​This week in Superkids we will:
Read pattern words with long e spelled –ey and –ine
Discuss new memory words
Understand and use conjunctions and, but, or
Identify and use compound words
Recognize and use syllables to read longer words
Encode words with /ie/ and /ei/
Participate in discussions
Ask your child: What is a conjunction? Give me an example of a compound word. What happened this week in your decodable book? What do you think will happen next?
 
This week in writing/PBL we will:
Identify goods and services
Discuss scarce resources in an event of a natural disaster
Describe important characteristics of a responsible community member
Begin thinking about what kind of resources communities need before and after a natural disaster
Choose the natural disaster your child would like to explore more in depth
Understand the different types of research students will be able to engage in
Participate in discussions
Ask your child: What does having scarce resources mean? What does a helpful community member look like after a natural disaster hits? Which 2 natural disasters would you like to explore?
 
This  week in math we will:
Estimate lengths in inches, centimeters, feet, and meters
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
Use appropriate tools strategically
Understand the vocab word estimate and what it means to get an estimate
Understand why we estimate sometimes rather than finding the exact
Ask your child: What is an estimate? Why would someone want to estimate instead of finding the exact measurement? Have your child estimate the length of a book using a measurement tool (ruler, tape measure) and then with non-standard units (blocks, clips).

This week in Superkids, we will:
Decode pattern words with long a spelled –ey, -ay, and –ange
Understand new memory words
Use context clues to understand the meaning of an unknown word
Understand and use adjectives and adverbs
Form contractions with will
Recognize and use past, present, and future tenses
Participate in discussions
Ask your child: What does an adjective and adverb do? (adjective describes a noun, an adverb describes a verb) What are the past, present, and future tenses of the word “play”? (played, playing, will play)
Small group focus: Each group is reading a book right now in small group. Have your child give you a verbal SWBST (Someone.. Wanted.. But.. So.. Then) summary of what has happened so far.
 
This week in writing/PBL, we will:
We are starting our natural disaster project! Students will research the different natural disasters and the impact that they have on the community. Students will then develop a proactive or reactive plan to create a presentation around. Students will also write a persuasive letter to FEMA or Team Rubicon about why their product should be implemented in future efforts. These can be as simple as a proactive plan in a brochure or as creative as developing a pop up cat collar that would keep a cat safe during a flood (such a wonderful idea from last year). 
Please let me know if there are any sensitivities that I should know about when moving forward with our project. Severe weather can be scary for some students and it is important to know if any families have been directly impacted by disasters such as the recent fires or the hurricane last year.
​This week we will start to explore what the different disasters are. Students will then pick a natural disaster to teach their peers about. This may or may not be their natural disaster of focus for their project. They will chose a focus area to go deeper with after they have learned the general information about each natural disaster.
Ask your child: What are some natural disasters that occur here in the United States? Which one interests you the most?
 
This week in math, we will:
Continue discussions on measurement
Compare given lengths measured in different units
Understand the relationship between feet and inches
Understand the relationship between centimeters and meters
Explore how the number of units in a measurement is related to the size of units used
Vocab: inch, foot, yard, centimeter, meter, tape measure, ruler, yardstick, meter stick
Ask your child: What measurement tools have inches? What about centimeters? How many inches are in a foot? How many centimeters are in a meter?

​This week in Superkids, we will:
Read pattern words with /a/ and /e/
Understand new memory words
Understand what a SCHWA is
Understand and form contractions with pronouns
Understand position words
Read words with prefix –un
Participate in discussions
Understand and use a venn diagram
Ask your child: What does a venn diagram allow us to do? What is a SCHWA? What is the contraction “we’ve” mean? What if I wanted to contract they and are?
 
This week for PBL and writing we will:
Discuss the meaning of economics
Decide the difference between goods and services in our community
Recognize the difference between needs and wants
Understand the importance of saving
Understand when it’s okay to spend vs. save
Ask your child: Is babysitting a good or service? Why? What about cotton candy? Is food a need or want? Why is it important that we save our money and not spend it all?
 
This week in math, we will:
Measure and estimate lengths in standard units
Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes
Attend to precision
Understand that objects can be measured with different units
Choose the correct tool for measuring a given object
Vocab: foot, yard, meter, inch, centimeter
Ask your child: How is an inch ruler similar to a yardstick? How is it different? When you measure, what number do we line up the object with? What does the word estimate mean?

​This week in Superkids, we will:
Read pattern words with final ff, ll, or ss after a short vowel
Spell new memory words
Identify nouns and verbs
Distinguish between complete and incomplete sentences
Read and write words with suffix –able and –ible
Identify parts of a letter
Identify and correct misspelled words
Understand and use capitalization rules
Rezognize and use commas in a letter
Determine cause and effect
Understand use conjunctions
Ask your child: What are some words with suffix –able and –ible? When do you use a comma in a letter?
Give me an example of cause/effect.
 
This week in math, we will:
Start a unit on measurement
Understand that objects can be measured using different units
Understand that measuring with stands units makes comparing lengths easier
Represent and measure the length of an object using tiles and a ruler
Ask your child: Give your child paperclips and ask s/he to measure the length of a pencil in paper clips. “The pencil is __ paper clips long.” Do the same thing with a ruler. “The pencil is __ inches long.” Which is larger, an inch or centimeter?
 
This week in writing, we will:
Soon we will be starting a unit on Natural Disasters. We will be incorporating writing.
To prepare, we will review word sense (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, onomatopoeia)
Capitalization and punctuation rules
Review the writing process
Introduce what are natural disasters
Understand the types of natural disasters closest to home
Ask your child: What is a natural disaster? What do we see here in Colorado?