by practicing in different ways, looking for patterns, and manipulating factors and products to solve and create real world situations (story problems). We started with the easy numbers (2, 5, 10) and added on 9s and 3s. This week we will tackle the harder 4s, 6s, 7s, and 8s. Keep practicing at home. Some facts just have to be memorized through repetition. I will give periodic timed tests, with the personal goal of getting faster each time. This week we will also write X and / problems, and play a few skills games. They will have math homework at least 3 days.

We have been reading a fun novel together called Because of Winn Dixie. Also for LANGUAGE ARTS we have started the first reading theme--Journeys. The first story, Akiak, is about a sled dog who leads her team to victory in the famed Iditarod race. We work on reading, spelling and grammar skills throughout the unit, such as story structure and types of sentences.