Plans for the Week of February 24, 2014

Welcome back from the break! Here is the plan for this week:

Reading: We'll continue reading about the early American colonies, learning how to integrate information from multiple texts and summarize.

Writing: We'll work on writing our Survival Guide for the colonies and how to incorporate specific examples to support main ideas.

Math: Early this week, we'll review decimal multiplication concepts to get back into the swing of things. We'll them continue with decimal division, learning how to place the decimal when dividing and how to add zeros to the dividend to get a more accurate quotient. If all goes well, we'll be preparing for an assessment early next week.

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In-Class Project

Early American Colonies

After the Age of Exploration, Europeans discovered the existence of a vast continent that we now call North America. This "New World" held many promises. Endless land! Freedom to do want you want! Adventure! Sounds like the perfect place to move to, right?

Well that's just what our early American ancestors did. But it certainly was no easy feat. They survived the perilous journey across the Atlantic, braved harsh winters and scorching heat, faced numerous confrontations with the natives, and battled sickness and disease. These early American settlers were tough, determined, and hard working people! 

So what was daily life really like as an early American colonist?

Students will research aspects of early American colonization. Here are some of the activities we'll be doing:

• Read about travel, location, housing, transportation, fashion, food, activities, and more
  
• Collect interesting and meaningful facts to include in a class trivia game
  
• Research one of the 13 American colonies
  
• Create an informational poster that includes a map, important dates and historical figures, and special features of the colony
  
• Create a Survival Guide for living in the colonies.
  

Students will be working in cooperative groups and will be graded on: Amount of information, research quality, creativity, presentation quality, and teamwork.

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