We will read a Native American folk tale called Turtle's Race with Beaver this week. The story tells about a conflict between the two main characters, Turtle and Beaver, and the contest they devise to resolve the problem. One important theme of the tale is sharing, and we'll talk a lot about that concept this week.

This week's paired selection is a science diagram and article called The Secret Life of Ponds. In it students will read about aquatic animals and plants.

Your child can practice this week's vocabulary list words by playing the series of Java Games linked below in the Quia Activities section. There are four games, ranging in difficulty beginning with Flashcards, then Match Game, Concentration, and finally Word Search. The words and definitions are available online by clicking the link to List of Terms found near the top of the Java Games pages. Once your child has mastered matching the list words and definitions, he should click the link for the Cloze Activity which tests list vocabulary in sentence context.

The Useful Links section contains Internet links to enrichment activities, information, fun, and games that correlate to this week's stories. I have provided them for you to use with your child(ren) at home. Our spelling list words contain r-controlled vowel sounds spelled by er, ir, and ur, so you'll find links to spelling games that stress those sounds. This week's grammar skill is identifying singular and plural nouns, so I've included links for that skill near the bottom of the list.