Here is the plan for this 4-day week:

Reading: Students met with their Book Groups on their own last week and most groups thoroughly enjoyed it. They had thoughtful discussions and everyone in the group got a turn to share. We will definitely do that again this week!

Our mini project on Animals continues with these activities: 

• Chose one animal from the article to do additional research on and conduct research using a variety of sources.
  
• In a partnership, create a poster to visually display the information learned.
• Write song lyrics that tell about the animal's ways.
  
• (Extra) Prepare a presentation to the class that includes a skit with the animal as a character, modeling some of the behaviors in a creative way.

Writing: We will write a personal narrative. Last week students brainstormed potential experiences they could write about. This week we will plan and draft the stories and then begin revising. Students will focus on using figurative language to describe things in their stories.

Math: We finish up decimal division this week with a mini quiz. Our next mathematical endeavor will be geometry. 

• We'll start the week out with a Ms. Moll original game to help students practice identifying properties of polygons. 
• Next we'll move into coordinate grids and practice plotting points.
  
• If we have time, we'll move on to measuring the volume of rectangular prisms.

That's the general plan for the week. Feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or feedback.

Here is the plan for this supposedly rainy week:

Writing: Last week students read an excerpt from The Black Stallion by Walter Farley and found figurative language and powerful descriptions from the text. We'll spend another day having students try using the language they chose themselves in either a poem or narrative from the perspective of the black stallion. Then we'll share our work.

Reading: I will continue to meet with students in their Book Groups this week and we'll engage in thoughtful discussions of our books and their themes. 

Math: This week in math we'll launch a study of fraction division. Here is what we'll be focusing on: 

• Modeling fraction division using a number line and fraction sticks.
  
• Drawing a diagram to show dividing whole numbers into fractions.

• Using multiplication of fractions to solve division.
  
• Playing a game to reinforce fraction multiplication and division concepts.

So that's the general plan! Thanks for reading!

The Science MCAS is Thursday and Friday this week. It's the last one for this school year --phew!

Here is the plan for this week:

Reading: Our whole group reading workshop text this week will be an excerpt from The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. I will read the text aloud to students, then they will read the text on their own with a partner or trio, trying to model good reading. They will complete a Reading Report on the first half of it. Students will also read a connected informational text about guide and therapy horses.

We'll also meet in our Book Groups, which you can read more about here.

Writing: Students will go back through The Black Stallion looking for sensory language and powerful words and phrases that bring the stallion in the story to life. They will write these down.

Then, students will write their own description from the stallion's perspective of Alec's first ride, using some of the words and phrases they recorded. Students can write in the format of a poem or a narrative.

Math: This week we finish up fraction multiplication. We'll review area models. We'll review simplest form. If we have time, we'll take a short assessment on Wednesday. If not, then next week!

Last week was a great week! I thoroughly enjoyed launching our book groups and I think students did too. They also excelled at working quietly and independently during reading workshop while I met with each of the book groups. 

A highlight of the workshop was working on the R.A.F.T. writing, which stands for role, audience, format, and topic. After reading an informational text about cougars, students had to write from the perspective of a cougar, with an audience of a human tourist, in the format of a journal, on the topic of daily life as a cougar. We'll be sharing student work on Monday.

Here is the plan for this week:

Math MCAS session 1: Monday
Math MCAS session 2: Tuesday

Reading: We'll continue meeting in our book groups this week. When students are not meeting in their groups, they'll be working on the reading workshop activities. Our story this week is called, Lunch Money, by Andrews Clements. It's about a boy who has created his own comic books and sells them at school. After I read part of the story aloud, students will work in partners or trios to relay read the text on their own. They will then complete a Reading Report to analyze the text. We will also read about the history of comic books in a related informational text.

Writing: For this week's R.A.F.T. writing, students will take on the role of Greg, the comic book creator from Lunch Money. Their audience will be the principal of their school. The format will be a persuasive letter. And the topic is persuading the principal to let them sell their comic books at a booth in the cafeteria of the school. Should be a fun role-playing writing assignment!

Math: Once the math MCAS is out of the way, we'll return to and finish the concepts on multiplying fractions in our Go Math books. We'll review two ways to multiply mixed numbers and how to reduce fractions to simplest form. We'll also work on area problems and scaling that require fraction multiplication.